The dropping of infants can cause some serious problems. Unlike cats,
babies don't tend to land on their feet, and head injuries often
result from falls. Younger infants are the most likely to be dropped,
and it is not uncommon for major medical care to be required as a
result. This article provides some hard data on the subject:
University of Pennsylvania: STUDY REVEALS HOUSEHOLD FALLS MAY PRODUCE
MORE SEVERE BRAIN INJURIES IN INFANTS THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/whatsnew/brain-injuries.html
Another good article which gives some interesting statistics:
"The vast majority of injuries among infants are due to falls,
Canadian researchers reported Monday. What's more, nearly 22% of
injuries are severe enough to require major medical care...
Infants most often fell from furniture - 38 percent of falls. Fifteen
percent of falls occurred when a baby was dropped by a caregiver.
Falling down stairs, falling while in car seats or falling while in a
child walker also were major causes of injury, according to the
report... newborns to two-month-olds were much more likely to fall as
a result of being dropped, whereas falls from furniture occurred more
often among babies between 3 and 11 months old."
Cedars-Sinai Health Systme: Study shows falls leading cause of infant injury
http://12.31.13.115/HealthNews/reuters/NewsStory0407200311.htm
Here is the Canadian study to which the above article refers:
Pediatrics: Injuries Experienced by Infant Children: A
Population-Based Epidemiological Analysis
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/111/4/e365
This is anecdotal information, but I thought a true story might be of
interest to you: in 1954, my 6-day-old brother was leaving the
hospital with the family. This was a very active, squirmy baby. As my
father walked down the hospital steps toward the parking lot, he
dropped the kid, who then rolled down half a flight of concrete
stairs, coming to rest on the sidewalk. From the sound of his
squalling, it was obvious that my brother was very annoyed by this,
but the doctors couldn't find any evidence that there was any actual
injury. For the rest of his life, every time my brother said or did
anything dumb, we would make wisecracks about his having been dropped
on his head when he was six days old. My brother was, like most
members of my family, a bit wacky, but the fall didn't seem to impair
his intellect: he got his Bachelor's degree in physics when he was
only eighteen years old, and was offered several graduate
assistanceships, which he turned down in favor of a remarkably
lucrative job with an international corporation.
It's not surprising that Google searches using variations of "dropped
on the head" lead mostly to joking references. After all, "dropped on
the head" is a simple and easily-understood way to phrase this. A
neurologist would probably say "impacted on the cranial region" or
something with many more syllables. I tried to get around the
whimsical references by using several different search strings. These
are the ones that gave the best results:
Google Web Search: "head injuries" + "infants" + "dropping"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22head+injuries%22+infants+dropping
Google Web Search: "infant" + "injury" + "dropped" + "head"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=infant+injury+dropped+head
Google Web Search: "infant head injuries" + "dropped"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22infant+head+injuries%22+dropped
I'll close with a link to my very favorite head-dropping reference,
this verse by Dorothy Parker:
Marie of Roumania: Theory (By Dorothy Parker)
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme/marieofroumania/theory.html
Thanks for yet another interesting research project, Yesmam! Not
having been dropped on my head as an infant, I have spent most of my
life without a good excuse for my own intellectual failings. Now that
I am a "senior citizen," I can get away with blaming everything on
that dreaded condition, "hardening of the smarteries." ;-)
Best,
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