Common disorders and diseases of childhood / by George Frederic Still.

  • George Frederic Still
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Common disorders and diseases of childhood / by George Frederic Still. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    With these cautions, the following data make a useful method of carrying in one's mind the average weight in health : Birth 7 lb. At 5 months . . . .141b. At 12 months .... 21 lb. At 2 years . . . .281b. At 7 years . . • . 49 lb. The weight, as will be seen, is doubled at five months, trebled at twelve months, quadrupled at two years ; all these weights may be remembered as multiples of seven. A child should gain about 4 lb. a year between the end of the second year and the age of seven years ; and 6 lb. a year from the age of seven years to the age of thirteen years. During infancy the progress of the weight is arrested by the most trivial disturbance of health, a little bronchial catarrh, even a simple coryza, is cause enough, and constipation, especially chronic constipation, is a common cause of failure to gain weight. The effect of dentition also is very striking ; often the weight ceases to rise or rises very little so long as a coming tooth is worrying the child, whereas directly the tooth is cut the weight begins to rise more rapidly again. In part, no doubt, this is due to the loss of appetite which so often accompanies difficult denti- tion, but I think not entirely, for the arrest of weight occurs sometimes where the infant continues to take food well, and it seems possible that it may be due in part to some influence on the nervous control of metabolism. Whatever the explanation may be, the effect of such slight causes on the weight is worth remembering, for the feeding is often changed quite unnecessarily and unwisely, where the fault lies not in the food but in some merely transient disturbance such as I have mentioned. Length. The length of the new-born infant is 19 inches; at one year it is 27 inches : and during each subsequent year up to five years of age there is a gain of 3| inches ; and each sub- sequent year a gain of 2 inches up to the age of fifteen years, when growth becomes much less rapid. Size of head. The measurement of the head is of importance chiefly in connexion with mental deficiency and where the possi- bility of hydrocephalus is in question. The most useful measurement is the circumference ; this is often taken through fixed points such as the frontal eminence and the occipital protuberance, but such points are difficult to locate exactly so as to be sure that any subsequent measurement is taken through precisely the same points ; it is therefore better to take the largest circumference which can be obtained. B 2
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