Text | Little Tree Mom
Some time ago, we shared the topic of "what to do if a child has a conflict with his classmates at school", and many parents sighed: It is not easy to raise a child safely and healthily.
Indeed, to raise a child, parents should consider all aspects, and the child's physical and mental health must be guaranteed.
What I want to tell you today is a problem that children can easily ignore when they go to interest classes, especially when learning dance.
An action
The child never stood up again
In March 2018, Sugar Sugar, a 6-year-old girl in Yan'an, was sent to a dance class by her grandmother to learn to dance.
Usually, they arrived home around 12:30, but on that day, at 12:40, there was no shadow of Sugar Sugar and Grandma.
Later, my mother learned that something had happened to Sugar Sugar.
She fell while doing her lower back movements in dance class. Sugar Sugar stood up and tried to continue dancing, but she fell down again, and the teacher walked over and tried to get her to get up, but the child still couldn't stand up...
By the time Sugar Sugar's mother arrived at the hospital, Sugar Sugar could no longer move.
She was diagnosed with a spinal cord injury, no consciousness below her chest, and unable to move. After more than 4 months of rehabilitation at Xi'an Children's Hospital, Sugar Sugar has some consciousness.
But she was still severely paralyzed, unable to walk upright, and could only be accompanied by a wheelchair in the future, and the possibility of a cure was minimal.
The thought of a 6-year-old child having to be in a wheelchair all her life, Sugar Sugar's mother is full of remorse.
But the misfortune of sugar sugar is not accidental, because there are many children who are paralyzed by the lower back due to practicing dance.
The "In the Human World" column also reported the experience of a 10-year-old girl in Chengdu Yueyue.
Yue Yue also fell to the ground while practicing lower back in the dance class, and was eventually diagnosed with paralysis of both lower limbs and permanent damage to the spinal cord.
Like Sugar Sugar, she also has to spend her life in a wheelchair after the age of 10.
Image source network
At first, Yue Yue and her parents could not accept this reality, but after several months of going to seek medical treatment, the family tried all the home remedies that could be formally treated, and spent almost all the family savings, but Yue Yue's two legs were still unconscious, and they slowly realized: Yue Yue was really paralyzed...
The director of the rehabilitation department of Xi'an Children's Hospital, who treats sugar sugar, said that they can probably treat nearly 10 cases a year, and this kind of spinal cord injury caused by dance lower back, only in the first half of the year, there are 4 cases, all of which are about 5-8 years old.
Beijing Bo'ai Hospital also has a data:
In the five years from 2015 to 2019, they treated 78 children who recovered from spinal cord injuries caused by exercise. Of these 78 people, there are actually 75 children, all of whom are caused by lower back.
These children, all of whom are girls, and 70% of them have a complete spinal cord injury, which means that they have a zero chance of being cured of severe paralysis of both legs.
5 years and 75 children, an average of 15 girls per year due to severe paralysis due to lower back, this is just the data of Beijing Bo'ai Hospital. I dare not imagine how many children are taking the unknown risk of pain because of the action of the lower back.
Why lower back,
So much harm to the child?
Why is it that just a dance, the child is paralyzed? And now that medicine is so developed, even doctors can't save it?
This also starts from the child's physiological characteristics.
In the cognition of many people: the child's body is "soft", flexible and strong, and can be pressed more and pulled.
There is even a saying that many of the movements in dance are "tongzi gong", which are not practiced when they are young, and they can no longer be practiced when they grow up.
But in fact, due to the child's young age, the spine has not yet developed well, and the protection of the spinal cord by the spine is not complete.
It is precisely because children's spines are soft that they may not feel anything when they are lowered or excessively squeezed, and most children can withstand it.
However, the spinal cord is overwhelmed by stress and can be edemated or injured in excessive squeezing.
As we all know, the spinal cord is the center of the nervous system, and once the nervous system is destroyed, it is difficult to be repaired. The child's lower limbs do not feel, paralysis is difficult to heal.
