Doesn’t your heart melt when you see pictures and videos of cute little babies? Their tiny feet, cute smile and chubby cheeks make it hard not to desire to hold them in your arms and give them a tight squeeze.
It is often tempting to pull your phone out of your pocket to snap photos and videos, and share it on social media feeds.
Most of us do these things innocently, without realising the dangers that lurk.
Say No to These 4 Dangerous Behaviours
#1: Allowing strangers to kiss your baby
This may sound crazy to you at first, but there were cases where infants died after being kissed. Here’s why. We adults carry the herpes simplex virus or HSV around our lips.
Common symptoms of this virus include cold sores or fever blisters around our mouth and lips. Mind you some of us who carry this virus may not show any symptoms at all.
While this virus does not bring any particular harm to adults, it can be truly fatal to babies who have weaker immune systems.
Once the virus is transmitted to babies through kissing, the virus can quickly take the form of viral meningitis—an inflammation of the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord.
This can lead to fever blister around their mouth, poor eating and eventually death. Though we understand that some may prefer to show their affection towards babies through kissing and touching, you should be the one who truly protects your babies.
Educate the people around you about the risks and dangers of kissing your babies. Limit the number of visitors entering your house during the first few months of delivery.
#2: Pinching your baby’s cheeks
Whenever we see cute little babies or animals, what comes to our mind first is always to squeeze, pinch or even bite them. Don’t worry, you are not a weirdo.
In fact, this is quite common and Science has something to say about this.
It is known as “cute aggression”, where we experience the urge to squeeze, crush or bite cute things without any desire to cause harm.
As innocent as it is, pinching them around their faces, especially their cheeks, is what you need to stop doing now!
As our newborns are in the process of development, pinching their faces will cause damage to their cheek pads. Yes, it is possible.
While impacting their ability to control the muscles of their mouths, your baby will experience excessive drooling too.
This will further cause excessive saliva to be present on their skin, which could lead to drool rash.
Your baby will then suffer from itchy, red spots around the mouth, cheeks and in the folds of the neck.
#3: Tossing your baby up in the air
When I was young, I saw my uncle tossing my little cousins high in the air and I thought it was cool and exciting. However, is it really cool and exciting? No, it isn’t. In fact, it is very dangerous behaviour.
Once you throw a baby up in the air, you are letting him/her out of your grasp. And thus, there is a risk of not being able to catch him/her.
Once your baby falls to the ground, he/she could suffer a skull fracture, internal bleeding and many more head and brain injuries.
Moreover, babies’ heads are proportionally big and they do not have enough control of their neck muscles. The act of tossing them up high in the air will lead to the possibility of whiplash and neck strain.
Your baby is also at risk of developing the shaken baby syndrome, if you constantly toss him/her up in the air. Your baby will then suffer bone, brain or eye trauma.
#4: Snapping and sharing your baby’s photos on social media
Here’s a rather shocking fact for us to reflect upon,
Studies suggest that kids will have over 1,000 pictures of them on social media well before they’re 5 years old.
Additionally, those pictures come with information about them. You might argue that you have set your social media accounts as private or are limiting access through the privacy setting, but here’s what you need to be aware of.
Once any photo is shared on social media, you should assume that it can get out of your control. The photos of your babies can be misused by other parties without your consent.
On a serious note, child phonography websites might take, photoshop and retouch the photos of your babies and children.
You should also be aware of leaking your babies’ personal information such as their full names and birthdates. Sometimes, we even give away home address with a geotagged photo, unintentionally.
Worry not, we are not asking you to stop sharing entirely on social media. Just give more thought to what you post.
With this, you also eliminate the possibilities of exposing personal information and issues that your child might be embarrassed about when they grow up.
Saying Goodbye To Dangerous Behaviour
Although some of these actions might seem quite common among parents and grandparents, we ought to stop doing these things to our babies.
Instead, opt for alternatives such as gentle play. Don’t ever let your pure intentions of showing affection cause harm to your baby.