Shaken baby syndrome, or SBS, is a form of child abuse. It occurs when an abuser, generally an adult, violently shakes an infant or small child. The shaking motion creates a whiplash-esque motion that causes severe acceleration-deceleration injuries.

This type of injury, or abuse, is thought to affect between 1,200 and 1,600 children every year in the United States alone. The injury type is not restricted to the United States. All countries have the problem to some degree. One remarkable feature of shaken baby syndrome is that there is, typically, no external evidence of trauma. When a baby is shaken and strikes a hard object, this is called shaken impact syndrome, in many cases.

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