Infancy and infant-rearing : an introductory manual / by John Benjamin Hellier.
- Hellier, John Benjamin.
- Date:
- 1895
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Infancy and infant-rearing : an introductory manual / by John Benjamin Hellier. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.
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![estimate that from the sixth to the thirtieth day the amount passed is 5^ to lOJ fluid ounces. During the first year it rises from 14 to 17^ fluid ounces. In the second year it varies from 17| fluid ounces to a pint or more. Relatively an infant passes more than an adult; but then an infant lives on fluid food. The principal question for a nurse is, when will the infant acquire voluntary control over its bladder] There is great difference between children. From six months onwards the nurse may notice an increase in the n^imber of hours that the child keeps dry, but the final cessation of incon- tinence by night or day may be indefinitely postponed even after infancy is over. But in this matter regular feeding and regular holding out will do much to bring about early cleanliness of habit. The function of suction is performed instinctively from the first. On consideration it will be seen that this is one of the most important of all the functions of the infant. It is performed by the action of the tongue in the mouth. The lips close around the nipple, the soft palate and pharynx close the mouth behind, the jaw is depressed, and the tongue is drawn backwards and downwards. The tongue thus acts like a piston. A vacuum is formed in the cavity of the mouth, so that the atmospheric pressure tends to make the cheeks fall in slightly, and in the same way the milk is forced into the mouth. When the mouth is full the contents are swallowed, and the process is repeated. Sucking is interfered with by hare-lip and by cleft palate. To what extent is the power of sucking interfered with by tongue-tie, or undue shortness of the bridle of mucous membrane beneath the tongue? Old-fashioned nurses find a great propor- tion of infants to be tongue-tied. Recent authorities declare that even if the bridle is short it never causes any harm, and that it is useless to divide it.* We believe that the truth lies between these extremes. Rarely is shortness of the frcenum linguce of importance; occasionally it may be divided with advantage. A surgeon must perform this little operation, for serious haemorrhage might follow if certain blood-vessels were divided. Possibly a certain degree of tongue-tie may interfere at a later period with the acquirement of the power of correctly articulating certain consonants and sounds, as, for instance, the r-trill.f * Tarnier, Chantreuil, and Budin, Op. ciL, p. 1S5. t The author will publish shortly, in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, a paper on Defective Articulation of the Consonant R, to which subject he is anxious to call attention.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21439795_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
