Infancy Physical Development

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Infancy Physical Development
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Nutrition

• Breast- vs Bottle-Feeding
• Today, nearly two-thirds of American mothers
  breast-feed their babies, although most do so for
  only a few months. Less than 40 in
  underdeveloped countries do.
• Breast-feeding offers many nutritional and health
  advantages over bottle-feeding.
• Breast-fed babies in impoverished regions of the
  world are less likely to be malnourished and more
  likely to survive the first year of life. Yet,
  many mothers in the developing world do not know
  about the benefits.

• Some mothers cannot nurse because of
  physiological or medical reasons.
• Breast milk is easily digestible and, as a
  result, breast-fed babies become hungry more
  often than bottle-fed infants, making
  breast-feeding inconvenient for many employed
  mothers.
• Preterm infants benefit from the antibodies and
  easy digestibility of breast milk.
• Breast- and bottle-fed youngsters in
  industrialized nations do not differ in
  psychological adjustment.

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III. FACTORS AFFECTING EARLY PHYSICAL GROWTH

• Heredity
• Nutrition
• A babys energy needs are twice as great as those
  of an adult.
• Twenty-five percent of an infants caloric
  intake is devoted to growth. If a babys diet is
  deficient in either quantity or quality of
  nutrients, growth can be permanently stunted.

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Nutrition

• Twenty-five percent of an infants caloric intake
  is devoted to growth. If a babys diet is
  deficient in either quantity or quality of
  nutrients, growth can be permanently stunted.
• Breast feeding advised by AAP for first 6 months
  and include as part of diet until at least 1
  yearCanada 2 years.

• A babys energy needs are twice as great as those
  of an adult.
• Babies as newborns become hungry every 1 ½ to 2
  hours if breastfed and every 3 to 4 hours if
  bottle.
• Babies under 1 should not receive cows milk

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Nutrition cont.

• No bottle propping (ears and teeth) and warm or
  cold?
• What about burping?
• Are Chubby Babies at Risk for Later Overweight
  and Obesity?
• Only a slight correlation exists between fatness
  in infancy and obesity at older ages.
• Infant and toddlers can eat nutritious foods
  freely, without risk of becoming too fat.
• Physical exercise also guards against excessive
  weight gain.
• At six months introduce foods one at a time.
  Avoid cheese and cows milk until one. Cereals
  usually first, not wheat.

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Nutrition cont.

• Malnutrition
• Recent evidence indicates that 40 to 60 percent
  of the worlds children do not get enough to eat.
• Marasmus is a wasted condition of the body
  usually appearing in the first year of life that
  is caused by a diet low in all essential
  nutrients.
• Kwashiorkor is a disease usually appearing
  between 1 and 3 years of age that is caused by a
  diet low in protein. Symptoms include an enlarged
  belly, swollen feet, hair loss, skin rash, and
  irritable, listless behavior.

• Children who survive these forms of malnutrition
  grow to be smaller in all body dimensions and
  their brains can be seriously affected.
• Iron-deficiency anemia, a condition common among
  poverty-stricken infants and children, interferes
  with many central nervous system processes.
• Early nutritional intervention is important,
  before the effects of early malnutrition are
  allowed to run their own course.

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Physical Development in Infancy
Figure 3.5
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• Maturation
• Physical growth and development of the body,
  brain, and nervous system
• Increased muscular control occurs in patterns
• Cephalocaudal From head to toe
• Proximodistal From center of the body to the
  extremities

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Changes in Muscle-Fat Makeup

• Body fat, which helps the infant maintain a
  constant body temperature, increases after birth
  and peaks around 9 months of age.
• Toddlers become more slender, a trend that
  continues into middle childhood.

• Muscle tissue increases very slowly and does not
  peak until adolescence.
• Girls have a higher ratio of fat to muscle than
  boys.

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Appearance of Teeth

• An infants first tooth usually appears between 4
  to 6 months of age. By age 2, the average child
  has 20 teeth.
• A child who gets her teeth early is likely to be
  advanced in physical maturity.
• 65 percent of teething infants show no symptoms.

