OK, here’s the highly recommended Taiwan baby hammock:
And here’s the happy baby (Emily):
Doctors are now prescribing “headbands” for infants to wear, so that they won’t develop a flat back-of-the-skull.
[quote]Currently the most common forms of treatment are reposition therapy and helmet or band therapy. Some doctors argue that Positional Plagiocephaly will correct on it
[quote=“Mother Theresa”]OK, here’s the highly recommended Taiwan baby hammock:
And here’s the happy baby (Emily):
[/quote]
:lovestruck:
She’s sooooo cherubic!
Gong xi, gong xi!
Thanks Alien.
Mapodurian, your recommendation that babies wear helmets when sleeping, to prevent them from getting flat heads is a good one. But many babies have been known to fall from the bed, injuring their elbows, knees and vital organs. Therefore, I would also recommend the use of . . .
shin guards
elbow pads
and pelvic protectors (although they lengthen the time required for diaper changes)
In all seriousness, though, I wonder how common it is for a baby to have a flat head from lying on its back. I would think it’s extremely rare, but I’ll have to google later to find out. And, even though that can be a cause of flat headedness, I doubt it’s the reason why so many Taiwanese have flat heads. What percentage of people here have such a trait: 50%, 70%, 80%? What percentage in the west: 10%? I don’t know, but I never noticed such a thing till I came here.
MT,
I would suspect it’s a combination of both genetics and the ‘forcing’ of many generations. Sort of similar to how humans lost their tails.
I find it very interesting how the Chinese through thousands of years have so much ‘old wives tale’ knowledge of childbirth and baby care.
That is, if the flat head thing is due to their understanding of the danger of SIDS, how come westerners didn’t cotton on to this until recently? Also, the whole “jyou yeh tz” thing seems evident of their understanding of post partum depression that has only recently in the west brought any attention.
Additionally, I would venture to guess that Chinese health superstitions may often have some foundation of truth to them, although they’ve not been scientifically tested or proven in the western medical world.
Can a baby get a flat head from sleeping on his/her back? Absolutely!
Do a search on Google for [color=blue]‘positional plagiocephaly’ [/color]and see what comes up.
You guessed it - I already did a search.
This link is quite interesting.
She’s adorable, MT!
I asked my mother in law about the flat heads and she says it used to be some kind of class thing and that when she was growing up, the they thought having a flat head looked nicer. She also said that parents would lay their baby’s head on something hard but not clear what it was called.
A big coochy coochy coo for Baby Emily - she’s a sweetie!!! :uhhuh:
[quote=“Alien”]I find it very interesting how the Chinese through thousands of years have so much ‘old wives tale’ knowledge of childbirth and baby care.
That is, if the flat head thing is due to their understanding of the danger of SIDS, how come westerners didn’t cotton on to this until recently? Also, the whole “jyou yeh tz” thing seems evident of their understanding of post partum depression that has only recently in the west brought any attention.[/quote]
I think there’s some truth to this - I actually think it’s the Western culture which led the divergence from the ‘traditional’ norm in regards to many aspects of childcare. In pursuit of science it could be argued we went too far and are now only starting to come back again - co-sleeping, back sleeping, natural birth, breastfeeding. Also times have changed - in the old days the extended family would have been around to help mother and child in early days, but that’s increasingly rare in the ‘independent’ West so mums don’t get the support they have traditionally had.
[quote=“Spack”]Can a baby get a flat head from sleeping on his/her back? Absolutely!
Do a search on Google for [color=blue]‘positional plagiocephaly’ [/color]and see what comes up.[/quote]
Y’know Spack, sometimes I think you don’t bother reading my posts 
Now I have to resist the temptation to walk around checking out people’s heads… 
Sure I read it, daasgrrl. I was backing up your comments if anything.
My comment was in response to MT who said:
It’s not a criticism of MT’s comment; I’m just saying that there’s no doubt, IMHO, that most Taiwanese have flat heads because of their habit of sleeping on their backs as babies. 
Please reread what I wrote – I didn’t recommend the bands or helmets. Also note that I am not trying to give medical advice here, just stating my personal take on the situation; I’ve never had cause to worry about or look into SIDS.
Ooops. I’ve been misunderstood twice in this thread. I was just kiddin’ with you Mapodurian, I didn’t think you personally were recommending that babies wear helmets – the idea seems ridiculous to me and I figured you probably felt the same way. I was just kidding about babies wearing protective gear to bed.
And Spack, I know that some doctors apparently say sleeping on the back can cause a baby to have a flat head and I don’t deny that may be true. Some flat heads may be caused by that. But it seems to me that a very large percentage of the Taiwanese people that I’ve seen have a head that is flat in back (I’d say more than 50%), whereas I never noticed that in the US, so I’d guess that only a very small percentage of people in the states have such a physical trait.
