The Lambertville record., 1920-06-11

How is it to be explained that a
baby, when still too young to initiate
what is going on around it and with.
out being taught, acquires what manv
doctors and dentists declare to be :,
very bad habit? Baby mud-wasps
which hatch after their mothers and
fathers are dead know how to build
their complicated mud nests without
being taught. In this human habit OF
thumb-sucking, which has appeared
successfully generation after genera
tion in very young babies, or simi-
lar instructive or hereditary charac
ter?
"If it is hereditary" writes David
Fairchild in the Journal of Heredity,
'is it beyond question injurious?
Does it produce protruding teeth
and fiattened thumbs, arch the roof o;
the mouth, or are these changes mere
ly coincidental with the habit?
This is what DIR. Alexander Graham
Bell has to say about the thumb
sucking habit:
THE mere act of suction could
produce no such effect as protrusion of
the teeth. On the contrary, with a
partial vacuum in the mouth the at
mospheric pressure from outside
would tend to push the teeth in, not
out. Theory would indicate that the
act of suction should actually be
beneficial to the plastic growing
mouth by bringing atmospheric pres
sure into play from outside, tending to
consolidate the mouth and oppose any
tendency to the spreading of the
parts.
ANY spreading action could only be
cue to pressure applied from within.
A child, for example, might press his
tongue against the roof of the mouth
or against the back of the front teeth
and thus produce pressure which il
constantly applied would result in d
spreading action, but there is no evil
dence that a child ever does this.
Sucking the thumb is such an in.
stinctive action with very young chii-
dren that it is probable that mos:
tabies, if not all, indulge in the habit
during the first year of life. Some
people have protruding teeth in adult
life and if you examine their past
history it is probable that most o.
them sucked their thumbs in infancy.
Hence we are apt to jump to the cor
clusion that the sucking of the thumb
was the cause of the protrusion of
the teeth, in spite of the fact that will
be at once perceived by those who
know onything about atmospheric
pressure that the act of suction coull
not possibly produce any such effect,
THE idea that suction could pro-
duce a spreading action in the mouth
is as ridiculous as the very common
notion that sucking the thumb
causes a child to become cross-eyed.' y
Mr.. Fairchild says that the impof-
tance of being able to make or break
a habit at will was so drilled into
him by one of his friends that it has
come to seem one of the greatest
things in life
81 determined that my first baby
should have a fair start and should
not be allowed to form any unde-
sirable habit" says Mr.. Fairchild
Almost Immediately, or certainly
when he was only week or two old,
he got his thumb into his mouth,
Everybody admitted that this was tn"
beginning of a bad habit. Some pre-
dicted that he would make his front
teeth protrude and spoil the shape Of
his mouth, others knew he would ruin
the looks of his thumb, and others
said the action would be connected
with internal disorders of a serious
character.
with the impression firmly i'm
planted in our minds that the form
ing of a habit was the worst thing
that could happen to a baby, we be-
gan to try to cure this one of suck
ing his thumb We tried cassia 5olu-
ton. but he enjoyed the bitter taste.
We put tiny mittens on his hands
and he either sucked them until they
were wet through or pulled them eff
We tied his arms, but he always
struggled loose We bought those