Lawmakers target shaken baby syndrome

Eight years after the trial of a Newton au pair helped draw nationwide attention to the problem of shaken baby syndrome, legislators, pediatricians, and parents are preparing a major effort to stop that form of child abuse in Massachusetts.

Proposals being reviewed today on Beacon Hill would teach every parent of a newborn how to soothe a crying, fussy baby without resorting to shaking, which can cause serious brain damage, retinal bleeding or, in one quarter of cases, death.

Though the details have yet to be finalized, the bills have drawn support from key legislators, Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, prosecutors, social services officials, and Deborah Eappen, whose 8-month-old son Matthew died in 1997 after being shaken by his au pair, Louise Woodward.

''I would never, ever want another parent to go through what our family went through," Eappen said yesterday. ''The impact of this child abuse and the loss of a child in the family, the ripples go on forever, and the impact on parents and siblings is really enormous." She plans to testify on the issue today.

Doctors have known about the problem of parents, babysitters, and others shaking babies to stop them from crying since the 1950s. But only in the last several decades have social services officials and pediatricians begun to study the problem and develop public policy solutions, said Dr. Alice Newton, medical director of the child protection team at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The proposals being aired today before a joint meeting of the Legislature's committees on Children and Families and on Public Health grew out of six suspected cases of shaken babies in Central Massachusetts in 2001, said Karen Beaton, a nurse who is director of maternal and child health at Heywood Hospital in Gardner.

Modeled after a similar program in upstate New York, it seeks to educate parents on how they can calm themselves from the frustration of tending to a crying baby.

Under a pilot program begun at Heywood Hospital in 2003, nurses advise parents to put their babies in a crib or bassinet and take a breather, rather than trying over and again to stop a baby's tears. Nurses at Heywood typically give the lessons within the first 24 hours after a baby is born and send parents home with a brochure outlining the tips, Beaton said. They also ask parents to teach the method to babysitters, cousins, and grandparents who might care for their babies.

The bill would replicate the program in hospitals statewide. It also calls for the state Department of Public Health to track the number of shaken baby cases and to develop training to help doctors spot the signs of a shaken baby.

Backers say the cost would be about $250,000 annually, but would save millions in medical bills. Lifetime care for a severe brain injury can run between $4 million and $9 million, legislators said.

''We think this stands a really good shot of preventing injury to young children, that at least a sizable percent of this is preventable," said Dr. Jean E. Ramsey, director of pediatric ophthalmology at Boston Medical Center and one of the doctors, state officials, and parents who plan to testify in support of the bill today. ''With education, we really can prevent some of these deaths and injuries."

Shaken baby cases cut across class and race lines, doctors say, though some trends are clear. About 75 percent of cases involve parents; men, especially young fathers and boyfriends, are more often the perpetrators than women, Newton said. About 37 percent of cases involve fathers or stepfathers, and 21 percent involve boyfriends, she said.

Still, nearly every parent can relate to the frustration of trying to calm a crying baby, Beaton said.

''It's not uncommon to feel extremely frustrated when you're trying to care for a crying baby, so much so that probably everybody has had the thought about shaking a baby," Beaton said. ''But the important thing is that you don't carry out the act."

Doctors say shaken-baby cases are vastly underreported, partly because hospital staff members often fail to recognize the signs.

State public health officials counted 50 cases between 1999 and 2002, but at Children's Hospital doctors treated 36 cases in that time period alone, suggesting that the official state data is too low, Newton said. Nationally, there about 1,500 reported cases of shaken babies each year, she said.

The syndrome gained public notoriety with Woodward's trial in 1997, which was televised and covered by national media. A 19-year-old British nanny hired by the Eappens, Woodward was convicted of causing Matthew Eappen's death by shaking him violently and dropping him on the floor.

The judge reduced Woodward's conviction from second-degree murder to manslaughter and her sentence from life in prison to the 279 days she spent in jail awaiting trial.

About 50 lawmakers have signed on to support four bills that seek to prevent shaken baby syndrome.

''Something will pass this year," said Representative Peter J. Koutoujian, a Waltham Democrat who is cochairman of the Committee on Public Health. ''I have the feeling we have a good window of opportunity here."