Burping too hard?

[PollyC]

Hi,
My little 3-week old boy has a lot of spit-up sometimes; occasionally he will gag to get it out, and his face gets really red and he looks panicked. So, what I have done a couple of times (pretty quickly and without really stopping to analyze it) is to turn him over in a burping pose, where my right hand is supporting his chin and he is sitting kind of folded over, and whack his back for a few seconds until he spits it out.
Now, I am beginning to get worried that I must have burped him too hard on these occasions. Specifically, I am worried about Shaken Baby Syndrome. Can a baby suffer from that from having been burped hard (it really was harder than the normal burp--sufficient to cause him to spit up if he seemed to be gagging, I did it a couple of times)? He isn't acting any different or anything, and as you know his head was reasonably supported by my right hand but...
needless to say Adric is my life and I don't know what I'd do if I'd harmed him. Especially when I was just trying to prevent him from choking.
Help!
Polly

[marinak1977]

Well, shaken baby syndrome is usually caused by the brain bouncing around inside the scull and getting injured because of the physical stresses on its complex structure. In order to get that kind of injury the baby's head usually has to be violently jerked around (so that it's abruptly starting and stopping). It doesn't sound like his head was jerking while you were burping him so I don't think you need to worry. Although, if he is having problem with gagging on spit up I would ask for advice of mamas on here on how to help him with that. I wish I could help, but my DS has always been a happy spitter. Congratulations on your little one and welcome to MDC!

[TreeRose]

I totally get your anxiety over this! Our LO has spitting up and vomiting episodes that have concerned me! As for shaken baby syndrome, I don't think you need to worry (though that is just what we do, isn't it?) - From what I understand (even in Happiest Baby on the Block) it would take a lot of violent jerking and shaking to cause that. Babies like to be bounced and rocked and "shaken" to an extent - all that movement is what they were experiencing in the womb. So unless you're talking whiplash, I think you're fine!

HUGS