For the first time in twenty three years there is a baby in my family and it is of course lovely yada yada but I have been having amusing discussions with my mum and sister-in-law as they engage in their quest to mould the shape of my darling nephew’s cute little head!
He has, of course, a round head and they want to flatten it! He has been lying on a rice-stuffed pillow during this optimum stage of his life where his skull is maliable. Apparently the ancient Egyptians and Native Americans did this but since my family is neither and it is 2012 I am trying to intervene to preserve his rounded head (by picking him up and cuddling him constantly with the excuse that I will be in India soon and so won’t be able to spend time with him).
There seem to be cultural preferences for head shapes and some women can even tell which region of a country someone comes from by looking at the shape of the head: weird. On Mumsnet and Western forums there are support groups for parents with flat headed babies and treatments to ‘normalise’ the skull back to a round shape potentially through surgery or helmets and here my family is doing the opposite.
Flat head syndrome has become more common due to advice that babies should sleep on their backs to prevent cot death and babies that spend a lot of time in car seats are also prone.
Leave their heads alone!!
Bubbly
The Chatterjis Blog 