The University of Chicago Comer Golf Classic Awards Friend Family Health Center $5,800!

This award will help FFHC continue their prevention and parent education program through the “Purple Crying” education program.

The Purple Crying program approaches prevention through parent education about normal infant crying, rather than focusing on warnings of the negative consequences of shaking.

It is based on over 30 years of research on infant crying and on strong evidence that demonstrates that infant crying is the most important trigger for Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS).  Randomized controlled trials with over 4, 400 parents were conducted  where one group was assigned to an intervention arm where they received the Period of Purple Crying materials or to a control group where they received information about general infant safety.   The study found that by exposing caregivers to the Purple crying prevention program, there was a statistically significant increase in the knowledge about normal infant crying, an increase in understanding the dangers of shaking an infant, an increase in walk away behavior when caregiver was frustrated, and an increase in the willingness of caregivers to share the Purple crying information with others.  This program is an evidence-based, child abuse prevention parent education program around infant crying.  Period of Purple Crying is being offered to 3,000 families at the Friend Family Health Center in Hyde Park through collaboration with the Erikson Institute Fussy Baby Network.