Sunday, January 16, 2011

Another Public Health Racket

You know how there are some things that simply get up your nose? "Tummy Time" is one of those for me.

Have you heard about "Tummy Time"? Apparently the latest wisdom is that you're supposed to put infants on their bellies for a certain amount of time every day so they'll develop properly. I've only had this information from mums of newborns, so I'm guessing, but I suppose the target muscles must be the pectorals.

The underlying plan is that this will save otherwise neglected infants from weak arms. Yes. Well, I can't stop myself from obsessing about this.

Really? Do they really think that a parent so disengaged that he/she will allow the baby to go unheld and unstimulated, will put the time and care into "tummy time"? Honestly! Any baby that's being held and talked to and played with is definitely using those muscles, focusing her eyes, practicing to hold her head up. So WHY do public health officials waste their time preaching about "tummy time" to parents of parented babies, rather than looking for the flattened heads of the neglected?

Neither of my kids had "tummy time", and they have neither flat heads nor flabby pecs. Pfft. I wonder whose brain-child this was? I suppose I should go and look it up, huh?

2 comments:

Heather Jefferies said...

I'm still scratching my head over 'the baby sleeps on it's back, no! the baby sleeps on it's tummy, no! the baby sleeps on it's back or it will surely expire in it's sleep!' I can no longer remember where we started or where we left off but I do remember this: my children are now 24, 19 and 10 and it was one way, the other way and then back to the old way in a forteen year period and each time it was ab.sol.lut.ly. a requirement that you get it right. Or your baby might die for sure. Also, by the time Little Girl was born it was pretty much a requirement that you buy one of those crib thingies to make sure baby couldn't move an inch by mistake in her crib. Now THAT scares the bejesus out of me. I solved the entire thing by taking her into my bed and just keeping her there which would have led to my incarceration had I mentioned it to a single soul at the time. I'm sure of it.

Madcap said...

I don't think they're suggesting that your baby will actually die without Tummy Time - they'll just be flat-headed dullards.

Wonder if the instigators got enough Tummy Time themselves?