The Internet has seen a number of, let’s just say, controversial videos — from downright hilarious to let’s-call-the-cops crazy.
But just when you thought the world had seen the last of ‘crazy’ we have something that’ll leave a two-year-old swooning, literally.
Fifty one-year-old Russian Lena Fokina, a proponent of what she calls Baby Yoga, has shocked the Web after a video surfaced of her tossing and hurling infants, as young as two-months-old, by their limbs.
Her techniques have sparked both outrage and admiration — the latter because families are now calling up Fokina seeking help. Developed on the principles of fellow Russian Dr Igor Charkovsky, that such movements help babies develop natural reflexes and increase intuitive abilities, Lena claims she has been administering ‘baby yoga’ for over 30 years now. Operating mainly out of Egypt, many European parents of toddlers as young as a few weeks old to two year olds attend camps conducted by Lena and her assistants — the babies usually end up in their own vomit.
Unbelievably, India has its own examples of such a practice.
Ashwathy Zachariah, a corporate lawyer based in Pune and mother of a four-year-old girl, once took the help of a masseuse when her child was barely a few weeks old.
“She massaged my baby first and then lifted her by her head with just one hand and gently swayed her, claiming it to be good for her health. I was shocked when I saw it for the first time, but later got used to it.”
But then there’s the Shaken Baby Syndrome to worry about.
“I was shocked on seeing this video! The medical fraternity the world over is unanimous on the fact that babies must not be put through untested postures and movements. In fact, the famous practice of turning the baby upside down and smacking its bottom to make it cry as soon as it is born itself is being advised against,” says pediatrician and neonatologist Dr Deepa Hariharan.
But Fokina claims her methods were originally developed to ‘cure’ children with muscular or skeletal problems. She also claims the ‘swinging’ makes children early readers, writers and ‘artists’.
Dr Deepa, however, refuses to budge. “Children need their space to learn and adapt. Unless there is a need for their reflexes to be utilised, which is very rare, there is no need to develop or hone them.”
As for us? Well, Ms. Fokina, in the words of one of the greatest bands ever — Leave those kids alone!