Kohl's Names Children's Best in Class

Kohl's Department Stores recently recognized Children's as "Best in Class" for its Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) prevention campaign. Kohl's has more than 120 hospital partners throughout the U.S., and Children's was proud to be selected as one of the top three "Best in Class" for 2006. The multimedia campaign has been a joint effort among multiple departments within Children's.

The campaign's goals focused on reducing the incidence of SBS in Colorado through awareness, education and prevention, and to lay the groundwork for public policy efforts to put into place a sustainable SBS prevention program within the state. 

The campaign used various TV and radio commercials featuring crying babies as well as the campaign website www.dontshakeababy.com, grassroots advocacy efforts and brochures in Kohl's.  All of these efforts urged the public to "...never, ever shake a baby."

In 2003 and 2004, Children's experienced an alarming trend - an increase in all forms of child abuse and neglect. Child abuse is the number one cause of trauma death at Children's for the past three years, and SBS is a factor in most of these cases. 

Data show there was a 20 percent increase in 2004 over 2003 in cases involving physical abuse; and in 2004, 65 were cases of head trauma. Ten cases (in both 2003 and 2004) resulted in deaths. Of those 10 deaths, seven had isolated head injury and three had isolated blunt abdominal injury. 

In 2005, Children's made child abuse prevention a key initiative and the department of external affairs assembled a multi-disciplinary group comprised of emergency room doctors and nurses, staff from The Children's Hospital Foundation and department of public affairs, The Kempe Foundation for Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse, and occupational and physical therapists. 

Campaign funding was provided by Kohl's. The Kohl's Corporation sponsors a national program called "Kohl's Cares for Kids" in which money is raised through the sale of plush toys and storybooks in Kohl's stores throughout the country.

Julie Headley and Marcia Sandoval from The Children's Hospital Foundation traveled to Milwaukee, WI in early March for the annual Kohl's Cares for Kids Summit. There they presented the SBS prevention campaign to other hospital partners and answered questions about how the campaign was created and launched. 

The Children's Hospital staff continues to play an important role in the SBS Prevention Campaign. Information tables will be made available in the hospital during the week of April 9, and you can visit www.dontshakeababy.com to learn about how you can help prevent SBS.