Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect: Shaken Baby Syndrome — Inflicted Cerebral Trauma

Physical abuse is the leading cause of serious head injury in infants. While physical abuse has in the past been a diagnosis of exclusion, data regarding the nature and frequency of head trauma consistently support a medical presumption of child abuse when a child under 1 year of age presents with intracranial injury.

Shaken baby syndrome is a serious form of child maltreatment, most often involving infants younger than 6 months of age.