The function that is primarily involved in rickets is nutrition, but this results in other functions being implicated. There is expansion minus especially in the development of the osseous tissue. The equation is N— with X—.
Major Adjustment
Most excellent results are obtained in rickets. It is very essential that the adjustments be given at the beginning before the deformities become marked. In the more chronic cases the incoördination will be checked by the adjustments and the patient will recover, but it will be obvious that the marked deformities such as genu varum, genu valgrum, enlargement of the wrist and deformities of the head can not be corrected in the chronic cases. The adjustment is At. or Ax., S.P. and K.P.
NEUROTIC CHILDREN
Neurotic symptoms may appear very early in infancy. They may be first noticed when the child is startled by sudden sounds or unusual sights. Ordinarily the infant, only a few weeks of age, will pay little or no attention to its surroundings. The neurotic infant, however, may be startled or badly frightened by its environment. Such infants are found to apparently fix their attention upon objects as early as the third or fourth week. If its attention is thus centered upon a person who should make a quick, unexpected move, the child often becomes terrified. In other cases the symptoms may manifest themselves in a muscular spasm, such as mild opisthotonos, and other conditions suggesting cerebral incoördination. In early infancy vomiting and diarrhea may be brought on by excitement. The vomiting takes place without nausea and may be excited either by food or water. This must be carefully distinguished from the spitting up of milk so characteristic in infancy. This is a perfectly normal process and seems to be Innate’s method of adaptation when the child has taken too much milk into the stomach. Vomiting in neurotic infants may even become so severe that it results in a loss of weight. The diarrhea occurs with no more apparent cause than the vomiting. If the stools are not too frequent the food will be well digested but the diarrhea may become so severe that the food passes through the intestinal tract undigested. This diarrhea may be very obstinate and then it results in serious malnutrition. As the child grows older the characteristic symptoms of infancy become less marked but the child continues to be extremely nervous, irritable and cross. This nervousness may be exaggerated by the surroundings. Such children usually have poor appetite and suffer from constipation. They are almost always poorly nourished and anemic. The pulse is usually more or less rapid and is generally affected by excitement. Such children are quite restless during sleep.
Neurotic children are often precocious but lack in concentration due to their restlessness. Headache is a very common symptom. There is a marked tendency toward habit, spasm and chorea.
Family
These conditions are classified in the spasms family.
Equation
The equation is not so well defined since the condition of nervousness is adaptative. Therefore the equation for the nervousness is I.A. If other symptoms appear the equation would depend upon the function involved.