Sleep
The infant requires much sleep and for the first two or three days this sleep will be very deep. The ordeal of labor is very trying on the infant and in cases involving great labor difficulty the first sleep of the infant may be so profound that it may appear to be coma. This may last for several hours, but if there are no convulsions or contractures there is no occasion for alarm; otherwise, this might indicate an incoördination in the brain.
After this first deep sleep, and especially after the first month, the infant will not sleep so soundly, although the sleep will be quiet. The deep, heavy sleep of childhood will be observed after the second or third year. The healthy infant sleeps almost all the time during the first few weeks, usually from twenty to twenty-two hours out of twenty-four. After that and for the first six or eight months, he sleeps from sixteen to eighteen hours out of the twenty-four. The healthy infant a few weeks old will awaken only when disturbed or when hungry. A child one year of age should have at least fourteen hours of sleep and more would not be excessive. This sleep should be taken about twelve hours at night and the balance during the day. A child two years of age requires about the same amount. At four years, eleven to twelve hours may be sufficient. Up to six years of age the child should take a daily nap. Ten to eleven hours’ sleep is considered sufficient from the age of six to ten years. The youth up to sixteen or seventeen years of age should have not less than nine hours of sleep and even more will not be excessive.
The nervous mechanism of the infant is a very delicate organization and often the fond parents do the child an injustice by not giving due consideration to the environment surrounding him the first year of life. The greatest development of the brain takes place during the first two years. To have the proper development of the nervous system there must be a quiet environment and the elimination of anything that will excite the child or tend to create nervousness. If the child is unduly susceptible to noise and is irritable and nervous, cries out or is too easily startled, there is a cause for this and a very careful analysis should be given and the causative subluxations found and adjusted immediately. The nervousness may be due to some disorder such as gastric, intestinal indigestion, poor elimination or directly to a cervical subluxation.
Playing violently with the young child should not be indulged in. It is a common failing of parents to want the baby to make a good appearance and therefore he is often stimulated to laughter by means that are detrimental to his health. This should not be done.