While some people in Taiwan may have flat heads from having slept on their backs as babies, I cannot believe that all are due to that. There are just too many flat heads here and too few in the US. Therefore, it’s my non-expert opinion that some people in the world may have flat heads from sleeping on their backs as babies, but I’m guessing that flatheadedness must be simply a common physical trait of Taiwanese (and maybe Chinese) people, just the same as black hair and almond shaped eyes.
You don’t really believe that all Taiwanese people whose heads are flat in back are that way due to backsleeping, do you? If so, do you believe Taiwanese babies sleep on their backs substantially more than western people? Or did I just not notice this in the states and a large percentage of westerners also have such a trait?
Some heads may be flatter than god planned because of too much pressure from back sleeping, but I think basically it’s just a physical trait common in East Asian people, like having black hair and black, almond-shaped eyes.
I think it’s tied into something that really surprised me the first time I heard of it. In China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan the stereotype is that white people have small heads, much smaller than Asians. Why do they think this? One reason is because of the different shape of their heads. The front AND the back is flat. (Admit it - Westerners often feel that Chinese people have a flat face.) White people have a rounder head. The most noticeable thing about someone is their face - if it is broad and flat, and thus bigger, then we just subconsciously think the whole head is bigger. I agree the average Asian face is bigger than the average white person’s - try actually comparing them in a photo, choosing people about the same height and weight, and I think you’ll agree the Asian face is larger - but I don’t agree this means the average Asian head is bigger.
By the way, Asians’ stereotype that white people have a smaller head, on average, than an Asian IS just a stereotype - I offer two pieces of evidence. 1. Have you tried buying a baseball cap or other hat here? Every time I’ve ever tried to in Asia, all available sizes have been too small. Hat size is one thing unlikely to be influenced by how fat you are, so … 2. Scientists have researched this, and the consensus (admittedly, the research was done a long time ago, when Western scientists cared about such things) was that white people have the biggest brain cases, Asians are next, and black people have the smallest.
There are different models of motorcycle helmet produced for ‘Western’ and ‘Asian’ heads. The former are longer from front to back: the latter wider.
Thanks for the info. More evidence that the Asian belief that white people have small heads is just an optical illusion, and further evidence that Taiwanese have flat heads at least partly because of genetics.
Genetics may very well play a role in ‘flat headedness’ (for want of a better term!) but how much of a role is impossible to know without doing a study.
First you could conduct a study to investigate the effects of sleeping position on flatheadedness.
Method
Get a bunch of mums with newborns and give them a questionnaire to see which are ‘back sleepers’, which are ‘side sleepers’ and which are ‘mixed sleepers’.
Then assess flatheadness at various ages and see if there were any significant correlations (if any) with the three sleeping groups.
Results
A strong positive correlation of back sleepers with flatheadedness as well as a strong negative correlation of side sleepers with non-flatheadness would indicate that sleeping position was the most important factor in flatheadedness.
If there was a significant correlation between side sleeping and flatheadness this would indicate that a factor other than sleeping postition was having an influence, possibly genetics.
[This is]…[color=darkred] further evidence that Taiwanese have flat heads at least partly because of genetics.[/color][/quote]
Eh? How is that evidence of genetics? How do you know the differences in head shape are not entirely due to differences in sleeping position?
My mother, 100% Taiwanese, told me that her parents’ generation considered flat-headedness more aesthetically pleasing than round headedness. In fact, not only did they purposely place the babies on their back, they watched and made sure the babies STAY on their back, reposition as needed to ensure the babies do not somewhat roll to their sides or stomach. For young infants, brain and skull are pliable. They will shape into flat shaped or round shaped depending on what they come in contact with. Skulls eventually harden when all the “plates” making up the skull grow together, and the two “soft spots” on babies heads disappear. Flat headedness is not genetically determined as the eye and hair characteristics. American Society of Pediatrics recommended babies sleeping on their backs OR sides about 9 years ago when my oldest child was born, by the time my second child was born 6 years ago, they had started the “BACK to sleep” campaign, recommending sleeping on back ONLY, the study being sited was a dutch (I think) study demonstrating SIDS incidence dropping by 80% after new parents adapted placing babies on their backs. As the percentage of population having flat heads, I quess that will only beome more evident after 2-3 generations of babies sleeping differently.
[This is]…[color=darkred] further evidence that Taiwanese have flat heads at least partly because of genetics.[/color][/quote]
Eh? How is that evidence of genetics? How do you know the differences in head shape are not entirely due to differences in sleeping position?[/quote]Spack is correct. It doesn’t matter for what reason head shapes are different, people still need a comfortably fitting motorbike helmet.
I really don’t know about the genetic thing. Of course when I found out that bike helmets come in Western and Asian models, I assumed it was genetic, but after this thread I’m not so sure.
Arabe is correct. However, one pertinent factor she left out is that the baby’s head was lying on a hard flat surface with no or little padding. I spent a few nights at the in-laws house sleeping on the platform bed and my head was always sore in the morning from the lack of padding or pillows!
You might find this link interesting. Its about head-binding in Vanuatu, Africa, Borneo and… um … France.
France? 