To worry about the safety of baby headbands?

[CatThiefKeith]

A few women in my friendship group and/or with children in dd's class have had baby daughters recently, and have all been putting flowers and bows on their babies heads. They have all been bought from a local seller on FB I believe.

AIBU to worry that:

1. They may not conform to safety standards and therefore pose a choking risk and

1. It will be 30 degrees here by Monday, the poor little mites might overheat.

Headbands are similar too, but slightly larger than the ones shown.

Everyone judges. Those of you accusing others of being "judgey" are being judgmental yourselves about posters who think the bands are not an enhancement.

I watched Living on Benefits tonight

For what it's worth, I don't like the giant flowery ones, so it's not your opinion I have an issue with, ailith it is your attitude and rudeness.

Lovely

The NHS guidelines advise that cot bumpers are unsafe and pose a risk but are still on sale so it doesn't follow that unsafe = recall of product.

YANBU. They're ridiculous and restricting, just like pram shoes!

Normally seen on babies who don't look like girls in my experience, that's not me being mean, merely an observation.

Wordsaremything Mon 18-Jul-16 22:00:03
What's the equivalent of this tasteless horror for a male infant? A scud missile model stuck jauntily behind the ear?

Haha - I laughed out loud! Brilliant

And Thumbwitches - the photo you selected is the exact equivalent - also brilliant!!

Absolutely horrible tacky things!!!

It's one thing not to like them and another to be a catty bitch about it.

Plenty of people not covering themselves with glory on this thread.

Normally seen on babies who don't look like girls in my experience, that's not me being mean, merely an observation

Babies look like babies, unless you see their genitals. You decide based on clothes, colours and other hints, there is no way to simply look like a girl or a boy at that age.

Rude?! The irony.

Doesn't bother me because a)I don't believe any dr said that

thanks for calling me a liar.

I got a referral from my dr after my young daughter has positional plagiocephaly. He advise me to do several things to help the shape of her head, and several things NOT to do to help the shape of her head. One of those was to avoid head bands such as those being discussed here, until such a time that her plates stopped moving. If lying on a soft mattress can affect the way her plates were positioned, it isn't a massive leap to think that a tight headband could.

http://www.kidspot.com.au/health/family-health/safety/beware-the-baby-headband This article] shows that a baby almost died choking on part of a baby headband made by a large clothing chain here in Australia, their product was recalled as a result, so I can only imagine that the Facebook seller ones could present similar danger.

http://www.kidspot.com.au/health/family-health/safety/beware-the-baby-headband hopefully clickable link.

Yes WheretheFuck* Babies have very sensitive skulls, their bones are not properly fused together.

Also quite a few people don't watch their babies properly so it's best not to risk leaving them with things that they could harm themselves with.

Surely though if a headband is a problem for skull development then so is a hat?

And this article goes into quite detailed reasoning as to exactly why baby headbands can be really quite dangerous. No bullshit or opinions on aesthetics, just facts.

https://www.byregion.net/cgibin/users/articles_viewer.pl?id=4668

This part in particular, explains it well:

"Placing a beanie hat or headband on a baby may be a modern style choice that has the same consequences. However, today we can see the later issues that can develop from pressure applied to the developing brain.

To move the bones in an adult skull requires 5 grams of pressure, which is the weight of a nickel. To move the bones in an infant’s skull requires less than one gram of pressure. Premature infants require a small fraction of a gram.

The weight of an infant’s head on a soft surface is enough to change the shape of the skull and the position of the bones. This is why children suffering from torticollis or tightness around the dural tube which prevents movement of their head from side to side will cause the head to become flat.

Today doctors prefer to avoid forceps and vacuum deliveries because the pressure they create can cause many problems from misshapen head to brain damage and an assortment of symptoms of developmental issues and developmental delay in between.

Many people will argue the headbands and beanies are not tight. No, to an adult they seem soft and stretchy but to a delicate infant they apply considerable pressure. Everything is relative. Adults may pick up a 10 lb weight and it is nothing, but would you expect the baby to be able to pick up 10 lbs? No. The baby will only be able to lift a few ounces. But the adult does not expect the child to lift the weight so why do they expect the child to bear the excessive pressure that to an adult is no pressure at all? It is the same difference.

To stay on, beanies and headbands must exert more than one gram of pressure, therefore it is effecting brain development. If there is a red mark on the skin, too much pressure has been exerted. How long does it take for that red mark to go away? That is an indication of how tight that felt to the baby. If there is an indentation on the head, it was much too tight and the baby probably developed a headache from the experience but was unable to complain in adult language and people just say they are being fussy.

Not all children will show overt signs of skull compression while in others the results can be severe. Much will depend on how often pressure is applied and for what period of time it is applied. It will also depend on if there are other imbalances in the body such as tightness in the dural tube, misalignment of the spine, imbalance of the pelvis or any other restriction which has caused the body to be out of balance. The compression will affect the weakest areas of the skull, the areas where the bones may not be in quite the proper position or where the suture is not the strongest or where the pressure is uneven because of other imbalances. The bones may either be moved out of position or compressed to the point where they overlap and apply even more pressure on the brain. This can cause huge problems for the developing child."

The hat will not have that amount of elastic in it, surely. It will have been made properly by people who have a specialist knowledge of baby-wear.
I have never actually examined one of those headband things but I presume they are stretchy.
Consider how the stretchy band at the top of a sock can feel uncomfortable at times and then imagine how this stupid band thing feels to the child who has to wear it.

Surely depends on the hat? I've certainly seen baby hats with elastic on them. Where's the criteria for 'too much'?

True Alith The little sun hats are not tight at all (we're talking for young babies) They need good sunshades as well or instead of hats anyway.

quite a few people don't watch their babies properly so it's best not to risk leaving them with things that they could harm themselves with.

Surely that's an issue with parenting and not the headbands though?

Well hairbands ARE "something that can harm a baby" An other poster had evidence of a baby who has choked on one. Let alone the problem with an under 3 month year old's skull. See WhereThe Fuck's post.

You do know that just because someone posted it, it doesn't make it true? Believe it or not MN is not gospel.

Sunhats that I have seen (so obviously not all of them by any means) have been cotton bucket style ones, with no elastic in them. The article is talking about beanies, which are woollen hats that would have some stretch-and-grip in them. Putting elastic in them would probably be overkill, as they rely on the knit to hold them onto the head, but usually that would then exert a small amount of pressure.
The sunhats would only have weight, not elasticity, so not comparable.

ppeatfruit, people will pay attention to what suits them, and not necessarily to hard facts.

Unless the woman in the first article I linked to is lying, and Best and Less withdrew one of their accessories Australia wide for absolutely no reason, then yes, the headbands most certainly can and do pose a choking risk (baby in question was in their pram in a bank line up, so in no way dumped on their own while wearing the accessory).

And the other article is credited to government health websites (US) as well as Wikipedia and the website of a clinical institute which specialises in, amongst other things, craniosacral therapy, so not exactly Joe Public.

But like I said, people often aren't interested in things that they don't want to hear. After all, "I like them, and they look pretty, so there!"

Oh and I was obviously talking shit when I said earlier that in actual fact, the adult ones I was bought when I was chemo bald, did cause me to sweat and overheat. Obviously.