Re: Infant flat skulls can be avoided: U.S. doctors

"Elizabeth Reid" <eliz_reid@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:c3338aa8.0307081307.42cce12a@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "JG" <jg030103@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:<AZDOa.10743$Hw.7968200@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...

> > "Elizabeth Reid" <eliz_reid@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> > news:c3338aa8.0307080637.746283fe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The risk of having a misshapen head that's severe enough to
> be noticed or need correction is also very small.

....It should be *ZERO*.  How in the world could an otherwise competent
parent let his/her child's head deformity get to the point that it's
noticeable (and likely commented upon by family/friends) without at
least questioning/investigating why and taking some common-sense
measures (e.g., the suggestions mentioned in the article)?  We all
wonder about those parents who, on summer days, "forgot" that their
(sleeping?) kids were strapped in their car seats and, upon returning to
their cars hours later, found them dead, or those parents who left young
kids alone in a bathtub for "just a second" and then returned to find
they'd drowned, or (my favorite) those parents who've run over their
kids with a lawn mower.  These are all "instantaneous" accidents
(problems); they didn't develop gradually.  (Of course, other negligent
behavior also occurs over longer time periods; e.g., some parents are
apparently oblivious to their kids' obesity or anorexia.)

Why do parents of kids whose heads have become misshapen due to their
(parents') rigid adherence to the "Back to Sleep" rule view it as
immutable?  Are they just plain dumb, or are they afraid to question the
advice-giver's (physician's) supposed expertise?  Physicians have been
sued for not giving their patients enough information--for not doing
enough to "help" their patients (e.g., not explaining "well enough" the
consequences of detrimental, avoidable behaviors); will a pediatrician
now be sued for advice he/she HAS dispensed ("We recommend putting
babies face-up; it's been shown to decrease the risk of SIDS") by the
parent(s) of a kid with a deformed skull?  (Don't laugh; who'd have
thought, a decade ago, that people would actually file lawsuits against
fast-food restaurants and food manufacturers for "making" them obese?)

Especially since,
> as the article you quoted points out, there are ways to avoid those
> problems without placing a child in the marginally riskier face-down
> position.  Is it really all that tough to take the recommendations
> mentioned in the article, such as ****fting the child's head and
> making sure she/he doesn't spend all waking hours on his/her back?

Apparently it is, for some parents (up to 48%!), that "tough."

> If a parent takes a little care, both risks can be minimized.
> Problem(?) solved!

The problem of misshapen heads, perhaps.  NOT the problem of parents who
are dolts, however...

> > "Doomsday," IMO, is already upon us (the US).

> You may or may not be right, but I can safely say that
> the conviction that civilization has finally and irretrievably gone
> to hell in a handbasket is about ten minutes older than
> civilization itself.

Not civilization per se.  Just the US.

It'd be nice if common sense and skepticism
> were thicker on the ground, but I'd take some powerful convincing
> that things are demonstrably worse now than any other point in
> history.

A topic that could be debated ad nauseam <g>.