CONGENITAL DISORDERS
Water on the Brain is characterized by an enlarged head due to an increased accumulation of fluid within the cranium. While the face remains small the head greatly increases in size so that oftentimes it must be braced while the child is compelled to remain in a wheel chair. The mentality is usually fairly normal, but the enormous weight of the head compels the life-long occupancy of a wheel chair.
Deaf-Mutism. The child born deaf pays no attention whatever to sounds. An intellectual expression is seen on his face and by six months he is able to do all that a normal baby can do with the exception of hearing. The child should early be taken to an ear specialist in the endeavor, if possible, to correct the defect of hearing. Such little ones who are destined to a life without sound, should be given every opportunity to learn to read the lips and to secure a good education—to be taught a vocation where eyesight is of more value than hearing. Special institutions are in existence today which can take these deaf mutes when small and so teach them to make audible sounds that they can make themselves understood—at least partially. Lip reading is a wonderful improvement over the deaf and dumb alphabet, and should be taught early.
Congenital Blindness. Perhaps not until the child is six months old can the observer distinguish between blindness and idiocy. The blind child of course will not fix his eyes upon any object; but the general lassitude and the inability to hold up its head, while seen in idiocy, is not present in blindness.
Feeble Mindedness. A baby that is born with a weak mind is found to be very backward in all the normal developmental attainments of the growing child. A normal baby holds up its head at four months and should be able to sit erect at six months. The weak-minded baby will not do this, and often as late as two years it will not make any attempt to walk or to talk. There is an unnatural expression—a vacant look—to the face, while there is often much dribbling at the mouth.
Early Training should be Instituted. It is necessary to call the attention of a physician to these facts, that the parents may be instructed in regard to the early training which is so essential in all these weak-minded little folk. In our opinion it is best to remove these children early to special institutions, where their education can be superintended by those thoroughly accomplished and accustomed to dealing with this class. There are varying grades of feeble mindedness—the backward child who requires a longer time to learn things, and the child who is slow at school and possibly cannot get through more than the fourth or fifth grade—but as soon as weak mindedness is discovered, it is best to transfer the child to some special institution.
CHAPTER XXXII
SKIN TROUBLES
One of the earliest skin troubles that the average normal child suffers from is prickly heat—a tiny, red-pointed rash always accompanied by sweating and usually resulting from over-dressing, stuffy rooms, and other conditions that make the child too warm. Prickly heat produces more or less discomfort but usually little or no itching. Ordinarily, a sponge bath followed by the application of talcum powder is sufficient to give relief in mild cases; but severe or neglected cases should be treated by means of bran baths, a cupful of bran being tied up in a gauze bag and suspended in water until the water assumes a milky color. Soda baths, two tablespoons to a gallon of water, are also very soothing. A baby should never receive any friction with a towel after such baths, but should be rolled up in a clean linen towel and simply patted dry.