Gas, groceries and the upcoming holidays have you in a financial pinch. Now with a new infant to feed and care for, along with the added hustle and bustle of other family obligations, the table may be set for that last push. Unfortunately, for some this final push is a crying baby.

That was the case with Burton Naczi, a 23-year-old unemployed Wasilla-area carpenter, who was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison for shaking his 6-month-old daughter to death. Although Naczi told the baby’s mother he tripped while carrying the child down some stairs, he admitted to investigators he shook little Kaydence and threw her on a couch.

This stress also seems the motivation for Keir McGee-Vermont, who is scheduled to stand trial Dec. 1 for shaking and severely injuring his 3-month-old daughter. He told investigators he was stressed over financial matters and the baby was crying. When the child wouldn’t stop crying, an Alaska State Troopers report says he shook her and threw her into her crib, bouncing her off its railings. Any child abuse is unacceptable and should not be tolerated in any community, but the stories of such abuse against our most innocent and defenseless are the most heart-wrenching of all. Like any other domestic abuse, it’s also preventable.

Called shaken baby syndrome (SBS), an estimated 1,300 children in the United States were victims of SBS in 2004, the most recent study reported by the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome. Of those, about 1,200 were in the first year of their lives.

And like Naczi, McGee-Vermont and John Nichols of Big Lake — who, in 2001, was convicted of second-degree murder for killing his 7-month-old daughter when he shook her in a fit of rage — the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome reports financial and family pressure, coupled with the crying of a baby, is the largest trigger for this type of abuse.

It’s sad we have to report on those in our own Valley communities who shake and abuse their defenseless infant children. It’s important we keep the spotlight on these cases as examples for those who can’t cope with a crying baby.

Especially now, with the local cost of living skyrocketing and entering the most stressful time of the year, Assistant District Attorney Rachel Gernat reminds us that, like other forms of abuse, it’s likely baby-shakers are repeat offenders. Most are only caught when the children suffer serious life-changing injuries or death.

“The thing most people don’t realize is that there are most often other incidents of shaking that go unreported or misdiagnosed, but it’s that final shaking that brings everyone’s attention,” she said.

In Naczi’s case, he also admitted to a prior shaking incident that hospitalized his baby girl. Naczi, McGee-Vermont and Nichols could have followed the simple advice of the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome and Gernat — walk away, cool off before dealing with the crying child or call someone if you can’t. Instead, the lives of their children and families were changed forever by fits of stress-induced rage.

Thanksgiving, Christmas and the holiday season has always been a time to make memories. If you’re a baby-shaker, know someone who is or have been tempted, stop. Call a friend or relative and remove yourself from any equation that ends with the death or injury of a helpless infant. Visit the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman online at www.frontiersman.com for a link to the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome.

Holiday stress and financial pressures are nothing compared to the potential for shaking and harm to our babies.