Getting ready to be a mother

by Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom

The weight is perhaps the most valuable single index to the baby’s condition that we have, but at the same time it must be remembered that a baby whose food contains an excess of sugar or starch may be of normal weight, or over, but be incompletely nourished and very susceptible to infection, while other babies who are small and gain slowly are sometimes very well and vigorous. Moreover, quite commonly there are periods in the lives of entirely normal babies during which there is little or no gain in weight. This may occur during the period from the seventh to the tenth month, for example, or in very warm weather. But the doctor is likely to want to watch the baby’s weight, for when studied in conjunction with other conditions it gives a certain amount of information about the baby’s general state and progress.

Height. The height of the average baby at birth is about 20 inches, though boys may measure a little more and girls a little less; at six months it is about 25 inches and 28 or 29 inches at the end of a year.

Head and Chest. The circumferences of the head and chest are about the same at birth, the chest being possibly a little the smaller of the two. Both measure about 13½ inches, gradually increasing to about 16½ inches in six months and to 18 inches by the end of the first year.

Fontanelles. The posterior fontanelle, the one at the crown of the head, usually closes in six or eight weeks but the larger, anterior fontanelle is not entirely closed until the baby is about eighteen or twenty months old.

Teeth. Although it occasionally happens that a baby has one or two teeth at birth, the average infant has none until the sixth or seventh month, when the two lower, central incisors appear. After a pause of a few weeks the two upper, central incisors come through, followed by the two lateral incisors in the upper jaw. At the end of the first year, therefore, the average baby has six teeth, or eight if the lower lateral incisors have appeared by the first birthday, as they sometimes do. This is the usual course of dentition, during the first year, as shown in Fig. [42], but there are wide variations among entirely well and normal babies, the first tooth sometimes not appearing before the tenth, eleventh or even twelfth month. As a rule, however, an entire lack of teeth by the time the baby is a year old is regarded as an evidence of faulty nutrition.

Fig. 42.—Diagram showing first, or “milk,” teeth and the ages at which they usually appear.

The baby who is properly fed and cared for, cuts his teeth with little or no trouble, in spite of the widely current but seriously mistaken belief that a teething baby is a sick baby. We have no way of estimating the number of babies who die, needlessly, as a result of this dangerous conviction, for if the baby is sick while teething, the trouble is all too often accepted as a normal occurrence and is not given the attention it needs until too late. Frail, delicate babies may have convulsions each time that a tooth is cut and if a baby is having digestive trouble, this is likely to grow worse while he is teething. But cutting teeth is a normal process and the healthy, properly fed baby suffers little or no inconvenience while it is in progress.

Stools and Urine. During the first two or three days the stools are of dark green, tarry material called meconium. In the course of two or three days they begin to grow lighter and shortly the normal stools appear, these being bright yellow in color, of a smooth, pasty consistency and having a characteristic odor. During the first month or six weeks the baby’s bowels may move three or four times daily, but after this they usually move but once or twice in the course of twenty-four hours. As the nourishment is increased, the stools grow somewhat darker and firmer and finally become formed.