A text-book on hygiene and pediatrics from a chiropractic standpoint

by J. H. Craven

Touch

Certain portions of the infant’s body are more sensitive than others. The tactile sensibility of the lips and tongue is highly developed. This facilitates the process of nursing. The forehead and external auditory meatus are more sensitive than other parts. This creates a necessity for protection of these parts. The child’s head should be covered, but not the face, when taken out of doors. Touch is less acute in the infant than in the older child.

The tongue of the young infant is very susceptible to temperature. He will show a dislike for the bottle if the milk is too hot or too cold.

Taste

At one time it was thought that the child at birth had no sense of taste, but now it is agreed that even at birth this sense is extremely acute. The newly born infant is unable to distinguish sweet, sour and bitter. The sucking movement is excited by the taste of sweet, some authorities believe. With bottle-fed babies a difference in the taste of the food will be quickly noticed and it is with difficulty that he can be induced to take anything that is distasteful such as sour or bitter substances. The child very early will show that he enjoys sweets.

Smell

The acuteness of this sense is not so easily determined in the infant, although there is sufficient evidence to warrant the conclusion that sense of smell exists from the beginning; however, the ability to detect different odors is not developed to any great extent until later in childhood. It is believed that the sense of smell plays an important part at the beginning in the child finding the mother’s breast.

SPEECH

The age at which the child begins to talk varies with individuals and also with circumstances and environment. Girls on the average will learn to talk earlier than boys; the average is about two months earlier. The average child begins to say such words as mamma and papa a little before one year of age. Other simple and easy words are learned until by the second year he is putting words together. How early a child learns to talk depends to a great extent upon the amount of time given him by adults in trying to teach him. The words that he learns depend largely on what is taught at the beginning. The reason for the average child learning to say papa first is largely due to the efforts of the mother who induces the child to say this word; then naturally an effort is made to get the child to say mamma and from this word attention is directed to any pets there may be in the family. Then the names of objects are learned. Verbs are usually next learned then adverbs and adjectives. Following these in order are the conjunctions, prepositions, and articles. Personal pronouns are the last to be learned.

Children who are permitted to associate with other children will usually learn to talk earlier than those who are reared alone. If the child has not learned to talk at two years of age he may be mentally deficient; or failure to talk may be the result of being deaf or some other incoördination of the vocal apparatus may exist. As soon as a child is discovered to be mute he should have immediate chiropractic attention. Many such cases are on record which show excellent results obtained through adjustments.