Purple caps for infants an education effort

Purple newborn caps replaced the traditional pink and blue on the tiny heads of infants at Rowan Regional Medical Center and all over the state this week.

The hand-knitted caps, donated by both North Carolina Hospital Association volunteers 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.

The Period of Purple Crying is the phrase used to describe the point in a baby's life when they cry more than any other time. This period of increased crying is often described as colic.

The 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.

Marion Sharkany, one of the key organizers of the knitting project, is the past president of the N.C. Hospital Volunteers Association.

"My infant daughter cried a lot — sometimes for hours at a 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," Sharkany said.

The North Carolina Hospital Volunteers hand-knitted more than 1,500 caps. They donated them to their local hospitals and shared extra hats with hospitals that did not have an organized volunteer guild.

Rowan Regional Medical Center implemented the Period of Purple Crying in November 2008 and has educated the parents of more than 1,184 infants since then.

"Nurses from the hospital are enthusiastic about the program, seeing what a difference it can make in the lives of both parents and infants," stated Cora Greene, director of women's and children's services.

Parents at Rowan Regional Medical Center 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 Monica Cameron said. "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 N.C. Hospital Volunteers Association 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.

"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," Sharkany said.

The program includes individual, in-hospital parent education and research-tested take-home tools; a DVD and booklet to reinforce key messages so that parents understand this crying period.

By the end of 2012, 86 hospitals and birthing centers across North Carolina will have taught the parents of more than a half-million newborns about 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.

For more information on the effort, you can visit www.purplecryingnc.info.