A video appearing to show a father swinging his infant around attracted outrage among doctors and social media users.
The 35-second video seemingly shows the dad performing acrobatic-like stunts with his child, swinging the infant by the arms back and forth, over his head and between his legs.
Twitter and Instagram commenters were quick to criticize the stunt, noting not only the danger to his baby’s joints but also the risk of brain injury.
It also could have resulted in dropping the baby, potentially killing him.
The video was captioned ‘A bond between father and child’, but thousands of commenters remarked that it appeared more like child abuse.
Physicians were also rattled by the video.
The 35-second video shows the father swinging his baby back and forth, which could potentially lead to the baby dislocating his elbow or suffering shaken baby syndrome
They said lifting a baby by the arms with no back support can result in a pulled elbow, in which the elbow joint dislocates the lower arm.
It can also lead to a traumatic brain injury, possibly from the brain shaking back and forth in the skull, and if the baby were to be dropped on its head.
Dr Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine doctor and former pediatrician in an emergency department, said: ‘I would assume legally and morally that the infant should have a CAT scan or MRI.
‘And that might not even show microscopic brain injury.’
The action of swinging your baby back and forth can lead to shaken baby syndrome, a severe head injury caused by the baby’s brain rebounding back and forth in his skull.
It causes brain bruising and swelling, and possibly cerebral hemorrhage.
It’s not clear how old the baby is, but his approximate age could be less than one year.
At that point, the baby’s skull has not completely closed around the brain and hardened, protecting it from impact.
Between 1,000 and 3,000 babies suffer from shaken baby syndrome each year in the US, and one-fourth of them die.
Eighty percent of them suffer permanent damage to their brains.
Shaken baby syndrome can cause severe effects long-term, such as cerebral palsy, blindness, hearing loss, learning disabilities, seizures, paralysis, and death.
It can occur with just five seconds of shaking, and 35 seconds is likely to do far more damage.
Dr Fischer said: ‘It’s a mental illness to do that, which type, who cares? It could be considered a crime.
‘Certainly, he doesn’t understand what a precious gift he has. He needs some lengthy instruction and counseling at the very least.’
Between 1,000 and 3,000 babies suffer from shaken baby syndrome each year in the US, and one-fourth of them die.
The general public was outraged as well, with more than 80,000 comments on line, many of them similar to one saying, ‘No way, is not legal. Poor baby’ and ‘I’ll just consider this child abuse child harm, child neglect, all of the above.
‘You need parent classes and CPS needs to get involved [sic] babies are delicate and helpless yet you’d play with a child like this as if the baby is a fidget toy. This is so horrible.’
John Kavanagh, the coach of UFC fighter Conor McGregor, reposted the video initially publicized on Instagram: ‘What a stupid thing to do. Even if you “only” make a mistake once every 1000 perfect times that’s a traumatic injury plus the brain shake.
‘How many idiots will try replicate this for a few likes and smash their baby? Probably shouldn’t even be sharing it. Don’t do this.’
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