What's New?
Spring Tag Sale to benefit the Skipper InitiativeThe sale will be held on April 25th (Sat) from 9 am - 2 pm
at the Jewish Community Center at 110 Grand Ave, Poughkeepsie, NY If you have questions about donations, contact us. All proceeds from the Friends of Skipper Sale will benefit the Skipper Initiative, which works to prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome.The sale started as a small clothing swap, which raised $40. Through word of mouth, the event grew in size with each passing year, and spring's sale raised over $5,000. Anything that doesn't sell is then given to various local charities -- there is no waste involved.
If you are interested in lending a hand, please email us at skipper@usroadman.com.
Print out a flyer!
Here are some pictures of last spring's event:
| To download the 2009 National Shaken Baby Awareness Poster, click on the image at right.For other 2009 resourses click here.
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As it has since 2001, the New York State Legislature again designated
the third week of April 2007 as New York State Shaken Baby Awareness
Week. The resolution, sponsored by Assemblyman Sam Hoyt in the Assembly
and Senator William Larkin, Jr. in the Senate, recognized the efforts of
hospitals, child care organizations and schools in New York State to
educate parents and caregivers about the danger of shaking and what they
can do to protect children from injury.
The Week was also recognized by proclamations of county executives or
legislative resolutions in six counties (Ulster, Sullivan, Rockland,
Dutchess, Orange and Westchester) served by the Hudson Valley SBS
Prevention Initative.
The Initiative is a collaboration of Westchester Medical Center, the
Maria Fareri Children's Hospital, the Northern Metropolitan Hospital
Association and the SKIPPER Initiative. Westchester County Executive
Andy Spano presented his proclamation to Darry Gibbs, founder of the
Cynthia Gibbs Foundation, and a member of the advisory board of the
Initiative.
On Monday, April 16, the SKIPPER Initiative sponsored a legislative
briefing by Dr. Mark Dias at the Legislative Office Building in Albany.
Dr. Dias updated legislators and staff on the history of the Upstate NY
SBS Prevention Project and its continued success since 1998 in reducing
the incidence of inflicte injury in western New York.
On Wednesday, April 18, we joined the Center for the Prevention of Child
Abuse to provide information about SBS to more than 400 members of the
Poughkeepsie Area Chamber of Commerce attending the breakfast with Dave
Price, then presented the staff at Vassar Brothers Medical Center with
special cakes to say "thanks" for their enthusiastic implementation of
prevention education for new parents. Since it began, we estimate that
Vassar has provided education to the parents of over 11,800 babies born
there.
The Shaken Baby Prevention Act of 2007 was introduced in Congress this week: Senate bill S.1204 (Dodd) on Wednesday -House bill HR 2052 (Lowey) on Thursday. It's a first: a national awareness and education initiative to prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome and other inflicted head trauma.
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the Chairman of its Children and Families Subcommittee, introduced the Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Act of 2007.
Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) describes the trauma resulting from the violent shaking or abusive impact to the head of an infant or young child. SBS is a form of child abuse affecting between 1,200 and 1,600 children every year, of which between one-quarter and one-third will die and another one-third will suffer permanent, severe disabilities.
Senator Dodd's legislation would establish a national public health campaign to raise awareness about SBS, encourage prevention programs and provide preventative support for parents and caregivers, and provide support to families affected by abusive head trauma incidents. Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
"Young children are America's most vulnerable citizens, and it is our responsibility to do everything in our power to protect them," said Dodd. "Shaken Baby Syndrome is completely preventable, and I am hopeful that by educating parents, caregivers and the general public about the dangers of shaking a child, we will be able to eliminate this form of cruel and senseless abuse from our society."
"Shaken Baby Syndrome tears apart families and impacts the lives of thousands of young children each year," Lowey said. "However, with better education for parents and other caregivers, we can dramatically curb this horrible form of abuse."
Some thoughts on garnering support:
- email and call your Senators and your Representative. Ask them to "cosponsor" those bills [not just to "vote" for it if it gets to the floor: the more cosponsors, the speedier a bill goes from committee to the floor].
