Safety is a thing many parents are concerned about when a baby is around. Making sure the house is clean, medicines are locked up, gated stairs and so on. To ensure that the house is safe. is important. But many people probably don’t give a thought to the correct handling of the baby, even as a toddler.
Swinging a child by the arms or lifting by arms may seem like harmless fun, but these activities could cause painful injuries. Lifting a child off the floor by one hand so that the body weight is on that arm; pulling a baby by the hands to a sitting position from a lying down position or even grabbing a child by one arm to prevent a fall, are all dangerous ways to hold a child.
Dr Richard Omoyeni, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, says there is actually a right way to pick a toddler because lifting or grabbing a child by the arms or wrist can result in a common injury called “nursemaid’s elbow,” also known as “pulled elbow.”
He added, “many people by pulling a baby up with the hand, especially if he or she is a big baby, end up dislocating the shoulder of the children. Some of the ligaments that stabilise the joint can be affected. Sometime when you hold the baby and you pull suddenly by the wrist or the hand, it can also, cause pain around the elbow joint and the shoulder joints.
“Often the child is crying and you will think that it is because he does not want you to carry him but in the real sense, the child may be having some discomfort in the joint because you are pulling the arm. So, as much as possible, it is better to carry the baby around the waist or armpit. That way you will not be hurting the child.”
Moreover, when a young child is pulled up by his arm, aside from the injury to the elbow, a neck injury may also be sustained. Babies initially have weak neck control and big heads compared to the size of their bodies and by pulling him up by the arms, his neck may fall backwards causing injury to the neck muscles.
The most obvious sign of the nursemaid’s elbow is that the pain starts after the child has been pulled or lifted by the arms. Nursemaid’s elbow is not usually caused by a fall, so if your child complains of elbow pain after falling, seek medical attention – it may be something more serious, like a fracture or broken bone. Of course, possible visual signs of an injury, like swelling or a deformity may not be seen.
Dr Omoyeni warned against shaking babies during play or stopping a baby from crying because of its impact on the brain of a growing child.
According to him, “forcefully shaking an infant can cause tearing of the small blood vessels on the surface of the brain, which can interrupt blood flow, leading to subtle damage to the brain and affect the development of the baby. The baby’s brain is still growing and it is not mature.”
When a baby is shaken hard by the shoulders, arms, or legs, it can cause learning disabilities, behaviour disorders, vision problems or blindness, hearing and speech issues, seizures, cerebral palsy, serious brain injury, and permanent disability.
Moreover, A paediatric neurologist at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Benin, Dr Okunola Olusola also warned mothers to stop throwing their newborn into the air, during bath time, in order not to injure the baby’s head and neck.
He declared that the act is “not a sensible practice’’, adding that tossing babies into the air was never beneficial to babies and would not strengthen their reflexes even as some babies are known to have died as a result throwing and shaking during bath.
According to him, “mothers should stop this act of throwing, tossing and shaking their babies because accidents can happen and they will have themselves to blame. It is a risky activity because the baby can be injured in the process; the child can fall and injure the head or break the neck, depending on how forceful the person throws the child.
“Secondly, it confers zero advantage to the baby; it does not improve the baby’s physical nor mental well-being. It is just a tradition that has no scientific basis but is full of challenges. So, mothers should stop it.’’
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