I dunno how true this is

but i heard Mothers mould their babies head.

So people whose mothers didnt do this well have big heads, ogor and the likes

Misshapen heads really.

I was at a clinic sometime ago and i saw this baby, his head was beyong oblong

i mean!, it was like someone bashed it on one side.

i just thought, this child may never forgive his mumsi

lol. Gamine who told you that?

When babies are born, they are very soft, so they can be given dimples but moulding the head, lol. i dnt know abt that o

Yeap, Ur right dude. All heads are not shaped the same way. Ori olowo ni temi, yes oooo

Dimples too

It's not funny.  It is a foolish and[b] wicked[/b] idea.  

"Shaping" your baby's head could lead to permanent brain damage that will affect the child all his life.

Compared to brain damage, having an oddly shaped head is nothing.

So don't turn your baby or any other baby into a slowpoke without your doctor's written permission.

Thanks. We need more fully functional brains in Nigeria.

Yorubas do shapen the heads of their newly born babies. I don't know about other tribes. However, when the shape is okay at birth there may not be need but if it looks sort of odd, grandma or whoever bathes the baby moulds/shapens it to  correct it. _{But e dey some head wey no dey mouldable oh}

@Seun, haba it's not hammer that's used to shapen the head nah! Which one is brain damage in simply moulding a head? Ask you mum or grandmother if your head was not moulded at birth! Am sure the practice is more common among the Ijebus 

lol

Seun take chills abeg o


I watched my mum bath the youngest one of us

and she used to do some spongy squishing on her head

i guess that was the moulding!



and for the record, our heads are nicely formed

Seun is right. too many abuse jare.

why work your baby's head, tummy, hands, back, dimple, etc??

i have seen mothers doing the above to their children.

yes the shape of baby's head is oblong at birth but it later looks normal. all those do dos mothers take their baby's thru are unnecessary.

i have seen the one they press one kin hot leaf into the navel

chie

@titilaelae
Where in Ife do you live? I use to go there sometimes

lol@ogor
Nothing wrong with it as long as its done in moderation.a little pressing/ massaging with lukewarm water and towel wont harm the brain.
@Seun,hehe

Seun:

It's not funny. It is a foolish and[b] wicked[/b] idea.

"Shaping" your baby's head could lead to permanent brain damage that will affect the child all his life.

Compared to brain damage, having an oddly shaped head is nothing.

So don't turn your baby or any other baby into a slowpoke without your doctor's written permission.

Thanks. We need more fully functional brains in Nigeria.

I 100% agree with you.

@post
It's best if the babies are left the way they were born. Why try to mold what has been perfected?
As Seun said, tampering with the baby's head can/would lead to brain damage.
That's why most of your doctors would tell you to be care with the baby, to put ointment on his/her head, etc.
Babies are such fragile, innocent creatures, the best thing you can give them at that age is a watchful, caring heart.
Such lovely creatures

oh well

like what ify said

nothing wrong in massaging ooh!

abeg, if u do not have an idea abt sth, its beta to b quiet abt it, wats wit brain damage i am not yoruba, at all, but where i come frm , this is done and very well so,

actually, not all babies need it, truth is that at birth, the head takes an oblong shape to enable the baby come out and for some children, this corrects itself within days after birth, (my 1st child 4 instance) so that need not b done

but for others, esp if the baby had come at some point doing d birthing process b4 coming out completely, it becomes necessary , this is just some gentle moulding with d palm (my girl for instance, she's like 3 mths and i stil do it, ah, especially as i just came back frm home and had my eyes full of chidren with ogor, )

it is also recommended that d baby sleeps on her back ( make sure she burps after eating and is asleep a while),

Ah thanks!

A mother at last!

lol@ eyes full of children with ogor

omoge:

Seun is right. too many abuse jare.

why work your baby's head, tummy, hands, back, dimple, etc??

i have seen mothers doing the above to their children.

yes the shape of baby's head is oblong at birth but it later looks normal. all those do dos mothers take their baby's through are unnecessary.

i have seen the one they press one kin hot leaf into the navel

chie

The baby's hands are 'done' so that the baby's hand will be flexible to reach the back considerably when bathing/scratching the back as an adult. What have you seen? Haven't you seen a woman hold a baby's 2 legs up and head down after bath? What would you say to throwing a baby in the air (and of course catching it) to prepare him/her for shocks? What about shaping  baby girl's bum? Talking about dimples, I'm only aware of the ones made on the bum/lower back - aren't they cute? Hand-made dimples on the cheeks I don't know if those stick! As far as am concerned, none of these can be classified as abuse oh! Shay if your baby's nose comes flaaaaaat you wont use style to dey arrange am to point small, eh?

