Helmets for walking babies

enigma ) writes:
bumping the head rarely causes brain damage, especially in
infants. babies/toddlers bump tier heads with amazing
frequency. some even bang thier heads on purpose. they are not
giving themselves brain damage.
*i* even bump my head fairly regularly (there's this one heat
duct in the basement that's just about forehead height at one
end...). it hurts, & i've lost a rather large chunk of
skin/hair on it, but it doesn't cause brain damage. it takes a
pretty traumatic blow to do that.

I'm not convinced. What makes you believe that?
I believe that large bumps to the head cause large,
noticeable amounts of brain damage, and that small bumps
cause small amounts of brain damage that may not be
noticeable enough to see that they were caused by the
bump but may still affect the person's behaviour and
intelligence. I'm not sure. I think there may be a
size of bump below which no brain damage occurs
(or maybe tiny amounts of brain damage occur even with
tiny bumps). I don't know what size of bump that is,
and I don't think anybody else knows, either. I'm not
sure of that, either -- maybe somebody has figured that
out. But just because somebody says a bump is too small
to cause brain damage doesn't convince me, even if it's
a brain damage expert. I'd have to hear what experiments
they had done to establish that. They may just mean
the bump was too small for them to expect to see
noticeable brain damage that they can easily attribute
to that bump.

How do you know you don't have brain damage? I also
tend to bump my head a lot. I taught myself to be
aware of where things are so that I wouldn't bump
my head so much. It seems to have worked, but I'm
afraid I may be heading back into an over-confident stage
where I don't worry about bumping my head because it
never happens any more so I might get less aware and
start bumping again. The idea has occurred to me that
brain damage could possibly have contributed to having
a habit of bumping the head. I think that's one of those
things we'll probably never know.

I've seen a helmet for babies, I'm pretty sure. It was
lighter than a bike helmet. It had only flexible styrofoam-like
stuff and no hard outer shell. For the kinds of bumps you
expect from falling from a standing position you don't
need as much of a helmet as for collisions with cars or
falling off bikes at high speed. The helmet for babies
could even be shaped more like a headband, with nothing
on top; that's assuming you expect certain parts of
the head to be more likely to hit the ground.

OP: you could try contacting Teresa Gallagher; her son had
a helmet, though he may have been older, about 4 years old.
He needed it for things like falling off playstructures.
Her web page is http://borntoexplore.org.
--
Cathy Woodgold
http://www.ncf.ca/~an588/par_home.html
We are all Iraqis now.

(Catherine Woodgold) wrote in
:


enigma ) writes:
bumping the head rarely causes brain damage, especially
in
infants. babies/toddlers bump tier heads with amazing
frequency. some even bang thier heads on purpose. they are
not giving themselves brain damage.
*i* even bump my head fairly regularly (there's this one
heat
duct in the basement that's just about forehead height at
one end...). it hurts, & i've lost a rather large chunk of
skin/hair on it, but it doesn't cause brain damage. it
takes a pretty traumatic blow to do that.

I'm not convinced. What makes you believe that?

the brain is surrounded by fluid. that acts as a shock
absorber. it is also encased in bone, which is covered my
skin, all of which adds extra protection.
i don't see why you would think a little bump to the head
*would* cause brain damage. that's like saying bumping your
leg is likely to cause it to break... and that is not true
under normal circumstances either.

I believe that large bumps to the head cause large,
noticeable amounts of brain damage, and that small bumps
cause small amounts of brain damage that may not be
noticeable enough to see that they were caused by the
bump but may still affect the person's behaviour and
intelligence.

my brother was in a car accident, where he suffered a head
trauma to the point the hospital had a pressure gauge attached
to his head. they monitor the brain swelling because after a
certain point it does cause damage. however, in my brother's
case it did not. absolutely no change in personality or
intelligence. he is, however, more careful driving on wet
leaves in heavy rain...

How do you know you don't have brain damage?

do you know any people with brain damage?

I've seen a helmet for babies,

yes, there are helmets for babies. they are a prescription
item for babies with muscle tone issues, balance issues, & um,
brain damage. they're pretty expensive. one of the kids in my
son's early intervention playgroup had one. she has numerous
problems.
lee
--
war is peace
freedom is slavery
ignorance is strength
1984-George Orwell

enigma ) writes:
the brain is surrounded by fluid. that acts as a shock
absorber. it is also encased in bone, which is covered my
skin, all of which adds extra protection.
i don't see why you would think a little bump to the head
*would* cause brain damage. that's like saying bumping your
leg is likely to cause it to break... and that is not true
under normal circumstances either.

I hope I'm not scaring the OP, who might wish to skip
this part of the thread.

The brain is composed of a delicate, jelly-like substance.
It's not hard like bone. Bumping a bone doesn't break it;
in fact, bumps send a signal to the bone to grow stronger.
But shaking the jelly-like material of the brain does
damage it. I'm not sure whether there's a lower limit
below which shaking doesn't damage it. The reason the
brain is surrounded by fluid and bone is to provide some
protection, because it needs it. In spite of these
protective layers, bumps cause sudden acceleration of
the brain, which pulls on it the way putting it in
a centrifuge would.

People who do boxing (professional head-hitters) suffer
brain damage. Maybe one hit doesn't cause enough brain
damage that it can be measured, but over time, after many
fights and many hits on the head, they experience a noticeable
amount of brain damage. (At least some of them. Or so
I've been told.) I think it's reasonable to conclude from
this that one hit does cause some brain damage.

my brother was in a car accident, where he suffered a head
trauma to the point the hospital had a pressure gauge attached
to his head. they monitor the brain swelling because after a
certain point it does cause damage. however, in my brother's
case it did not. absolutely no change in personality or
intelligence. he is, however, more careful driving on wet
leaves in heavy rain...

