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ICON Week, which is taking place from Monday 21 – Friday 25 September 2026, is dedicated to raising awareness about infant crying and how to manage it, supporting parents and carers, and preventing serious injuries, illnesses, and even fatalities caused by abusive head trauma, often resulting from shaking a baby.
ICON Week 2026 is a reminder that preventing harm starts with understanding, support and compassion. Together, we can build a safer world for babies, and a more confident and supported environment for those caring for them.
Throughout ICON Week, Cumberland Safeguarding Children Partnership will be sharing a range of resources and top tips, to help raise ICON awareness.
ICON is a program embraced by health and social care organisations across the UK, providing essential information about infant crying, including coping strategies, parental support, and stress reduction.
ICON is an acronym for:
The theme for this years ICON Week 2026 is Supporting Parents, Protecting Babies, focusing on improving engagement with fathers and men, while promoting consistent, high-quality delivery of the ICON programme across services. Dr Suzanne Smith, nurse, health visitor and founder of ICON, said: “Persistent infant crying can be stressful and exhausting for any parent or carer. “ICON Week is about reassuring families that they are not alone, helping them understand that crying is a normal part of infant development, and reminding them that support is available.
There are a number of materials available to promote the message of the ICON Campaign. These are available for parents, carers and professionals to download on the ICON website: https://iconcope.org/.
ICON are delivering a number of webinars during ICON Week 2026. https://iconcope.org/icon-week/Every day is different. Please visit their website: https://iconcope.org/icon-week/
To provide organisations with ideas of how to share the ICON message, ICON have created a Campaign Toolkit for ICON Week, which can be accessed in the following link: ICON Week 2026 Campaign Toolkit.
The CSCP website also includes a number of resources, which can be used to promote ICON Week: CSCP ICON Page.
ICON: Babies Cry, You Can Cope is now on TikTok, expanding their digital channels to reach more parents and carers with simple, accessible support when they need it most.
Professionals should print copies of resources, where possible, to share with families during contact sessions/family time, and to display in public areas, to raise awareness of the ICON message.
Please look out for tomorrow’s 5 Minute Briefing, where we will be focusing on the first letter in the ICON acronym; Infant crying is normal.
 Above paragraph provided by ICON
Babies cry. You can cope. Never, ever shake a baby.
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