Janet Ogundepo To prevent suffocation and reduced blood flow to the brain, child health specialists have urged parents, particularly mothers, to refrain from back strapping or carrying their newborn until they are at least three months old. They explained that babies under two months old could only breathe through their noses, stressing that if a baby’s face and nose were pressed against their carrier’s back and there was no third party to help reposition their neck, such babies were unable to adjust their necks on their own, putting them at risk of suffocation and death. The experts agreed that while back strapping or back carrying babies was an age-long tradition in Nigeria and was a convenient position that allowed mothers to carry their babies and engage in other activities, doing so to babies less than three months was not advisable.
In exclusive interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, the experts further asserted that low birth weight and premature babies should not be back strapped. The seasoned paediatricians further noted that mothers should be trained on the appropriate clothing material, carriage and placement of babies on their backs to ensure safe positioning. They further noted that mothers who use the modern method of baby carrying, slings and baby carriers, should be taught the proper ways to tie and place their babies.
Providing expert insight into the matter, a Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the Bayero University, Kano, Kano State, Aminu Mohammad, while th.
