Visited a booth at my farmer’s market where the mom working was wearing her baby in a sling on her back. This kid’s neck was as far back as it could go. We mentioned it to the mom, and she just said “yeah, her head’s been bobbing around all morning.”
I don’t know the baby’s age. And I don’t know much about babies. Based on the first time I saw her, she’s at least seven months old. I know that newborns’ necks need to be supported. And I know that having your neck in that position can cause a stroke in adults.
It made my mom so uncomfortable she had to walk away, but the people behind us talked to the woman and said nothing about it. Should this be reported to someone? Or is it totally normal and fine?
As you correctly wrote newborns/very small babies heads need to be supported urgently - the head to body ratio of babies is very different from older kids and sadly the neck muscles are not that developed in utero. (Dark note: One of the reasons it was not uncommon - and still happens extremely rarely with underqualified healthcare providers- that newborns were sometimes decapitated when trying to facilitate a forceps birth 70+x years ago) Failing to do so can lead to various injuries, from muscular overextension (painful,can lead to chronic issues), ligament or nerve damage (can paralyse) or even vascular damage. I have seen a kid who suffered a fatal vascular damage from a sudden “falling back” of the head after insufficient support was provided and two more with rather complicated injuries - while these cases are super rare,they happen. (And kids are not all the same. My own kid came out and lifted its head 2h after birth and tried to roll onto its belly before we left hospital. Others take months just for the first thing)
When they get older this becomes less of an issue, but they are still suspectable to another thing: External force and exhaustion. It’s a big difference between a kid sitting in a stroller or being on a flat surface and holding its own head and a kid being forced to stabilise its head against external movement by the carrier moving around, especially over longer periods of time. This can,in some rare cases even lead to the classic “shaken kid” syndrome (where repeated acceleration and deceleration rupture small vessels within babies brain,leading to a often fatal haemorrhage within the skull). I am fairly sure I read a case report once that reported about a case of a kid who suffered this while Mom was jogging with a unsuitable backpack like carrier, but sadly as PubMed is down at the moment (thank you,Orange and Elmo) I can’t find it.