Never, EVER shake a baby! Just walk away!

Stop Shaken Baby Syndrome, Inc.

Christopher, 5 days after being released from the hospital, a little more than 2 weeks after he was shaken for the last time.

Christopher’s Story

Christopher Michael Daughtrey was born August 24, 2006 via emergency C-section.  He was 5 weeks early.  He spent two weeks in the neonatal ICU because he was having trouble breathing and eating at first, and then he went home with his parents.

Little did his mother know that within those first few weeks, his “father” would apparently begin a pattern of abuse that would change all their lives forever.

Christopher’s mother, Jennipher, returned to work when he was 6 weeks old.  During the day, his biological father, grandmother, and great-grandmother took turns caring for him.

He began exhibiting some strange symptoms October 16 when he was 7 weeks old.  It started out that he slept all the time.  Then, he began a funny high-pitched cry and wasn’t eating well.  The night of Tuesday, October 17 he started having partial seizures.  Christopher’s mother, not knowing what the “twitching” was, called the pediatrician’s office, described his symptoms, and they said to bring him to the office in the morning.  By the time morning came around, both his arms, legs, his face and eyes were seizing.  He wouldn’t eat.  He was in and out of consciousness. 

Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville, NC admitted him initially to the regular pediatric ward.  He was shortly thereafter transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).  After being admitted, it was determined that he had bilateral subdural hematomas (bleeding on his brain), both old and new places - indicating that he had been shaken on more than one occasion.  Upon further testing, it was also discovered that he had six broken ribs in the posterior region (his back ribs, most likely caused from being squeezed while he was shaken) and bilateral retinal hemorrhaging (bleeding behind both of his eyes). 

All these signs put together, Jennipher was told, added up to Shaken Baby Syndrome.  At first, it was hard to believe - the only people caring for her son had been her husband, her mother and her grandmother.  Yet she knew it had to have been one of them, most likely her husband.  She left him when she realized that he had to have been the one to almost kill her son.

Three weeks after Christopher was shaken, his “father” finally confessed to shaking him in the late night/early morning hours of October 15/16.  He was subsequently arrested but later was released on a $50,000 bond, with the stipulation that he couldn’t go near Christopher.  On April 15, 2008—18 months to the day after Christopher was shaken, his biological father, David Allen Daughtrey, Jr., was sentenced to 25-39 months active prison time for shaking Christopher.  The charge was a Class E felony, child abuse inflicting serious injury.

Christopher is currently involved in the Early Intervention program, getting physical therapy and speech therapy to help with the developmental delays being shaken left him with.  Jennipher has been told to expect behavioral problems and learning disorders in the future in addition to speech and language problems.

His life is forever altered because his “father” could not control his frustration with a crying baby.  Whereas he should’ve just walked away, instead he chose to take out his anger on the most innocent of victims - a defenseless baby, his own flesh and blood.

Sadly, this is the case in a great many shaken baby cases. Natural fathers are the offenders more than any other group.  It only takes a few seconds of shaking to cause massive brain damage or death.

Christopher’s father never had any prior history of violence, always SEEMED to be a good father… yet behind closed doors, he was apparently routinely shaking his own son just to keep him quiet.

Please be sure to tell everyone you know, including and especially your own spouse, how important it is to find healthy ways of coping with stress, anger and frustration.  Have a plan of action for when you get frustrated.  Put the baby down in a safe place and take some time for yourself to calm down.  Remember, no baby has ever died from crying too much, but too many have died from being shaken.

Like so many others, Christopher’s life and his mother’s life were forever changed because of a few seconds of frustration. Never, EVER shake a baby or small child… just walk away!

Christopher at 7 weeks old,

the day before he was

shaken for the last time.

BEFORE...

AFTER...