"Despite the family's objections to taking the baby to correct the head shape" "Use my experience to tell you the importance of the head shape"... Recently, on major social platforms, a wave of "children's head correction fever" has been set off.
A set of children's head correction "helmets" weighing about 200 to 300 grams and costing about 10,000 to 30,000 yuan are active in the sharing posts of parents.
Can correcting a "helmet" really save your baby's head shape? Is it necessary to use it? During the investigation, the reporter found that some children's head correction "helmets" sold on the market may not play a corrective role, and there are certain safety risks.
Looks anxiety starts from the "head"?
"The head shape affects the shape of the face, I told you with the lesson of blood!" On the Little Red Book platform, a mother shared her "blood and tear history" of parenting, "When I was young, I had no experience and did not pay attention to the problem of head shape, which led to the child sleeping with a flat head... Now I have an almost crazy obsession with roundheads, I must sleep roundheads! ”
Many parents rushed to leave a message of praise and recognition. This is not an isolated case, the reporter's query found that on major social platforms, there are many bloggers who share the "experience" of children's head shape correction, and some posts have appeared in a children's head shape correction "helmet".
"After wearing it for a month, the baby's head shape has obviously become rounded, and this month may have experienced a rapid growth period..." A mother said in a sharing post that she wore a "helmet" for the child from half a year old, and after wearing it throughout the day, it took a month to see obvious results.
Screenshot of the Little Red Book platform
This post has surpassed 4000 likes and 2448 favorites.
However, some netizens questioned: "Wearing a 'helmet' to correct the head shape of the baby, is it considered that the parents' appearance anxiety has been transferred to the baby?" "
"Why toss the child?"
Sina Weibo netizen comments
The reporter found that on the e-commerce platform, many merchants are selling children's head shape correction "helmets".
After consulting a businessman, the reporter was told that 4 to 8 months is the golden period of head correction, the earlier the better the effect, after more than 12 months the effect is slow, 18 months after unable to do any correction.
Screenshots of respondents
The merchant introduced to the future network reporter that the weight of the "helmet" is between 200 grams and 300 grams, and the cost ranges from 10,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan. "The helmet belongs to physical correction, and the internal material uses medical hypoallergenic foam, which is customized according to the child's head shape, and the fit is relatively good, and there will be no burden." The merchant swore.
Another businessman instilled a "sense of anxiety" to the future network reporter, the head shape not only affects the child's appearance, but also causes chain harm, affects the later brain development, and seriously affects intelligence.
Is it the anxiety of parents about appearance that has led to the emergence of the "helmet" of infant head correction?
In this regard, Chen Zhilin, a psychological intervention expert and a chartered counseling psychologist of the British Psychological Association, believes that parents should change their roles to look at themselves and their children, "When parents are surrounded by aesthetic anxiety, the victims are likely to be children, and adults' paranoid understanding of beauty may eventually be borne by children." "
Correcting the "helmet" or having a safety risk
Is the "helmet" of children's correction really have the magical effect of correcting the shape of the head as the merchant says?
In fact, consumers who have purchased corrective "helmets" have reported that the effect of use is average, and even some media have reported adverse reactions.
Mr. Huang, a parent in Nanjing who has used a head shape correction "helmet" for his children, once told the media that when his child was in kindergarten, he and his wife took the child to a local beauty and plastic surgery institution to consult about head shape correction.
"My daughter and I both have a bit of a biased head shape, and then we studied it and wanted to see if we could use an orthosis ." Mr. Huang said that after giving his daughter a "helmet" for less than a month, the family announced that they had given up.
The reason, Mr. Huang concluded, is that the effect is not obvious, and the second is that the long-term wearing of the "helmet" has caused the daughter to have an inferiority complex. "Her daughter wears a 'helmet' and the others around her don't, and she feels imperfect."
As for whether wearing a "helmet" has a physical discomfort reaction to the child, Mr. Huang said that the main psychological level is to feel "guilty".
Screenshot of Sina Weibo
It is worth noting that there are still certain safety risks in the use of corrective "helmets".
According to media reports, Nanchang consumer Ms. Wang gave birth to a pair of twin baby boys, although the child is healthy and lively, she has always been less satisfied with the child's head shape.
When the child was 4 months old, Ms. Wang took two little ones to an orthopedic institution in Nanjing and customized a corrective "helmet" for the two children, costing a total of about 6,000 yuan.
However, what Ms. Wang did not expect was that the "helmet" was worn for less than a month, and there was a problem. "The baby's left eye is pressed down, and he can feel a lump inside the eye. After reporting to the merchant, he did not ask me to hold the child to review or adjust, but polished the helmet by mail. "
Later, Ms. Wang took the child to the local hospital in Nanchang for examination, and found that the heads of the two children had different degrees of bulges on the top of their heads, and the head shape resembled "Ultraman". What is even more worrying is that when the child's head grows up, it may not be able to recover and must be treated by surgery.
Expert reminder: The child's head shape develops until puberty and does not need to be corrected
Corrective "helmet" has caused some netizens to question: the baby is still in the rapid stage of growth and development, is a fixed helmet suitable for growing babies? Will squeezing the head affect development?
In this regard, Yu Bo, director of the Department of Pediatrics of Chengdu 363 Hospital, said in an interview with the media that deliberate changes such as wearing a "helmet" for children and sleeping flat heads will affect the normal development of children's bones. "
First of all, it should be judged whether the problem with the head shape is the child's own disease. For example, a particularly large head shape may be hydrocephalus, and some small heads may be a manifestation of brain dysplasia. "
Yu Bo said that most babies do not need correctors at all, because most children will slowly become normal even if their parents do not interfere with their head shape growth.
He analyzed, "First, the baby's head has been growing and developing, basically until puberty will stop, from the time of birth to the head circumference of about forty centimeters, until puberty is basically fixed." If you wear a head orthosis very early, it may affect the development of the doll's skull.
Second, the head shape correction 'helmet' has a certain weight, if worn for a long time will affect the activity of the doll's head, some will also affect the doll's neck, especially the development of the cervical spine. "
A pediatric expert who did not want to be named told reporters that whether the baby needs to wear a corrective helmet is best judged according to the degree of flat head after the doctor's interview. "Within 6 months, the baby's skull is very soft and changes a lot, as long as there is not too much human intervention, it will slowly become a standard 'round head'."
Author | Future Network reporter Ling Meng Li Yingying
Source: Future Network