- engage local and state elected officials. Ask them to contact federal legislators and urge support.
- begin some "buzz": visit websites of the local papers in your area and write a letter to the editor to let people know why it's a good idea; contact journalists who cover SBS cases; post to blogs read by parents; if you have educated a group about SBS, ask them to write their legislators and tell them why they should support prevention education.
- email friends and relatives, especially in other states, asking that they email their federal legislators and ask for support.
- To help keep track of your support, please copy your emails to SBSAct2007@skipperinitiative.com
And please email Senator Dodd and Congresswoman Lowey thanking them for their initiative.
Dodd
Lowey
Contact info for federal legislators:
www.congress.org
For the text of the bills
[110th] H.R.2052 : To enhance Federal efforts focused on public awareness and education about the risks and dangers associated with Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Sponsor: Rep Lowey, Nita M. [NY-18] (introduced 4/26/2007) Cosponsors (None)
Committees: House Energy and Commerce
Latest Major Action: 4/26/2007 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
[110th] S.1204 : A bill to enhance Federal efforts focused on public awareness and education about the risks and dangers associated with Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Sponsor: Sen Dodd, Christopher J. [CT] (introduced 4/25/2007) Cosponsors (None)
Committees: Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Latest Major Action: 4/25/2007 Referred to Senate committee.
Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
[110th] S.RES.163 : A resolution designating the third week of April 2007 as "National Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week".
Sponsor: Sen Dodd, Christopher J. [CT] (introduced 4/20/2007) Cosponsors (14)
Latest Major Action: 4/20/2007 Passed/agreed to in Senate.
Status: Submitted in the Senate, considered, and agreed to without amendment and with a preamble by Unanimous Consent.
Dana Colvin's Human Development high school class developed an SBS brochure and onesies and distributed them to parents at local hospitals. Here are some photos of the students and the onsies and brochures they created:
On November 16, 2006, Governor Mitt Romney signed Chapter 356 of the Act of 2006, a comprehensive measure to prevent shaken baby syndrome in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The legislation is the result of collaboration by private, non profit, and public agency organizations and individuals to reduce death and disability due to inflicted traumatic brain injury and trauma in infants and young children.
Effective immediately, the bill directs the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to collaborate with the Department of Social Services and the Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund and other agencies to develop and implement a state-wide SBS prevention initiative.
The initiative will include a hospital based program for parents of newborns; education and training programs for parents, caregivers, and professionals; support for victims of shaken baby syndrome and their families; and the creation of a surveillance and data collection program to measure the incidence of SBS and traumatic brain injury in infants and children in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The legislation also creates a statewide advisory group.
September Issue of Voice
An article in the September issue of Voice, the journal of the The Child Welfare League of America, looked at the issue of Shaken Baby Syndrome and what can be done to prevent injury to children, including the efforts of the SKIPPER Initiative and other advocacy organizations to increase awareness and educate parents and caregivers. http://www.cwla.org/voice/0609shaking.htm
Article in The Source
A four page article in the Source, which is published by the Joint Committee on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and provides guidance for hospitals about accreditation topics, noted that several states have adopted laws requiring hospital education for new parents about SBS and reminded maternity hospitals that compliance with applicable laws is evaluated during JCAHO accreditation visits. As an example of effective prevention education, the article focused on the highly successful program developed by Dr. Mark Dias at Children's Hospital of Buffalo.
http://www.wchob.org/shakenbaby/SBS_article.pdf
Congresswomen Kelly introduces bill on Shaken Baby Syndrome
Thanks to the efforts of the Cynthia Gibbs Foundation and others, Congresswomen Sue Kelly has introduced a bill that calls upon the federal government to take action to increase public awareness of the risks and dangers associated with Shaken Baby Syndrome and to establish a family support network. H*R 6070* was introduced on September 14, 2006 and referred to the House Committee on Energy and
Commerce.
Senator Dodd's office is considering counterpart legislation in the Senate.
Urge your representative in the House to cosponsor Rep. Kelly's bill and
request its early passage from the Committee on Energy and Commerce
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/mail/compose/?type=CO&azip=12603&mailid=custom
The Sixth National Conference on Shaken Baby Syndrome concluded on
September 16, 2006.