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Fine Motor Development Voluntary Reaching and
Grasping cont.

• Early Experience and Voluntary Reaching
• Trying to push infants beyond their current
  readiness to handle stimulation can undermine the
  development of important motor skills.
• As infants and toddlers motor skills develop,
  their caregivers must devote more energies to
  protecting them from harm.

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MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

• The Sequence of Motor Development
• Gross motor development refers to control over
  actions that help an infant move around in the
  environment, such as crawling, standing, and
  walking.
• Fine motor development involves smaller movements
  such as reaching and grasping.
• Although the sequence of motor development is
  fairly uniform across children, there are large
  individual differences in rate of motor progress.
• Motor control of the head precedes control of the
  arms and trunk which precedes control of the legs
  (cephalocaudal trend).
• Head, trunk, and arm control appears before
  coordination of the hands and fingers
  (proximodistal trend).

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The Sequence of Motor Development
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Cultural Variations in Motor Development

• Cross-cultural research shows that early movement
  opportunities and a stimulating environment
  contribute to motor development.
• Cultural beliefs vary concerning the necessity
  and advisability of deliberately teaching motor
  skills to babies.
• Early motor skills are due to complex
  transactions between nature and nurture.

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Fine Motor Development Voluntary Reaching and
Grasping

• Voluntary reaching plays a vital role in infant
  cognitive development, since it opens up a whole
  new way of exploring the environment.
• Motor skills start out as gross activities and
  move toward mastery of fine movements.
• Prereaching is the uncoordinated, primitive
  reaching movements of newborns.

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Fine Motor Development Voluntary Reaching and
Grasping

• Development of Voluntary Reaching and Grasping
• Voluntary reaching appears at about 3 months and
  gradually improves in accuracy.
• Early reaching is controlled by proprioception,
  our sense of movement and location in space that
  arises from stimuli within the body.
• The ulnar grasp is a clumsy grasp of young
  infants, in which the fingers close against the
  palm.
• The pincer grasp is a well-coordinated grasp that
  emerges at the end of the first year, involving
  the oppositional use of the forefinger and thumb.

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Vision

• By 2 months, infants can discriminate colors
  across the entire spectrum.
• By 3 months, infants can focus on objects and
  discriminate colors about as well as adults can.
• By 6 months, their visual acuity is about 20/100.
• By 11 months, visual acuity reaches a near-adult
  level.

• Depth Perception
• Depth perception is the ability to judge the
  distance of objects from one another and from
  ourselves.
• The visual cliff was used in the earliest studies
  of depth perception.
• Research indicates that around the time that
  infants crawl, most distinguish deep and shallow
  surfaces and avoid dangerous-looking drop-offs.

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• Hearing
• During the first year, babies start to organize
  sounds into complex patterns.
• By 6 months of age, babies screen out sounds
  that are not used in their own language..
• In the second half of the first year, infants
  focus on the larger speech units crucial for
  figuring out meaning. Older infants can also
  detect clauses and phrases in sentences.
• Between 7 and 9 months, infants have begun to
  analyze the internal structure of sentences and
  words.

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Shaken Baby Syndrome

• Shaking or jerking babies
• Swinging up and down

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SIDS

• Leading cause of infant mortality 1/3 of deaths
  in US
• Usually show physical problems from beginning
• More premature, low birth rate, Apgar,
• Often have a mild respiratory failure
• Chemical abnormality in brain center for
  breathing
• Smoking
• Sleep on back with light covering

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Video
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• Emotional and Social Development
• Social Smile Smiling elicited by social
  stimuli not exclusive to seeing parents
• Self-Awareness Awareness of oneself as a
  person can be tested by having infants look in a
  mirror and see if they recognize themselves
• Social Referencing Observing other people to
  get information or guidance

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Figure 3.4
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Figure 3.8
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• Mary Ainsworth and Attachment
• Separation Anxiety Crying and signs of fear
  when a child is left alone or is with a stranger
  generally appears around 8-12 months
• Quality of Attachment (Ainsworth)
• Secure Stable and positive emotional bond

