A huge effort to save and protect babies is sweeping the nation. Click here to see my story on KWWL.com

Sadly, about 1,400 babies in the U.S. receive care for Shaken Baby Syndrome each year. 

Of that number, about 30 percent die, and the rest deal with life-long disabilities and injuries. 

"The Period of Purple Crying" is a movement seeking to save babies' lives and prevent life-long injury from Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Every child who is shaken is damaged – whether that is blindness, retardation, brain injury and more.

Luckily, a new movement has emerged, educating people on “The Period of Purple Crying” – which basically teaches that after changing and feeding, comforting and more, if nothing else quiets your baby’s cries, put your baby in a safe place and walk away for a few minutes.

Sometimes doctors can’t detect Shaken Baby Syndrome, because the signs aren’t always visible.

No matter how tired or frustrated you are, it is never okay to shake a baby.

Doctors, nurses and baby advocates hope the effort, which includes a free DVD, saves babies’ lives.

Here are links to resources, stories of SBS survivors, and the sweet little ones who did not survive: The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome.  

National Shaken Baby Coalition.   Shaken Baby Association.

The Shaken Baby Alliance.

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Baby Caitlin entered the world at an impressive 13 pounds 4 ounces. A Covenant Medical Center record.

I thought I was a big baby at 10 pounds 1 ounce, and well, yes I was.

I thought my brother was simply off the scales at 11 pounds 1 ounce.  – My poor mother  delivered us both naturally!!

But imagine giving birth to a baby who weighs 13 pounds 4 ounces! 

I am in awe of mother Shannon Korczak, who gave birth to beautiful baby Caitlin Marie in February at Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo.  A Medical Center record! 

Watch their story by clicking here.

No gestational diabetes, or major complications, “My wife grows them big and fast,” Shannon’s husband David explained.

Her two previous children weighed more than 9 pounds and more than 10 pounds at birth.

Today at age 6 and 2, those children are completely normal in size.

And get this, baby Caitlin came two weeks early!  Doctors say if she had gone full-term, she would have weighed 15 pounds!

One thing that is indisputable: baby Caitlin is absolutely and completely adorable. Check out the story!

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Vaccinate your children following the recommended guidelines? 

Wait until they’re a little older?

Don’t vaccinate at all? 

The vaccination debate continues - now some doctors take a stand and kick-out patients who refuse immunizations.

What about spreading disease to other children?  Or what about non-vaccinated children spreading disease to your child?

To see my Oh Baby story that just aired on KWWL, click here.

I know personally of one heartbreaking story of a baby boy just a few months old who caught pertussis, or whooping cough, from an unvaccinated person, and died recently.

He was too young to receive the vaccination.

It’s certainly a hot topic. 

California called 2010 the largest epidemic of whooping cough since 1950, with more than 6,257 cases, and sadly the disease killed 10 people – all infants under the age of three months.

The Iowa Department of Public Health says it saw a 33 percent increase of pertussis in 2010, compared to the previous five-year average.

Some pediatricians feel so strongly about children getting immunized, they have proposed an ultimatum: get vaccinated or get out of their office.

“This is a deal-breaker for us,” California pediatrician Dr. Bradley Dyer said.

But parental advocate Barbara Loe Fisher said, “I think doctors are going to have to get used to parents asking questions about vaccines. And they need to have a civil rational conversation with parents and not be bullying and threatening them.”

Loe Fisher is also the co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center.

What side of the debate are you on?  Or are you somewhere in between?

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Like the rest of the world, my heart breaks as I watch the devastation continue to unfold in Japan.

But this morning a story touched me so deeply I had to bury my head in my desk so no one would see me cry in the newsroom.

NBC’s Today, along with most media outlets, reports Japanese rescuers found a 4-month-old baby girl by herself in the wreckage, crying and cold but unhurt. 

They found her in the grief-stricken village of Ishinomaki.

A true "tiny" miracle. Rescuers find a 4-month-old baby girl and reunite her with her family.

Her anxious family thought for three days they had lost her. 

After becoming a parent, I don’t think anyone can hear a story like that and not ache, picturing your own child in the same situation.

Rescuers also found a 70-year-old woman stranded in a car after 20 hours, shaken but okay.

These joyful discoveries have reignited energy in the rescue workers to look not just for bodies, but survivors.

Let’s all continue to pray for the victims and the rescuers, and if we can, donate to their cause.

Here is a link to a more detailed report of the story.

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At 9:30 this morning I found myself in a “Cat in the Hat” hat reading to a bunch of cute 3 and 4-year-olds at Freeburg Head Start in Waterloo.

It’s Read Across America Day, March 2nd, which is Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

We read Green Eggs and Ham, and had a lot of fun.  Apparently the children are going to make and eat green eggs and ham a little later today – some of them expressed reluctance at that thought.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss's Birthday at Freeburg Head Start.

The experience reminded me how important reading is, how important children are, and how important it is to read to children!

I will never forget going through my mother’s closet after her death in 2009 and finding a box marked “Sunny’s Baby’s Books”. 

In the box there were dozens of wonderful children’s books she had been secretly saving for my unborn daughter.

She understood the power of reading to children.

Now at the beginning of each of those books, I have written, “With love, Grandma Nedra” so my children know she loved them enough to think of them and help them learn.

Here is a link to some ideas of activities for children to do today and throughout the year.

What is your favorite children’s book?  I’ve recently discovered Olivia and the classic The Runaway Bunny.

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