Growth and Development of an Infant - Research Paper Example

? GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF AN INFANT School Affiliation Bringing up a child is an exciting and unique experience, and requires a lot of patience and care from the parents. If a baby is born with several health complication and illnesses, the life of the parents can turn in to real nightmare. In such a case, there will be only one question arising in the mind of the parent, what will be the adversities the baby will encounter in future. This is the situation of the parents of our client, who is suffering from multiple illnesses and major bowel dysfunction. The patient is a five month old male infant, who was admitted to hospital with small bowel obstruction. Upon several medical examinations, the infant was diagnosed with dilated transverse colon and a small bowel .On admission he was an undernourished and fragile baby, but improved his condition with all the medical support and assistance at hospital His parents are going through a lot of trauma and anxiety, and are extremely worried about the health and safety of the baby. The infant is going to be subjected to surgery in near future and all our anticipating for the health and wellbeing of the infant. Section I: Physical Growth and Development A.General parameters 1. Height & Weight: The height of baby is 54.6 cm and Weight is precisely 4.26 kg. Nutrition: The nutritional status of the baby is inferior as he is terminally ill with multiple health complications. 3. Sleep patterns – The body of the infant is very fragile and delicate at this stage, as he has a defective and disrupted bowel movement. He has undergone numerous tests like CT scans, endoscopy, and ultrasounds for the analysis of his terminal illness. He has a terrible problem with swallowing food and liquids and vomited once when bottle with EleCare formula was introduced. With all these complication going on baby is struggling to get a proper sleep and rest. Moreover, he is on morphine to avoid pain and is not experiencing a normal sleeping pattern. 4. Dental health Availability of proper nutrition plays an immense role in the development of dental structure of a baby. In the case of our patient, there is a considerable lack in the calcium and minerals supply. An infant at this Stage, needs an ample amount of breast milk to maintain a healthy body .Being unable to swallow food, his calcium intake is considerably low which can lead to poor dental growth. 5. Elimination – The baby is suffering from dilated transverse colon and posses a small bowel and this is creating complications in his digestion process. According to Holshniede &Puri, (2008) “A number of physicians have reported instance of severe constipation and colon dilatation in children that eventually lead to their demise”(p.12)Also , a dilated colon can result in irritable bowel movement and lead to constipation . Thus , the elimination process of the baby is poor and unpredictable. B. Motor development Motor development is a crucial stage in the growing stage of an infant and at this stage parents needs to observe the activities of their infants closely. According to Adolf ,“Motor development is truly amazing. In their first year of life, infants acquire the ability to direct their eyes a t targets, support their bodies against gravity, grasp and manipulate objects, and loco mote across the room. One reason why these accomplishments appear so amazing is that motor actions are directly observable”. However, when we consider our client, he is abnormally undernourished and anemic and displays a very low muscle mass and motor development. 1.Gross motor : The physical reaction of the baby in his immediate surroundings is an important aspect in a child’s growing phase. However, our client is malnourished and anemic and needs immediate surgery to rectify his abdominal and rectal malfunctioning. The infant is having intra-abdominal abscesses with multiple scars in the bowel and has been diagnosed with a fibrotic and necrotic left and sigmoid colon. He is recommended not to be fed by oral means, and was previously supported on nasal gastric feeding tube to aggravate his oral simulation. With all this complications, neither the baby can intake food properly nor can make proper bodily movements All he require is, utmost care from his parents and medical experts to improve his mental and physical condition. Evidently, his gross motor is highly underdevelopment and can only prosper after undergoing a proper bowel surgery. 2. Fine motor: Fine motor skill is the minor movement of the finger in co-ordination with the eyes of an infant. An infant’s fine motor skill is a very crucial aspect in his growing phase, as it is connected with the hand movements of the baby in using toys and other objects. Since the baby has a dilated transverse colon ,he is predominantly pale and fragile and is experiencing least bodily movements. The infant has a double–barrel colostomy, where the stoma has two opening to pass stool and mucus separately. This shows the level of pain the infant is undergoing and amount of medical attention he needs to promote his well- being. Hence, it can be clearly understood that the fine motor of the infant is considerably low and he can even face fatal health conditions if not given proper treatment. 3. Related safety concerns The client in this case is in a very compromising state, and is surviving solely on medical support. The parents of the child are under immense trauma and are deeply concerned for the health and safety of the baby. They are skeptical about the whole situation and wants the very best medical option for their child. There is lot of safety concerns arising in the mind of the parents and medical experts as to the sustenance of the child. The main concern is, how the baby will cope up with the surgery to take place in coming days. There is lot of uncertainties as to how the infant will react to the surgery and whether the surgery will turn out be a success or not. Another thing of concern is regarding the stability of infant’s health and how long he will be able to accept food through oral means. Nevertheless, the main concern is how much the baby would react to the scheduled surgery for diverting ileostomy and gastrostomy tube placement in future. C.Psychosocial development (Erickson) 1)Overview : The theory of Erickson is considered as the best among all other theories relative to psychosocial development. According to Erickson, the personality of a human being progress in several stages. He explains that social interactions leave a big impact on the personality of a person as he is