The authors explain that when infants under the age of 2 are seriously or fatally injured, parents or caregivers must offer an explanation for the injuries. This article examines what the child protective response is when parents offer discrepant explanations, no explanation, or offer an explanation that disagrees with medical opinion. The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of the records of children less than 2 years old who had suffered a serious or fatal physical injury. Under examination were the types of explanation offered by the caregivers, other concerns in addition to the injuries, and the child protective systems response to the family. The findings revealed that the child protective response to very young infants, especially boys, was often inadequate. In many cases, child protective workers failed to implement well-established procedures. The authors suggest that an improvement in risk assessment procedures within child protective agencies would improve consistency of response across cases. References