Psychosomatic Study of Infantile Eczema

Abstract

Comparisons of findings in interviews with the mothers of 25 infants with infantile eczema and of 18 control cases revealed that in a significantly higher proportion among the eczema cases the mother tended to let the baby cry without picking it up unless there was some obvious physical discomfort present in the infant. This was taken to indicate that most eczematous infants received inadequate caressing and cuddling. (Spitz, in an independent investigation, came to a similar conclusion.) While the study was designed to test the possibility of a quantitative lack of maternal-child physical contact (which was demonstrated), the study did not rule out the possibility that qualitative aspects of the contacts were also significant. The lack of cuddling and caressing of the child was found to result most commonly from an attitude on the part of the mother of wishing to be free from being burdened with the care and responsibility of raising a child. These mothers would generally try to justify their infant-rearing practices by saying that they did not wish "to spoil" their babies. In a smaller group of mothers it seemed likely that their relative lack of caressing was due to physical fatigue or weakness. The lack of cuddling and caressing in most of the cases studied was felt to be an important factor in causing the eczema. However, other factors such as constitutional predisposition and allergy were possibly equally important. Certain therapeutic suggestions were made on the basis of the hypothesis.