growing. He has defined several stages of psychosocial development occurring in a human’s life. However, in case of our patient only the first stage of his theory applies, that is the stage of trust and mistrust .This stage occurs between the birth and the first year of the child and in this time, the child build up trust from interacting with the family and people around him. a)Fear : Fear is an element which can greatly hinder the growth and development of a newly born infant. The client in question is in a very critical situation with all the adversities happening to his bodily functioning system. The patient is too fragile to handle all the disastrous malfunctioning occurring in his body and is definitely in an unpredictable stage. He needs all the care and nurture from his parents and should also be assured maximum security and support from his social environment b) Socialization: Generally, a normal baby of five months interacts sufficiently with his surrounding and connects mentally and physically in it. Unfortunately, the patient here is not capable of reacting to the environment due to his complicated health status. He is struggling to adapt to the hospital atmosphere and with all the techniques and medical procedure undergoing, he is gaining a feeling of insecurity and complexity in his mind. The infant is experiencing an obstructed bowel movement and also has intra-abdominal abscesses with multiple scars. For very obvious reasons, the child can’t interact much socially and is in a fearful and dreadful situation. c) Play and toys: At the age of five months, a child extravagantly enjoys playing with toys and objects as a part of his growing process. Unfortunately the client in question is struggling to intake food and has less ability to move his body freely. Unlike other babies he does not possess a healthy body status and is anemic and underweight. He is about to undergo a surgery to resect his bowel segments and as a result is in dire need of maximum medical attention His parents are constantly worried about his future and doing their best to be supportive to his conditions. d) Discipline: An infant in the age of five months can only be disciplined, if they get proper care and comfort from parents and care givers. But, our client is a diseased baby and primarily needs proper nutrition and warmth from mother. However, the major concern here is how the baby can get accustomed to oral feeding and regain his health and well being. D.Psychosexual development(Freud) 1)Overview : As per journal Allpsych (2004)“Sigmund Freud is probably the most well known theorist when it comes to the development of personality. Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development is, like other stage theories, completed in a predetermined sequence and can result in either successful completion or a healthy personality or can result in failure, leading to an unhealthy personality”. As per his theory, the client falls into the oral stage which happens between birth and 18 months of child’s lifetime. At this stage an infant indulge in thumb sucking and find immense pleasure in it. However, the patient has complication with swallowing food and also is experiencing cough resulting in dryness of mouth. He was introduce bottle with EleCare formula, and with first swallow, he gagged and vomited. Several attempts were made to introduce oral feeding and with each initial swallow, he coughed and expressed a wet vocal quality .Sadly, unlike other babies he cannot enjoy thumb sucking as he can’t afford many movements with his body. He is devoid of pleasure which other babies of his age enjoys, and is desperately struggling for life in a critical medical atmosphere. 2. Stage of sexual development Sexual development of a baby is a gradual natural procedure where an infant gets chance to explore his new physical dimensions. However, parents of an infant have great responsibility In observing the movements of the baby to study how much he connects with mouth and thumb-sucking activities. When it comes to our patient, he is constantly under the observation of medical experts and parents and presently project a very fragile health condition. He does not even have the strength to ingest food and is being subjected to various medical procedures to support his food system. So for obvious reasons, the child’s sexual development is not as normal like other babies of his age due to under nourishment and defective digestive system. E.Cognitive Development(Paiget) 1.Overview : According to Rathus,(2008)“Paiget hypothesized that children’s cognitive processes develop in an orderly sequence, or series, of stages. As with motor and perceptual development, some children may be more advanced than others at particular ages, but the development sequence does not normally vary”(p.188)As per Paiget ‘s theory, our client is in the sensori-motor stage and it occurs between birth and two years of an infant’s life. In this stage , the infant connects with objects of outside world and acts intentionally upon it. 2.: Stage of cognitive development : This is the stage in which the infant develops many perceptions about the social world around him. He makes eye contact with people and places around him and develops ideas and thoughts relating to it. In our patient’s case, he is under a very unpredictable situation and his struggling hard to ingest food just to meet his primal nutritive needs. . 3. Language : According to Goldstein (2011)“During infancy and toddler hood, young children are almost always able to understand far many more words than they can speak. However, with this language explosion, their expressive (spoken language) abilities start to catch up with their receptive (ability to comprehend language) skills”. Since the clients is five month old and suffers from colon complication and malnutrition, there can be seen a considerable negative impact on his receptive skills and language system. F. Moral Development: 1. Overview According to Kohlberg’s theory, the client is going through a pre-conventional level of moral development stage. In this stage, the infants develop a self focused morality and set his moral standards according to the actions and reactions of their parents and care givers. As per Kendra(2011)“Kohlberg Piaget’s theory, proposing that moral development is a continual process that occurs throughout the lifespan extended”. Standards and family values: A child in a growing stage essentially needs to be accustomed to the moral and ethical standards of a human life. It is essential for a child to build his own personality and positive code of conduct as he progresses in life. Usually, children