Moulding the head of a newborn ( Ori shishu in Yoruba ) is a traditional practice which could be quite dangerous .
     I think it's based on the fact that during delivery, to aid passage of the baby through the birth canal (ie vaginal delivery), the skull bones can readily overlap. This can give the baby's head a funny shape. However, there is a gradual return of the bones to normal position.
     In some cultures, however, they don't wait for this and they prefer to manually "re-arrange" the "ogo". Over-enthusiastic shaping of the head could affect the brain and lead to brain damage like Seun has said.

     The brain of the newborn is relatively large when compared with the adult. Meaning that any trauma to the cranium or skull could easily affect the brain.
     Let's also remember that the baby's brain is still developing and myelination (wrapping nervous tissue with a protective layer) of the nervous system is still actively going on especially in the first 2 years and even beyond. With this protective layer still under formation it would be best to avoid traumatising the delicate nervous tissue.
     Also if the underlying delicate network of veins under the skull is affected, it could cause bleeding (intracranial haemorrhage) which has resulted in the demise of many a newborn.

     I think if one was to choose between a child with "ogo" or a mentally retarded ( or even a dead ) child the choice would be obvious.
     The consequences of deliberately moulding your child's head could be dire. Please let's be careful not to damage our future heads (pun intended) in the guise of harmful traditional practises.

lol

if either of the parents got flat head, the baby will have same too.

if they have flat nose, same thing.

if it's the way the baby lies while in the womb, it will adjust itself. otherwise, nothing fix what you inherited 

abi o tell them to stop those things our forefathers did and some parents do to their babies.

what a baby needs is love and attention. not molding the head, nose, eyes and ears 

@Omoge,
Some people have been turned to ATUTUPOYOYO whilst their folks were experimenting with their faces!

I have nothing against our culture which is rich and diverse, but the instances in which some practises have been proven to be harmful should convince people to do away with such.

its just placebo
the only moulding that happens happen while the baby is traversing the birth canal.
and then its because of the extreme pressures put on the head in there,once the lil thing is out, the head is already formed!
if that were true, im sure people will have perfectly spherical heads! and there'll be head moulding specialists in the labor rooms.
come to think of it, it isnt such a bad idea. i imagine soaking some people's heads in warm water for a while and sending them for a remoulding.

lol.

I remember seeing this done to a baby sometime ago. It was done like dabbing the baby's head with towel and warm water, not just the head but the other parts of the body is also gently pressed into shape. Haven't heard any news that a baby got brain damaged because of it so I wonder what Seun is talking about. . Pls we can't afford to be miseducated on such vital issues.

na wa o

i can just imagine wats going on in some minds , LMAO

i 've seen it being done before ! and the baby did not have any brain damage or other health issues

lawdy! _{the thing wey mordernisation go cause for this land?} 

shey o

me iv neva heard of the brain damage o!!

i can't stop lauging at most of the theories people post about babys head. you are all right but let us embellish it.
the baby comes out with a head that is yet to completely close because of what we call SUTURES LINES. however, unless or otherwise the babys head is under tension as in HYDROCEPHALUS, the sutures lines soon become closed after birth. that is why you have the dimple in front and at the back of the head which closes over a specific range of time. you can hardly influence the baby head by the so called moulding because the suture lines even when they are not closed don't leave enough room for any manipulation. the brain is very delicate and significant pressure on the head can easily lead to brain damage, what we call cerebral palsy which is a non progressing albeit permanent damage to the brain cells. the woman that said she moulds her babys head after 3 months will achieve exactly nothing apart from punishing the poor child. do you know that a lot of baby develop cerebral palsy simply because a lot of pressure were mounted on their head during child birth. if the baby is having hydrocephalus, please see your doctor,
if you need further clarifications, feel free to ask

@helpee
but i was told that cerebral palsy is usually caused by jaundice
i dont about this moulding stuff of yours

jaundice can be a cause so to say.
the yellowness you see in jaundice is usually due to bilirubin a substance that is released when you break down red blood cells. in babies the bilirubin when released in excess can cross the blood brain barrier and attach to brain cells causing what we call kernicterus thereby leading to permanent brain damage, cerebral palsy.
but that is just one of the causes, there are several other causes one of them is what i described earlier. cheers.

@poster

I learnt this in history - u mean they still practice this in this day and age

hmm

Well, i dunno if its done now

i saw my mum do it about 13yrs ago

and my sis turned out fine