Category: Babies
Foot in Brain
A colorado surgeon found a tiny foot, hand, thigh, and parts of an intestine growing inside the brain of a 3-day-old baby. DenverChannel.com has a picture of the brain-foot.It's not clear whether this was a case of "fetus in fetu" (a fetus growing inside its twin) or fetiform teratoma (a kind of tumor).
Wikipedia has a good article on Teratomas, noting that teratomas have been reported to contain "hair, teeth, bone and very rarely more complex organs such as eyeball, torso, and hand." There was even one case of a mature teratoma being "reported to contain a rudimentary beating heart."
For your entertainment, here's a photo (from Wikipedia) of a cystic teratoma containing hair.
Couvade Syndrome
Wikipedia offers this definition of Couvade Syndrome:Couvade syndrome is a medical/mental condition which "involves a father experiencing some of the behavior of his wife at near the time of childbirth, including her birth pains, postpartum seclusion, food restrictions, and sex taboos".
Another term for it is a sympathetic pregnancy. But some cultures take the concept a step further. From The Art of Folly by Paul Tabori:
In Brazil the new father is deliberately made ill. They use the sharp teeth of the aguti to gash his body. Then the wounds are washed with poisonously burning tobacco juice or a liquid in which black pepper has been mixed. The "father/mother" suffers duly while playing his strange role. In some other tribes he is subjected to a strict diet, not for days, but for weeks, during which he gets so little to eat that he becomes skin-and-bone. Among the Vaga-Vaga tribe, for instance, he is forbidden to eat bananas, coconuts, mangoes, sugar cane, poultry, pork, and dog meat.
No dog meat. That's rough. But my favorite Couvade ritual comes from the Huichol Indian tribe:
During traditional childbirth, the father sits above his labouring wife on the roof of their hut. Ropes are tied around his testicles and his wife holds onto the other ends. Each time she feels a painful contraction, she tugs on the ropes so that her husband will share some of the pain of their child's entrance into the world.
The thumbnail shows a yarn drawing owned by the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco that depicts this ritual.
Baby Laugh-a-Lot
Could this commercial have been the inspiration for The Exorcist?
Posted By: Alex | Date: Fri Nov 07, 2008 | Permalink |
Comments (15)
Category: Babies, Video, Advertising
Category: Babies, Video, Advertising
My Pee Pee Bottle
There are a number of reasons why "My Pee Pee Bottle" is a disturbing product. Reason #1: It looks WAY too much like a sippy cup. (Though there are some who say that urine drinking is healthy.)Reason #2: The instructions (and accompanying picture) are too explicit for my sensibilities. Isn't it obvious how a Pee Pee Bottle works?
Whatever happened to finding a bush to go behind?
(via 20 Strange and Funny Baby Products)
Babies On Parade
How did this fabulous event ever come to cease?
Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Sep 30, 2008 | Permalink |
Comments (14)
Category: Babies, Games, Parades and Festivals, Regionalism, 1950's
Category: Babies, Games, Parades and Festivals, Regionalism, 1950's
Molly Grows Up
Posted By: Paul | Date: Fri Sep 26, 2008 | Permalink |
Comments (17)
Category: Babies, Body Modifications, Domestic, Family, Children, Parents, Hygiene, Body Fluids, Sexuality, Gonads, Video, 1950's, Women
Category: Babies, Body Modifications, Domestic, Family, Children, Parents, Hygiene, Body Fluids, Sexuality, Gonads, Video, 1950's, Women
Baby High Heels
This must appeal to the same set of people who enter their six-year-old daughters in child beauty pageants. Yahoo! News has a video of a kid wearing these things. What about Baby Foot Binding next?
A Boy Today…A Man Tomorrow
Here at WU Central, we're all about providing useful knowledge to our eager readers, serving as a resource to help them with their perplexities.For instance, I cannot count how many times readers have written in with this question:
Well, now you need no longer live in darkness and confusion, as we present the scanned pages of a 1972 youth sex-education manual: A Boy Today...A Man Tomorrow. The cover is reproduced below, and the rest of the content after the jump.
On a semi-serious note: we've all seen sex-education materials from earlier decades that are full of prejudices and misinformation. While I have not yet read every word of the current sample, I found what I did read to be highly broadminded and useful and in line with current teachings. Note that the version here is a 1972 revision of a 1961 revision of a 1959 original. I'd love to have the earlier versions, to see the differences.
It's easy to make fun of the Sixties, but their legacy in such matters as this is truly exemplary.
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Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Aug 12, 2008 | Permalink |
Comments (19)
Category: Babies, Customs, Education, Family, History, Science, Psychology, Sexuality, 1970's, 1960's, 1950's, Men
Creepy life-like baby dollsCategory: Babies, Customs, Education, Family, History, Science, Psychology, Sexuality, 1970's, 1960's, 1950's, Men
An outfit called Reborn Baby sells painstakingly-built dolls, in aesthetic and biological detail, for, well, for practice in holding, maybe, or for cuddling, or for, well, there must be dozens of uses. Price ranges from the equivalent of about $500 to about $3,200. And, of course, the dark side: Last week in Australia, a Reborn Baby was left in a hot, locked car, and a passerby panicked and called the authorities, who broke down the window and rescued the "baby." (On the other hand, it seems perfectly OK to buy a Real Doll, at more than $5K a pop, because, well, Real Dolls are adults!)
Reuters // Courier-Mail (Brisbane) // Reborn-baby.com // [Not Safe for Work] RealDoll.com
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Category: Babies, Body Modifications, Medical