Spinal cord injury brings more than just child paralysis.
Many children, because the lower limbs do not feel, lose the ability to move, but also accompanied by many complications, such as urinary tract infections, hydronephrosis, urinary and urinary incontinence, muscle atrophy and so on.
Fractures and burns are also common.
Children in the growth and development period, due to less exercise, internal organs, digestive function will slowly weaken...
An improper lower back movement is likely to ruin a child.
Irregular institutions
Lack of professional teachers
Aggravates the child's harm
Professional dance training, including lower back movements, is generally recommended for children to start after the age of 10-12.
This is because the professional dance movements are intense and the training takes a long time, which is not good for the growth and development of children.
After 10-12 years old, the child's muscles, joints, and nervous system are basically mature, the child's balance is better, and the injury is relatively not easy to occur.
Even the "Chinese Dance Grade Examination" commonly used in many places, level 5 and below, is strictly forbidden for children to lower their waists, and only examine children's common kicking, foot pressing and other movements.
In the sixth level, the more difficult movements such as the lower back will appear, which is suitable for children aged 9-11.
But many dance training institutions, either to look professional, or for the sake of admissions, have advanced such professional movements as the lower back.
There are also dance institutions, because of the lack of professional guidance, when the child accident occurs, the teacher will contribute to the child's secondary injury because of ignorance.
In 2018, Lele, a 5-year-old girl in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, learned a new movement in a dance class - after lowering her waist, she fell.
At that time, LeLe rested for a while, and the teacher asked her if she wanted to continue practicing, and Lele agreed and practiced in pain.
It wasn't until the end of the dance class that LeLe couldn't help but be in pain, curled up in the corner of the wall and cried, trying to sort out the cushions while crying, and fell twice in a row, and the teacher noticed her.
The teacher did not realize the seriousness of the matter at all, they interrogated Lele for a period of time, and then gave Lele a massage such as leg rubbing and waist rubbing...
In the recognized treatment of spinal cord injury, it is advocated not to touch the injured area.
The American Society for Acute Spinal Cord Injury has also come up with an "8-hour golden emergency period":
If a child has spinal cord injury, within 8 hours, treatment with hormone shock can greatly reduce the chance of sequelae such as paralysis.
However, many teachers in dance institutions do not understand the physiological structure of children due to lack of professionalism; when children do these movements, there is no protective measures; when children fall down and even cry out in pain, they do not even have the most basic judgment.
This has led to the vast majority of children, will miss the best treatment period, or even suffer secondary injuries, directly into a complete spinal cord injury, a lifetime of paralysis.
Dance, is it impossible to learn?
As an art of expressing beauty and interpreting beauty, many children will love dance.
Lu Yisheng, doctoral supervisor of Beijing Dance Academy and vice chairman of the China Dancers Association, once wrote an open letter to dance teachers:
He said in the letter: Dancing ≠ practice, aesthetic education≠ dance skills training, they are two different things.
Most parents let their children learn to dance, the original intention is to hope that the child can practice body shape, improve temperament, and do not want to let the child take the professional route.
Such a difficult action as the lower back does not have to be forced. But the terrible thing is that in the eyes of many parents and even teachers, it is the basic skill of learning dance.
At the end of the day, getting children to learn to dance is the icing on the cake, but physical health is always the first priority.
I wouldn't object to children learning to dance, just thinking:
As parents, should we be more cautious when screening institutions?
Shouldn't we learn a little theoretical knowledge and help our children use their efforts in a more appropriate place?
When the child begins to ache and resist, should we think about the original intention and respect the child's talent and choice?
A child, for a family, means hope, but also means the future, and the weight in the family is very heavy.
If the child blindly practices the lower back, resulting in lifelong disability, the child and the parents may not be able to let go of it for the rest of their lives.
There are children who learn to dance at home, parents must be vigilant against the action of "lower waist", do not let it ruin the child's life.