I don't think you can know that there was no change in
personality or intelligence. There could have been a small
change that you didn't notice. There may not have been brain
damage due to swelling, but there may have been brain damage
due to the sudden acceleration that occurred at the time
of the injury.

In the book "Healing ADD", Daniel Amen says that he noticed
that a large proportion of the people who came to him for
treatment for ADD had scars on their faces. He used brain
scans to show unusual brain activity near sites of brain
injuries, and he also found a lot of people with regions
in their brains of unusual activity level (higher or lower
than average) which don't correlate with any known injury
but which could well have been caused by a bump on the
head that everybody has forgotten about.

--
Cathy Woodgold
http://www.ncf.ca/~an588/par_home.html
We are all Iraqis now.

"Catherine Woodgold" wrote in message
...

enigma ) writes:
bumping the head rarely causes brain damage, especially in
infants. babies/toddlers bump tier heads with amazing
frequency. some even bang thier heads on purpose. they are not
giving themselves brain damage.
*i* even bump my head fairly regularly (there's this one heat
duct in the basement that's just about forehead height at one
end...). it hurts, & i've lost a rather large chunk of
skin/hair on it, but it doesn't cause brain damage. it takes a
pretty traumatic blow to do that.

I'm not convinced. What makes you believe that?
I believe that large bumps to the head cause large,
noticeable amounts of brain damage, and that small bumps
cause small amounts of brain damage that may not be
noticeable enough to see that they were caused by the
bump but may still affect the person's behaviour and
intelligence. I'm not sure.

Which makes all of these conclusions a bit
irresponsible.


P. Tierney

"Catherine Woodgold" wrote in message
...

enigma ) writes:
the brain is surrounded by fluid. that acts as a shock
absorber. it is also encased in bone, which is covered my
skin, all of which adds extra protection.
i don't see why you would think a little bump to the head
*would* cause brain damage. that's like saying bumping your
leg is likely to cause it to break... and that is not true
under normal circumstances either.

I hope I'm not scaring the OP, who might wish to skip
this part of the thread.

The brain is composed of a delicate, jelly-like substance.
It's not hard like bone. Bumping a bone doesn't break it;
in fact, bumps send a signal to the bone to grow stronger.
But shaking the jelly-like material of the brain does
damage it. I'm not sure whether there's a lower limit
below which shaking doesn't damage it. The reason the
brain is surrounded by fluid and bone is to provide some
protection, because it needs it. In spite of these
protective layers, bumps cause sudden acceleration of
the brain, which pulls on it the way putting it in
a centrifuge would.

People who do boxing (professional head-hitters) suffer
brain damage. Maybe one hit doesn't cause enough brain
damage that it can be measured, but over time, after many
fights and many hits on the head, they experience a noticeable
amount of brain damage. (At least some of them. Or so
I've been told.) I think it's reasonable to conclude from
this that one hit does cause some brain damage.

It isn't reasonable to conclude that at all. Heck, you
don't even know if the premise is true.

If one hit causes brain damage, then *all* boxers
are brain damaged since they've all been hit, more than
once. Most humans too, at some point in their lives.
And if one causes some brain damage, do two give
one twice as much damage? And three, three times?
I think that such a matter would require a more
scientific approach instead of using simple lay logic.

my brother was in a car accident, where he suffered a head
trauma to the point the hospital had a pressure gauge attached
to his head. they monitor the brain swelling because after a
certain point it does cause damage. however, in my brother's
case it did not. absolutely no change in personality or
intelligence. he is, however, more careful driving on wet
leaves in heavy rain...

I don't think you can know that there was no change in
personality or intelligence. There could have been a small
change that you didn't notice. There may not have been brain
damage due to swelling, but there may have been brain damage
due to the sudden acceleration that occurred at the time
of the injury.

And there may not have been.


P. Tierney

the last fall on the hardwood floor resulted in a hymatoma (sp?) on the

head, I put blankets all over the floors but this one takes off right
away,
this why I am so worried

I would think that the blankets would make the hardwood floor more
slippery, no? He'll be fine without a helmet. A few bruises won't hurt
him.

JennP.

"JennP." wrote in message
oups.com...
the last fall on the hardwood floor resulted in a hymatoma (sp?) on the

head, I put blankets all over the floors but this one takes off right
away,
this why I am so worried

I would think that the blankets would make the hardwood floor more
slippery, no? He'll be fine without a helmet. A few bruises won't hurt
him.

JennP.

A hematoma is just a fancy medical name for a bruise. When my oldest son
was about 18 months I took him in for a check up and was so embarrased at
how many bruises he had I made a comment about how he (the ped) must suspect
child. He said that if he sees a child without bruises at that age he
worries about the child being *overprotected* and not being allowed to
explore his environment and learn from his mistakes.

FWIW, my 10yo still hasn't learned not to run on the hardwoods in his socks.
;-)

Leigh

"Leigh Menconi" wrote in message
ink.net...

"JennP." wrote in message

oups.com...

the last fall on the hardwood floor resulted in a hymatoma (sp?) on the



head, I put blankets all over the floors but this one takes off right

away,

this why I am so worried



I would think that the blankets would make the hardwood floor more

slippery, no? He'll be fine without a helmet. A few bruises won't hurt

him.



JennP.



A hematoma is just a fancy medical name for a bruise. When my oldest son

was about 18 months I took him in for a check up and was so embarrased at

how many bruises he had I made a comment about how he (the ped) must
suspect

child. He said that if he sees a child without bruises at that age he

worries about the child being *overprotected* and not being allowed to

explore his environment and learn from his mistakes.



FWIW, my 10yo still hasn't learned not to run on the hardwoods in his
socks.

;-)



Leigh



I left out a word. It should read that the pediatrician must suspect *child
abuse*.

Leigh