"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]
> > Right. How ridiculous. I'd much rather my son live fast, die
> > young, and leave a beautiful corpse. A round head would look so
> > much nicer in the last pictures I'd ever have of him. (As it happens,
> > he never had any flattening problems, although he did have a bald
> > spot on the back of his head for a while. The horror!)
>
> The chance of an infant dying as a result of being placed on his/her
> stomach to sleep are *extemely* remote. (Indeed, I think the "BtS"
> campaign has gotten too much of the credit for the reduction in SIDS; a
> "campaign" advising parents to clear their infant's sleeping area of
> toys, pillows, etc. has been concurrently conducted, and no doubt should
> also be credited for many "saved" lives.) If a child sleeps *much*
> better on his/her stomach (falls asleep faster, stays asleep longer), it
> makes much better sense, IMO, to let him/her do so.
I tend to agree that the risk for a healthy term infant who has
no other risk factors is pretty low. I also agree that if a child
sleeps much better on his stomach, it may be worth considering. I
had a co-worker whose child would literally only sleep thirty minutes
at a strtech if put on his back. In that situation, I'd put a child
on his stomach too.
But for those of us whose children sleep as well (or as poorly) on
their backs, it's essentially a cost-free measure, so even if the
risk is small, it'd be silly to court it for fear of a cosmetic
problem which may not occur and if it does will almost certainly
resolve itself.
> There's a trade-off to be made in the case of kids whose heads become
> pronouncably misshapen: Are the costs (financial and other) of having
> the deformity corrected worth the benefit (very, very small) of forcing
> an infant to sleep on his/her back? Likewise (alternatively), are the
> costs of *not* correcting a noticable deformity (teasing, ridiculing,
> name-calling, ...[= bullying, these days]) worth it?
The risk of having a misshapen head that's severe enough to
be noticed or need correction is also very small. 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?
If a parent takes a little care, both risks can be minimized.
Problem(?) solved!
> "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. 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.
Beth
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