In addition to the announcement of HR 6070, the Upstate NY SBS
Prevention Project reported data showing that the reduction of inflicted
head trauma continues for a seventh year. Currently, the statistics
show a 55% reduction in inflicted head injuries over that period.
Another measure of success was that representatives from more than a
dozen similar regional programs met at the Conference to share
experiences and work on setting up a permanent network to share
information about prevention efforts.
Dr. Rachel Berger reported encouraging results from her research seeking
chemical markers in the brain that indicate the presence of inflicted
head trauma, particularly among children who do not have obvious signs
of trauma or abuse. A reliable measure may be available within 10
years, depending on research funding and the work needed to increase the
accuracy of her current methods.
Hudson Valley SBS Prevention Initiative.
The Hudson Valley SBS Prevention Initiative's Advisory Board met at noon on April 25, 2006 at the Faieri Children's Hospital at Westchester Medical Center. The Board heard a report on the activities of the year past and plans for the future. The Initiative coordinates prevention programs at 22 hospitals in the 7 counties north of New York City, which together have more than 42,000 births a year.
April 16-22 was National SBS Awareness Week.
A US Senate Resolution designating the third week of April as the National SBS Awareness Week was unanimously adopted by the Senate on April 7, 2006. House action on a counterpart bill designating the Week is pending. Our thanks to Senators Dodd (R-CT) and Alexander (R-TN) again for sponsoring the Senate's National SBS Awareness Week resolution (S.Res. 439), and to the Hudson Valley's own Rep. Sue Kelly (R-NY) for sponsoring the counterpart legislation in the House, as well as to the many cosponsors of both.
SKIPPER helps bring SBS education to schools.
SKIPPER has been working with schools in the mid-Hudson valley to incorporate awareness about Shaken Baby Syndrome into classroom education. This year, we had the opportunity to begin an initiative with the New York State Association of Family and Consumer Science Educators that will provide the Portrait of Promise video and other teaching resources to FCS teachers across New York State. The initial goal is to provide at least one copy to every school in state.
SBS education in schools isn't only important for future parents: up to 60% of high-school and middle-school students tell us they are babysitting right now, and a significant number are babysitting for young children, including babies and infants.
Unfortunately, there have been instances where teenage babysitters are accused of shaking children. Few babysitter classes educate students about shaking injuries or train students to cope with persistent crying.
In New York, legislation sponsored by Assemblyman William Magnarelli and State Senator Nicholas Spano will require that students get a half credit of parenting education before they graduate high school, including the opportunity to watch a video about SBS prevention.
The bill has passed the Assembly, but the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee, Senator Stephen Saland, is considering whether to allow the bill to proceed to the Senate floor for a vote. If you think that it is important to educate tomorrow's parents and tonight's babysitters about the danger of shaking young children, please let Senator Saland know by calling (518) 455-2411 or (845) 463-0840.
In the meantime, the SKIPPER Initiative's collaboration with the Association of FCS Educators provides a great opportunity to work with these enormously talented and dedicated teachers to educate students about how they can help keep children safe.
State SBS Prevention Actions.
State Wisconsin's Governor Doyle signing a bill for Wisconsin's new Shaken Baby Syndrome prevention legislation on March 21, 2006, as the sponsor, State Senator Julie Lassa, looks on.
On April 12, 2006, Nebraska's legislature adopted legislation proposed by State Senator Nancy Thompson that also provides an opportunity for new parents, child care providers and students in Nebraska to be educated about the danger of shaking young children.
Wisconsin and Nebraska join New York, Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania in implementing the hospital based SBS prevention program for new parents developed at Children's Hospital of Buffalo. Similar legislation is pending in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Iowa.
California, Texas, Florida, Indiana, Virginia, Tennessee, and Washington also have statutory requirements that parents receive information about SBS.
State Awareness Week spreads.
This year, California, Washington, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Maryland and Nebraska have joined New York in adopting legislative resolutions or proclamations designating a statewide SBS Awareness Week.