grow up learning all the values and practices from their parents and social environment .It is extremely essential for the parents to reflect a good code of conduct to avoid problems and confusion in the mind of a young child .The child observes the surrounding and absorbs things quickly from it. Unfortunately, the patient in our case is very fragile and fatigue and is experience great difficulty in interacting with his parents and dear ones. Section II :Wellness and promotion 1. General information: The primary factor in promoting wellness in babies is to take care of their food requirements A baby in this phase requires a lot of nurturing from parents to develop his mental and physical health The client is in dire need of nutrition, as he is a victim of serious vitamin and mineral deficiencies .He has been recommended to be abstained from any feeding thought mouth due the incapability of his bowel to accept food. The physicians and parents are trying maximum to provide the infant with needed nutrition to allow better survival rate. But a thing of a relief is that , the body temperature, respiratory rate, pulse and blood pressure is all within normal limits. 2. Nutrition: For an infant of five months old nothing is better than the breast milk as it contains all the minerals and vitamins a baby requires for growing and developing .Generally,infant at this stage also starts to feed on solid food. However, the patient here is refluxing and obvious rejection of food by oral feeding. The mother of the baby is unable to feed by natural means as she hardly can hold the baby who is under medical support. The baby was introduced to nasal feeding technique to enhance oral stimulation and is currently on central line . 3.Sleep : A healthy infant is the one who gets proper sleep. It is widely known that a baby grows healthily if it sleeps more and lengthy hours. (AskDr,2006)“One thing we have learned during our years in pediatrics is that babies do what they do because they're designed that way. It appears Those babies come wired with sleep patterns that enable them to awaken in response to circumstances that threaten their well- being”. However, the patient is on morphine to relieve himself from pain and other medical support systems like central line and nasal feeding system is creating disturbance in the sleeping pattern of baby. 4. Growth and Development: Growth and development of the baby is the concern of every parent. It is normal for the parents to doubt regarding the normal growth of their child. At the age of five month, a baby attempts to eat solid foods but also feeds on mother’s milk. At this stage he starts to grasp objects and take proper sleeps. Moreover, he had a history of recurrent abdominal distention and diarrhea has affected his health badly. He is a patient suffering from irritated bowel movement and carries a threat of inadequate food absorption and elimination 5.Family : Family has a very crucial role to play in the upbringing of a child. The client has been suffering from fibrotic and necrotic left and sigmoid colon. This shows that the child has difficulty in digesting the food and also in eliminating feces. He also has a complication in rectum since undigested food is eliminated. Family needs to understand the suffering the infant is going through and be extra sensitive with his handling and food habits. He also has coughing issue while swallowing food, this shows that he is in serious trouble. Family should create a strong bonding with the baby and make him feel secured. He should not feel discomfort or insecurity as he is in a very fragile situation. 6. Health: The babies during the age of five months should be ensured maximum health and wellness as they are in the initial stage of growing. The baby is unable to swallow food and was previously suffering from fever and vomiting. He is underweight and suffers from dilated transverse colon. He is having scars in the bowel and apart from that his bowel is also smaller in size. He was introduced with an alternative feeding formula and gained control on it which is a positive sign.. His health is very fragile and is in a compromising situation ,and has also developed entero-rectal fistula in the process of treatment. Obviously , the baby has urgent nutritional requirements to support his life system and should be given emotional and physical support to cross this threatening stage. 7. Anticipatory guidance: Raising a child needs a lot of patients and counseling from experts. A parent has to be informed in the right way to cope with the changing growing pattern of the infant. Osborn(2005)refers that “Concern’s and anxiety interfere with parent’s ability to enjoy their children” (p.169).So approaching the pediatrician and getting suggestion and guidance regarding a diseased baby is the right thing needed to be done from the part of the parents. An ill baby can leave a lot of stress and anxiety in the mind of a parent and only through proper knowledge and guidance can they confront the situation boldly. The client in this case is very delicate and is in the primary stage of growth and parents has to be given correct information about baby’s illness to reduce anxiety factor. He is on a central broviac line and is scheduled for a surgery to regains his bowel functioning .Fortunately he is giving positive signs on central line and IV fluid procedures and is guided for a total parental nutrition References AskDrsear.(2006). Sleep problems. Retrieved from http://www.askdrsears .com/html/7/t070200.asp Allpsych. (2004). Freud’s stages of psychosexual development. Retrieved from http://allpsych.com/psychology101 /sexual_development.html Adolph, K.E. (n.d.). Motor development: how. Retrieved from http://www.psych.nyu.edu/adolph/PDFs/AdolphJoh2007MotorDevInfantsInAct.pdf motor development in infants. Cherry,K.(2011). Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Retrievedfromhttp://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/kohlberg.htm. Daly,W.C. (2004).Gesell's infant growth orientation: a composite. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 31(4), 133-136 Goldstein, E. (2011). Early childhood cognitive development: language development. Retrieved from http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_ doc.php?type=doc &id=12761&cn=462 Holschneider, A.M, & Puri, Prem. (2008). Hirschsprung's disease and allied disorders. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. Osborn, L.M. (2005). Pediatrics, volume 1. Philadelphia: Elsevier Mosby. Rathus, S.A.(2008). Childhood and adolescence :voyages in development . Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth Read More