North Carolina newborns sport PURPLE “hats from the heart” during Week of the Young Child

Child abuse awareness effort lauds the Period of PURPLE Crying 

PURPLE newborn caps replaced the traditional pink and blue on the tiny heads of infants at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital and all over the state this week. The hand-knitted caps, donated by both North Carolina Hospital Volunteers (NCHV) and a wide array of individual community knitters, are a way to remind parents about the normalcy of early infant crying and how to cope with it.  Click here to see more photo's from the event.

Marion Sharkany, a volunteer at Moore Regional Hospital and one of the key organizers of the knitting project, is the past president of the NCHV. She immediately jumped into action when she received the call to help.

“My infant daughter cried a lot – sometimes for hours at time. And even though it was decades ago that we brought her home from the hospital, I still remember the anxiety I felt with her inconsolable crying, the fears that I was a bad mother and the frustration that grew when I was unable to soothe her and didn’t know why. If my husband and I had understood the Period of  PURPLE Crying, we would have felt more confident, relaxed, and happier as new parents.”

Lead by Sharkany, the North Carolina Hospital Volunteers hand-knitted close to 2,000 caps. They donated them to their local hospitals and shared extra hats with hospitals that did not have an organized volunteer guild.

Nurses from the hospital are enthusiastic about the program, seeing what a difference it can make in the lives of both parents and infants.

Then, through a viral social media campaign that included Facebook and other website posts, blogs, and tweets, volunteer knitters – from as far away as Alaska and Arizona – joinedthe groundswell of support for the PURPLE program. These volunteers, fromnine-years-old to ninety-plus, created nearly 600 PURPLE baby caps in a few short weeks.

Parents appreciate the PURPLE program, too. “The more information we can get, the better. We all think we would never shake our babies, and of course most of us never do. But this information is helpful for everyone.” New mom Stacy Harris explained, “Lauren (born at FirstHealth Moore Regional seven weeks ago) is my second baby and I know how frustrating it can be to deal with screaming infants. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do to soothe them, so you just have to calm yourself down. It’s hard to do, but if you know what to expect, it makes it much easier to handle.”

The project started with the NC Hospital Volunteers and spread through a viral social media campaign. United by interest in the Period of PURPLE Crying: Keeping Babies Safe in North Carolina, knitters from as far away as Arizona and Alaska have joined the cause.

Said Sharkany, “We deeply thank the 5,000 nurses at 86 birthing hospitals across the state for all they do every day to educate parents about the Period of PURPLE Crying and to save lives. They are the real heroes here!”

The PURPLE program educates parents and other caregivers about a typical stage in early infancy that is frequently misunderstood. Frustration often accompanies normal increased early infant crying, which is a key trigger to shaking. The Period of PURPLE Crying also promotes infant/parent bonding, and other crucial parenting skills.

The PURPLE program includes individual, in-hospital parent education and research-tested take-home tools; a PURPLE DVD and booklet to reinforce key messages so that parents understand this normal crying period in every infant’s life and how to cope with it.

By the end of 2012, 86 hospitals and birthing centers across NC will have taught the parents of more than a half-million newborns about the Period of PURPLE Crying. The project is a collaborative effort of the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, The Center for Child and Family Health and the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center.

Shaken Baby Syndrome is currently among the leading causes of child abuse deaths in the U.S.