Elsie Mobbs

• LATCHMENT before attachment for mammal babies. The first emotional relationship is formed through the infant’s behaviour of sucking and this occurs before the predominantly and visually dependent behavioural period named by J.Bowlby as ‘Attachment’. Dr Elsie Mobbs, Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Service, NSW.

Oral Tactile Imprinting is a

genetically determined by evolution survival strategy to

latch the infant to the source of nutrition and protection -

it precedes visual attachment

A take home message

It’s LATCHING BEHAVIOUR (Mobbs)

BeforeATTACHING BEHAVIOUR (Bowlby)

OR

“Thumbsucking is normal behaviour”Put forward for this argument is:

• The foetus thumbsucks in utero;• Many thumbsucking babies still breastfeed;• It does no harm and is cleaner than a dummy;• The sucking reduces the cortisol levels;• “My child did it and he/she is ok”;• We can’t compare humans with animals.

“Thumbsucking is pathological”Put forward for this argument is:

• It does not occur in those cultures where the newborn has proximity to an uncovered nipple;

“Thumbsucking is pathological”Put forward for this argument is:

• John Bowlby states “rhesus monkeys and chimpanzee infants brought up without mothers to cling to show a greater excess of autoerotic sucking … thumbsucking is not seen in chimps reared with their mothers” Page 268, Attachment, Penguin, 1978.

• Elsie Mobbs states that very young chimps are mostly seen latched on with the maternal nipple in the infant’s mouth. Why did Bowlby not bring attention to the latch on the nipple?

“Thumbsucking is pathological”Put forward for this argument is:

• It occurs across the mammalian spectrum in the circumstances of maternal nipple deprivation when it is called stereotypical behaviour or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD);

“Okay, so my crazy Chihuahua sucks on her paw when

she is falling asleep. Kind of like a toddler! So I’m

starting to wonder if I need to look for

a doggie orthodontist”

http://www.mycrazychihuahua.com/dogblog/index.php/chihuahua/my-chihuahua-sucking-her-paw.html

• An oral tactile sucking fixation on the self thumb is very difficult to stop once it has become entrenched and not uncommonly it progresses into adulthood for humans and other mammals;

“I’ve been trying to find someone else who has a Chihuahua that sucks on her paw this way! My 6-year old has done it since she was a tiny puppy. She’ll suck till she falls asleep and has actually fallen over a few times if she’s sitting up while she does it. It’s so funny and so cute! They are just like babies.” http://www.mycrazychihuahua.com/dogblog/index.php/chihuahua/my-chihuahua-sucking-her-paw.html

“Thumbsucking is pathological”Put forward for this argument is

• It not uncommonly progresses into adulthood.

• It results in facial malocclusions in human children and in other thumbsucking mammals;

“Thumbsucking is pathological”Put forward for this argument is:

• ThumbGuard Australia

http://www.squidoo.com/thumbsucking101

Malocclusions from thumbsucking

Note skew on jaw and dentition - malocclusion

“Thumbsucking is pathological”Put forward for this argument is:

• Thumbsucking is associated with shorter duration of breastfeeding, nipple confusion and failure to breastfeed;

“Thumbsucking is pathological”Put forward for this argument is:

• Thumbsucking is associated with speech disorders;

The relationship of bottle feeding and other sucking behaviors with speech disorder in Patagonian preschoolersBarbosa C, Vasquez S, Parada MA, Gonzalez JCV, Jackson C, Yanez ND, Gelaye B, Fitzpatrick ALBMC Pediatrics 2009, 9:66 (21 October 2009)

• Vigorous thumb sucking may profoundly alter the development of the mouth and the positioning of the teeth in the upper and lower jaws. As a result, the roof of the mouth is pushed upward and narrows, which leads to the development of a cross bite. Improper positioning of the front teeth and tongue can often lead to speech impediments (the inability to pronounce certain sounds).

• Mouth devices are made to prevent it.• Punishment does not necessarily stop it;

• Thumbsucking in utero would mean non-survival for mammals other than human as the mother would reject the newborn if the newborn does not latch on the nipple;

Thumb and Dummy Sucking is pathological behaviour

A take home message

The best explanation for non-nutritive sucking on either thumbs or dummies is that of Freudian displacement of genetically determined behaviour in the absence of the stimulus feature evolved through evolution, the mother’s nipple.

Freudian displacement of genetically determined behaviour – visual attachment

Mammals do not push food into the newborn’s mouth, the mother makes herself proximal to the baby and the baby latches on all by itself.

Practical paediatrics 5th Ed MJ Robinson DM Robinon

Longman Group UK Ltd 1998 Page 770

• Orofacial trauma is present in 50% of reported cases of child abuse. … These result from slapping, punching, hand over mouth, forcible feeding with spoon or fork and forcible intrusion or removal of a feeding bottle, dummy or toy from the mouth.

•

• Committee on Child Abuse…Liaison Representatives Staff American Academy of Pediatric...

Oral injuries may be inflicted with instruments such as eating utensils or a bottle during forced feedings.

• PEDIATRICS Vol. 116 No. 6 December 2005, pp. 1565-1568 (doi:10.1542/peds.2005-2315)

http://williambearclaw.wordpress.com/2009/04/09/all-sloths-have-three-toes-silly/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqio2G_Ra6g&feature=related“They are orphaned … they are usually in a big pile and they will often suckle on each others ears … once in a while they’ll get the heel of a hand or a foot.” from DVD The funniest baby sloth ever. accessed 22/7/2010

Maternal Nipple deprivation: MOTHERLESS BABY SLOTH SUCKING HIS FINGERS

•The nipple is a stimulus feature

Displacement of genetically determined behaviour: As well as self-sucking and inanimate object sucking• SPECIES SPECIFIC ADOPTIVE

SUCKING• NUTRITIVE OR NON-NUTRITVE

SUCKING• CROSS-SPECIES SUCKING• CROSS-SUCKING

Maternal Nipple Deprivation and

Freudian displacement• All mammals will displace their

emotional oral tactile fixation/imprint onto a body part (their own or an adjacent animal) or an inanimate object, such as a dummy, in the circumstance of maternal nipple deprivation.

A take home message

• All mammals will displace their emotional oral tactile fixation onto a body part (their own or an adjacent animal) or an inanimate object in the circumstance of maternal nipple deprivation.

Maternal Nipple Deprivation and

Stereotypical behaviours

• From ethology there is evidence that stereotypical behaviours, occuring in surviving mammals, only occur when the newborn are reared or have partial rearing by humans.

Freudian displacement of Oral Tactile Imprinting only occurs in mammals when they are human

reared

A take home message

Determinants of infant behaviour. Proceedings of a Tavistock study group on mother-infant interaction held in the house of the CIBA Foundation, London

September 1959, Edited by BM Foss, Methuen & Co Ltd London pp37-44

• Mavis Gunther “What I thought was occurring in a Lorenzian way was that the shape of the nipple and the tissue drawn with it into the mouth was acting as a sign release stimulus evoking instinctive feeding behaviour in the baby … the baby is likely to get imprinted with the bottle teat – it falls in love with it … Mothers who have endured it lose all wish to feed the baby because they cannot bear being so rejected by the baby … She says `It always takes the bottle so well’ Of course it does!”

Maternal Nipple Deprivation and

thumbsucking Harlow monkeys:

as well as head banging, rocking and self injurious behaviours, the infant monkeys were thumbsucking.

Maternal Nipple Deprivation and

thumbsucking Harlow monkeys:

for the recognition of mother in the mouth, they did not choose wire frame with milk – they chose thumbsucking and a cloth mother.