THE SPECIAL SENSES

Sight

The eyes of the infant are very sensitive to the light and every effort is made by the child to avoid bright light and thus protect the eyes from glare; the eyes will innately close when a bright light is brought before them. For the protection of the infant’s eyes the room should be kept darkened for the first few weeks. A subdued light will usually attract the attention of an infant and as early as the sixth day the child may even turn the head in an effort to follow the light with the eyes.

It is not uncommon for the eyelids to remain partly separated during sleep and for the movement to be more or less irregular during the first few weeks of life. The muscles of the eyeballs do not always coördinate in their action. This often results in temporary strabismus when the infant is looking intently at an object. Perfect coördinate action is often as late as the third or fourth month.

Hearing

The hearing of the infant is very acute, although it is asserted that the child is unable to hear for the first twenty-four hours after birth. This is due to the absence of air in the middle ear. During the process of respiration air is gradually admitted to the middle ear and hearing becomes very acute, so much so that sharp noises will startle the child. For this reason the nursery should be so located that it may be as free as possible from noise. Noise is trying on the nervous system and should be avoided as far as possible. As early as two months of age the infant will turn his head in the direction of the noise.

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.

HEAD

The occipito-frontal measurement of the child at birth is from 13.52 inches to 13.90 inches. The most rapid growth of the head takes place during the first year. With the average child this growth is about four inches. For the first few months the growth is about half an inch per month. During the second year the circumference of the head increases only about one inch and for the next three years, about one and one-half inches. From this time until puberty, about five years, it increases only about half an inch. The head develops so rapidly so early in life that it appears to be all out of proportion for the body.

Sutures

In syphilitic infants or in premature birth, the cranial bones may be distinctly separated. This condition does not, however, necessarily prove that either exists for often subluxations are produced at the time of birth and these prevent the normal expression of Innate Intelligence in bringing about the adaptative processes necessary to close the sutures. This is an abnormal condition and should receive careful consideration at the hands of the chiropractor. Normally the main sutures ossify at about the end of the sixth month, although there may be some mobility at the end of the ninth month. If after this the sutures have not entirely ossified the child should be carefully examined for subluxations.

Fontanels

Under normal conditions the anterior fontanels should be completely closed at the age of one and a half years. If at the end of two years they have not completely closed it is abnormal and indicates cretinism, rickets or hydrocephalus. In case of hydrocephalus the sutures will be distinctly separated and the head will be enlarged. This condition may also obtain in rickets. When the fontanels are slow in closing the child should be very carefully analyzed and an effort made to find symptoms of other conditions which might be responsible for this abnormality. Most excellent results have been obtained from chiropractic adjustments in these cases. It is quite as objectionable for the fontanels to close too soon as it is for them to be too slow in closing and it may be much more serious. There are many cases on record in which the fontanels have been closed when the child was born. A case of this kind is ordinarily beyond the reach of Chiropractic. The closure of the fontanels during the first few weeks, or even at the middle of the first year, indicates microcephalus.

Normally the anterior fontanels should be completely closed about the eighteenth month, although it may be as late as the twenty-second month. In rachitic children it may be as late as the third year. In cretinism the fontanels may become very large and sometimes do not close until the eighth year. In hydrocephalus also the fontanels become very large, the head develops rapidly to an enormous size and this results in the spreading of the sutures. If these cases receive adjustments early enough in life, excellent results are obtained.

The posterior fontanel is very much smaller than the anterior and closes about the second month, normally.

Shape

In most cases the head of the infant is more or less compressed during labor. In hard labor it may be so greatly compressed that it gives the appearance of being deformed, but this apparent deformity soon disappears, usually from the third to the fifth week. Healthy children and especially good natured ones are sometimes neglected and permitted to lie in one position for such a length of time that the head becomes misshapen. Usually in such cases the child is placed on his back. This results in the flattening of the back of the head. This, however, may be easily corrected by changing the position of the child occasionally. These variations should not be mistaken for actual deformities of the head.

THORAX

The average chest measurement of the child at birth is from thirteen to thirteen and four-tenths inches; thus it is seen that at birth the circumference of the chest is about a half inch less than that of the head. The circumference of the abdomen is about equal to that of the chest. The transverse diameter is practically the same as that of the antero-posterior, but as time goes on and the child develops, the transverse diameter increases more rapidly until about ten years of age when the shape of the thorax becomes about the same as that of the adult. The diameter of the chest increases at the rate of about one inch per year until the average of thirty inches is reached at about the age of fifteen. During childhood the thorax should be carefully observed for deformities.

Subluxations in the upper dorsal region may result in faulty postures, which in turn will result in various deformities of the thorax. If this faulty posture is not corrected and the child is permitted to grow into adult life with the deformity, it can readily be seen that such deformity will become permanent. In such cases the dorsal subluxation should be adjusted early in life to overcome the faulty posture. Innate will then take care of this temporary deviation from the normal shape of the thorax. Deformities of the thorax often indicate Pott’s dis-ease, curvatures of the spine, rickets, emphysema, empyema and cardiac disturbances. In such cases a very careful analysis should be made and the subluxations adjusted to remove the cause of the condition to which the deformity is adaptative.

ABDOMEN

The abdomen of the infant is very large in comparison with its proportion in later childhood. Up to about two years of age the circumference is the same as that of the chest, after which the chest develops more rapidly and the abdomen gradually assumes the proportions of the adult. However, the abdomen remains proportionately large up to the age of puberty. Unless this fact is recognized by the practitioner, he may suspect an abnormal enlargement of the abdomen. There are conditions in which an enlargement of the abdomen is typical, such as in various intestinal disorders and especially in rickets. In rickets the abdomen becomes gradually extended and is known as pot belly, but with this there will be other symptoms of the dis-ease. If the abdomen seems abnormally large the chiropractor should carefully analyze the child to determine whether this is the result of some incoördination or whether it is simply an idiosyncrasy of the child.

WALKING

The age at which children are able to sit alone, stand and walk, varies greatly. Some infants walk as early as the tenth month, while others are as late as the eighteenth month. The average age at which children are able to walk alone is from thirteen to fifteen months. Other things being equal, the age at which a child walks has little significance. The first voluntarily directed movements of the child occur at about four months of age, sometimes a little earlier, when the child begins to make an effort to grasp objects which he sees about him.

At about four or five months of age the average child is able to hold the head erect when the body is properly supported. Between the seventh and eighth month the muscles have developed sufficiently for the child to sit erect by himself for a few minutes at a time. From this on, the child develops the sense of equilibrium very rapidly. Not later than nine months of age the child will indicate a tendency to stand and to bear the weight upon the feet. He may even be able to stand with a little assistance; then, in a very short time, if placed upon the floor he will show a tendency to pull himself up by a chair and stand alone. This is soon followed by the first steps and by the thirteenth month the child is walking alone freely.

Mechanical devices intended to assist the child in learning to walk are of little value and may be an actual detriment. If the child is normal, has the proper care and a reasonable environment, Nature will put him on his feet at the earliest possible moment without injury to the delicate structures of the body. If the child is extremely backward in learning to walk a careful analysis should be made to determine the reason. Rickets is a very common cause for backwardness in children, not only in walking but in other functions as well. If a child is backward in learning to walk he should not be urged, but the reason for this backwardness should be sought out and the cause adjusted.