If your state has education or awareness legislation, contact the bill sponsors and let them know you appreciate their actions to increase awareness and prevent shaking injuries.
If it doesn't, let your state and federal legislators know you think educating parents and caregivers on what they can do to keep children safe from shaking injuries is a good idea at www.congress.org,
April is Donate Life Month
George and I were recently interviewed for TRANSPLANT!, a three-part medical series on organ donation, hosted by Dr. Mehmet Oz. We talked about making the decision to donate and the prevention work of the SKIPPER Initiative. I'm sure we end up being only a few minutes out of this three hour series, but the topic of organ donation is so important. Whether you are a registered donor or not, it is your family that makes the decision. So I hope folks will watch and then have that discussion with their loved ones.
Peggy Whalen
TRANSPLANT! was shown on Discovery Health Channel (Cable TV) and followed pediatric and adult cases, at home and in the hospital, focusing on the individual patients, their families, their medical treatment, and their first-person experiences as potential organ recipients. We had an opportunity to tell about our experience as a pediatric donor family. Unfortunately, many families affected by SBS have the experience of donating the life-saving organs of a loved one, with the thought of helping others.
The series provided the SKIPPER Initiative with a great opportunity to educate the public about donation.
Here's an important resource for anyone who has or who cares for babies or small children: Babysitter Safety: What Parents and Sitters Need to Know
(University of Michigan Health System)
Archive of important advances in SBS Education:
2005
- Informative article from the Times-Herald Record, written by Beth Quinn -- read the story
- Article in Pediatrics Magazine by Dr. Mark Dias on the successful implementation of SBS education program in Buffalo -- read the article
2004
- WMC Grant
- NYS Legislature passed bill to require ALL hospitals providing maternity services in New York to give all new parents the opportunity to watch a video that will educate them about the danger of shaking young children and what they can do to help protect their child from injury.
Text of new bill
Portrait of Promise video
2003
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Shaking Kills: Instead Parents Please Educate and Remember
The SKIPPER Initiative was formed by the family and friends of George "Skipper" Lithco, who was an eleven-month-old resident of the Town of Poughkeepsie when he died on December 3, 2000.
Skipper died from brain injuries he suffered when he was shaken by his day care provider, a fifty-one year old grandmother. She said she lost control when he spit up on her and cried during his afternoon feeding, and pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless manslaughter.
The SKIPPER Initiative is responding to this tragedy by working to educate parents and caregivers about Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) and increase awareness of the ways to prevent SBS incidents.
Skipper was one of the 1,400 babies, infants and toddlers who die or suffer severe injuries each year because they were shaken. If today is an average day in the United States, 8 children under the age of 5 will die or be permanently disabled when they are shaken by a caregiver.
There are local and national efforts to stop shaken baby abuse. Please help.
For more information on the
Skipper Initiative, please email SkipperVigil@yahoo.com.
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SBS is the violent shaking of infants by parents or care givers in moments of rage or anger. Many people are still not aware that shaking causes brain injuries and that the brains of babies and small children up to age five are particularly susceptible to such injury.
One of four shaken infants dies. Half of the survivors suffer brain injuries that result in irrevocable neurological impairment and developmental delays. They don't lose their life, but they do lose eyesight, their mobility and the potential for independent living. Over the first five years, the total cost of medical care for a SBS survivor may reach $1,000,000.
The death of an infant is tragic, but the tragedy is compounded by the fact that SBS can be prevented. An educational program developed by Dr. Mark Dias of the Children's Hospital of Buffalo warns parents of newborn children about SBS. It significantly reduced SBS incidents from one every six weeks to one per year.
We now know that SBS can happen to anyone. Nothing will bring back Skipper. But there is much that can be done to promote education and awareness of SBS and prevent this tragedy from happening to other children.
30 Ways to Promote Your Baby's Safety.
Like every parent, you want to make the world safer for your baby: but there is so much to do, and so little time. Take a few minutes each day for one safety activity. If you follow the guidelines on our National Baby Safety Month calendar, at the end of the month you will have a much safer baby! Print out the page for someone you know with a baby and it wil give them safety tips they might need.
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