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Skin is classified as an organ and includes hair and nails and nerve endings.
Functions of the skin:
- Protection
- Elasticity
- Maintaining temperature
- Exploration of environment
- Communication
- Absorption / elimination
- Storage
Nerve fibres which transmit the touch or tactile responses are larger than those associated with the other senses. At birth the baby’s skin is covered with a whitish grease called the vernix, which acts as an insulating layer helping to protect the New-born from minor infections and also to cope with changes of temperature. For the naked New-born the temperature at which body heat can be maintained with minimal effort is 32°C. With clothes on, this temperature is 24°C. Temperature control is poorly developed in the early months and babies are at risk of:
1. Overheating because sweat glands do not develop until the third year. Overheating has been linked with cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) as the crying babies make to alert parents also increases body temperature; and
2. Chilling also puts babies at risk because they are not able to shiver as a way of raising their body temperature. One of the main mechanisms for temperature control is babies’ development of brown fat layers in the first and second years. A New-born’s skin is thin, but it contains as many nerve endings as that of the adult, although smaller.
Machanoreceptors:
- Meissner corpuscles are tightly packed together at birth and will only start to thin out as the skin grows. These touch receptors register light touch and stroking, the main movements in baby massage and yoga.
- Pacinian corpuscles recognise and respond to deep pressure. This ability to ‘feel’ pain protects babies from harm. The forms of touch the child receives can have an effect on future behavioural patterns. The skin also contains thermoreceptors detecting warmth and cool and nociceptrors which detect pain and overlap with the pacinian corpuscles.
Skin to Skin
Direct skin-to-skin contact has been shown to produce amazing physiological changes:
- Temperature fluctuations are reduced. Babies maintain their temperature from the warmth of their mothers skin
- Babies become calmer and cry less
- Using this form of holding encourages and maintains the ability of a preterm baby to breastfeed.
- The risk of apnoea (arrested breathing) and sudden changes in heart beat are reduced.
The human homunculus showing the extent of sensory cortex that is devoted to each body part. The area that responds to touch is proportionally more developed. The lips are highly sensitive in a baby, followed by the thumb and the hand. This also matches to sensitivity.
How this applies to yoga…
The use of touch during massage and yoga has
profound implications for babies. It excites the
Meissner corpusles, relaxing the baby and teaching
correct responses to touch.