Why baby care needs gentle men

Guys get educated on Shaken Baby Syndrome

CHAPEL HILL -- The 6-foot, 210-pound linebacker held a baby doll in the crook of his bulging arm and gently rocked her.

Then Kennedy Tinsley put his finger in her little, plastic hand.

"This is my baby right here," the UNC-Chapel Hill football player said.

He was joking, of course, but he still held her tight.

On Friday, Tinsley and five of his teammates sat in gliders at the N.C. Children's Hospital to promote "Real Men Rock," a campaign to prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome.

"I know that everyone doesn't know how to hold a baby, and it's a problem," Tinsley said, adding that he's a pro at holding babies. His sister was born when he was in high school.

But he had no idea that some people shake their babies so violently the infants end up brain damaged or worse.

Research shows that a parent's frustration with a crying baby is a main cause of shaking -- and most perpetrators are men, usually the fathers. That's why local Orange County agencies and UNC Hospitals' Beacon Child and Family program invited men to rock the dolls.

The football players took their job seriously.

"Is this OK?" Tinsley asked about his holding position.

Behind him stood his teammate, Mike Murphy.

"I've got the beast baby," Murphy said about his extra-large doll.

But even as he joked around, the 6-foot-2-inch 231-pound long snapper bounced the doll a little. "He'll be on the treadmill when he's 1," he boasted to the other guys.

Murphy also flirted with the girl next to him. Sophie Davies set her sky-blue eyes on him and smiled big. And Murphy smiled back at the 4-month-old dressed in hot pink cargo pants and a polo.

"She likes me," he said. "I can't help it."

Sophie was one of two real babies participating in the event. Her dad, Matt Davies, rocked her while she checked out the football players in their Tar Heel blue jerseys.

Three-month-old Atlee Nelson, daughter of Aaron Nelson, was the other real baby. She enjoyed the rocking so much that she fell asleep.

Nelson, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, said dads need to know it's important to be gentle with babies.

"She was very colicky and cried a lot," he said of Atlee, who was dressed in a pink-and-white striped onesie. "You have to remember to take time out for yourself."

Good communication with your spouse is also important, he said.

"We let the other know when we've reached our limit," he said.