REVIEW PAPER
Basics of physiological carrying babies
 
 
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1
Institute of Health Sciences, Collegium Medicum, the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Poland
 
2
Świętokrzyskie Center of Paediatrics, Kielce, Poland
 
 
Submission date: 2020-08-13
 
 
Final revision date: 2020-09-24
 
 
Acceptance date: 2020-09-25
 
 
Online publication date: 2021-04-20
 
 
Publication date: 2021-04-20
 
 
Corresponding author
Wojciech Kiebzak   

Institute of Health Sciences, Collegium Medicum, the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Poland
 
 
Pol. Ann. Med. 2021;28(1):94-98
 
RELATED ARTICLE
The corrigendum to this article was published on 2021-04-20
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
In the first year of life, the spine is very susceptible to various types of overload. During this period, it is extremely important to ensure optimal conditions for the physiological formation of curvature of the spine.

Aim:
The aim of the work is to present optimal ways of carrying infants, recommended by the authors.

Material and methods:
Using the keywords: ‘carrying children,’ ‘stacking babies,’ ‘moving babies,’ ‘carrying an infant,’ ‘stacking infants,’ ‘moving infants‘ the following databases were searched: ScienceDirect, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and ClinicalKey. Works published after 1990 were searched. The presented text describes the authors’ own experience gained throughout over 30 years of clinical work.

Results and discussion:
In the first year of life, manner of carrying a child should be adapted to the stage of its psychomotor development. During the first 4 months of life, the baby’s spine needs full support. Between 4 and 8 months of age, it is acceptable to carry the child vertically with relief from the spine. In the period when the child acquires ability to independently assume a sitting position and is able to control positioning of the torso in space, his body weight may rest on the tubers ischiale.

Conclusions:
(1) Proper way of carrying babies is important in the prevention of developmental coordination disorder in infants in the first year of life. (2) Periodical check-up of carrying position proper for a given stage of a child’s development is recommended.

FUNDING
This research was partially supported by: Project financed under the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education called ”Regional Initiative of Excellence” in the years, project no 024/RID/2018/19, amount of financing 11 999 000.00 PLN.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
None declared.
 
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