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Mary Ainsworth and Attachment (continued)

• Insecure-Avoidant Tendency to avoid reunion
  with parent or caregiver
• Insecure-Ambivalent Desire to be with parent
  or caregiver and some resistance to being
  reunited with Mom
• Contact Comfort Pleasant and reassuring
  feeling babies get from touching something warm
  and soft, especially their mother

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Bowlbys Attachment Phases

• Preattachment Birth to 6 months
• Infant send signals to adult for contact,
  grasping, crying, or gazing into adults eyes
• Phase 2 6 weeks to 6-8 months
• Signal intensify and focus on caregiver. Still
  friendly to strangers, but respond differently
• Phase 3 6-8 months to 18 months-2 years
• More active in seeking and following caregivers.
  Show separation anxiety
• Phase 4 18 months-2 years and on
• Infants form reciprocal relationships with
  parents and significant people in their life

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Figure 3.11
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• Play and Social Skills
• Solitary Play When a child plays alone even
  when with other children
• Cooperative Play When two or more children
  must coordinate their actions

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• Optimal Caregiving
• Proactive Maternal Influences A mothers warm,
  educational interactions with her child
• Goodness of Fit (Chess Thomas) Degree to
  which parents and child have compatible
  temperaments
• Paternal Influences Sum of all effects a
  father has on his child

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Height Weight Growth
The greatest height weight increases occur
during the 1st year of life, but children
continue to grow through infancy toddlerhood.
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• Average birthweights
• (progression through the 1st 2 years)

--By age 5 months, the average infant's
birthweight has doubled to about 15 pounds. --By
age 1, the infants' birthweight has tripled to
approximately 22 pounds. --By the end of its
second year, the average child weighs four times
its birthweight. --By age 1, the average baby
stands 30 inches tall. --By the end of the
second year the average child is three feet tall.

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Decreasing Proportions
At birth, the head is ¼ of the neonates body. By
adulthood, it is only 1/8th the size of the body.
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? Not all parts of the body grow at the same
rate. The 4 Major Principles Governing Growth

• 1) The CEPHALOCAUDAL PRINCIPLE states that growth
  follows a pattern that begins with the head and
  upper body parts and then proceeds to the rest of
  the body.
• 2) The PROXIMODISTAL PRINCIPLE states that
  development proceeds from the center of the body
  outward.

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(Major Principles Governing Growth continued)

• 3) The PRINCIPLE OF HIERARCHICAL INTEGRATION
  states that simple skills typically develop
  separately and independently but are later
  integrated into more complex skills.
• 4) The PRINCIPLE OF INDEPENDENCE OF SYSTEMS
  suggests that different body systems grow at
  different rates.

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Development of Body Rhythms

• Behavior (sleeping, eating, crying, attending to
  the world) becomes integrated through the
  development of various body RHYTHMS (repetitive,
  cyclic patterns of behavior)
• Some rhythms are obvious/easy to notice
• The change from being asleep to being
  awake/breathing patterns

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(development of body rhythms, continued)

• Some rhythms are more subtle
• Jerking suddenly while sleeping
• Some are apparent right after birth, others
  emerge over the course of the 1st year as the
  nervous system becomes more integrated

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One of the major body rhythms is an infants state

• -- An infant's STATE is the degree of awareness
  it displays to both internal and external
  stimulation.
• -- Includes various levels of wakeful behaviors
  (alertness, crying, etc.) and various levels of
  sleep (active, quiet)
• -- Changes in state are reflected in brain waves
  measured by a device called an EEG, or
  electroencephalogram.

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• Temperament and Environment
• Temperament The physical core of personality
• Easy Children 40 relaxed and agreeable
• Difficult Children 10 moody, intense,
  easily angered
• Slow-to-Warm-Up Children 15 restrained,
  unexpressive, shy
• Remaining Children Do not fit into any
  specific category