SALT LAKE CITY, UT – April 17, 2012 – Frustration with a crying infant is the number one trigger for the shaking and abuse of infants. In an effort to help spread awareness about normal infant crying and the dangers of shaking an infant, the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome is launching a national public education campaign to make tens of thousands of purple colored baby caps.

The grassroots campaign called, CLICK for Babies: Period of PURPLE Crying Caps, invites knitters and crocheters across North America to make purple colored baby caps which will be delivered to families in November and December with the Period of PURPLE Crying, an evidence based program that educates parents about normal infant crying, ways to cope with the crying and the dangers of reacting in frustration by shaking or abusing an infant. The campaign will launch in April as part of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

“The handmade purple caps are meant to serve as a reminder for parents about the Period of PURPLE Crying and the dangers of shaking,” says Ryan Steinbeigle, Campaign Director. “Last year, over 60,000 PURPLE colored caps were donated and distributed to thousands of families across North America in an effort to prevent infant abuse,”

CLICK for Babies, now in its second year, is a collaborative effort between the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome and invited states and provinces who have implemented the Period of PURPLE Crying. Oregon, Washington, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, North Carolina, West Virginia, New Hampshire and Maine have joined the 2012 campaign in addition to the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia.

“We are so thrilled to be involved again in the CLICK for Babies campaign, says Sandy Nipper, RN, Child Safety Program Coordinator at Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel in Oregon. “Last Year’s campaign was so successful and it was such a wonderful experience to provide all of the handmade purple hats from knitters and crocheters across the country to parents and babies with the PURPLE program.”

Organizers have set a goal of collecting 100,000 purple caps for the 2012 campaign. Caps will be collected from April through the end of September and distributed to babies in November and December. Knitters and crocheters are invited to send their caps to organizers in their area or directly to the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome.

More information about the CLICK for Babies campaign, including patterns for caps, guidelines and details about the national campaign are available at www.CLICKforbabies.org.

Please click here to read the press release in PDF format.