The rates of child abuse in the United States are pretty steady throughout the year and do not increase in the winter, according to a new study challenging the widespread idea that there are more cases of abuse in the winter, especially the holiday season.

Indian University School of Medicine researchers look at the death certificates of 797 children younger than 5 years old who were killed in Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Oklahoma and Washington from 1999 to 2006. The risk of a child dying from child abuse stays even through the year, the researchers found.

Two-thirds of the deaths were kids less than 2 years old.

"The seasonality of child abuse is clearly a myth," study leader Dr. Antoinette Laskey, an associate professor of pediatrics, said in a university news release. "It is possible that the reason child abuse is believed to increase during the holidays is because an abused child seen on a memorable day like Christmas may be easier for a health-care provider to recall because of the association with the holiday."

"Since there is no reason to believe that child abuse deaths occur at differing rates throughout the year, it is important to keep in mind that prevention should be a year-round effort," said Laskey, who is a physician at Riley Hospital for Children. "The fact is common stressors on caregivers, like crying, toileting accidents and normal childhood behavioral issues such as temper tantrums happen all year long. We need to teach caregivers how to respond better to these issues."