Babytalk | Everything you might want to know about sneezing
Babies sneeze, children sneeze, adults sneeze, we all sneeze. Does it mean good luck is on the way? Does it mean company is coming over? Does your heart stop when you sneeze? Will your eyeballs pop out of your head if you keep your eyes open when you sneeze?
Well, you may get company and have some good luck, but your heart does not stop and your eyeballs will not pop out of your head.
Sneezing is a reflex we are born with to help clean out our noses. Unlike the Moro reflex and the sucking reflex which we outgrow, the sneezing reflex is with us all of our lives.
Babies do a lot of sneezing because they have little noses. The purpose of the sneeze is to clean the nose of irritants. Those irritants can be bacteria, viruses, mucus, smoke and even dust bunnies in the air.
Sneezing is a natural defense system to rid the baby’s nose of billions of irritants, which they experience after birth.
Sneezes start in our nerves (neurons). Our nervous system is like the interstate highway system connecting people across the country. Except it is more like a fast bullet train because messages travel so quickly. A nerve or neuron is a fiber that sends impulses throughout our body. Those fibers are covered with a fatty covering called myelin. The myelin helps the messages travel quickly. The nerve cells work by a mixture of both chemical and electrical action.
How quickly do these messages travel? Electrical nerve signals can travel as fast as 450 feet a second. That is why when you feel a sneeze coming on you usually cannot stop it. The neurons in the nose detect irritants that need to leave the nose. Those neurons electrically stimulate the message to the brain to start the sneeze. The whole sequence of events involved in the sneeze, the tightening of the chest, the closing of the eyes and the explosion of air out your nose is pretty much out of your control.
People sneeze from other things beside irritants in the nose. Some people sneeze in bright sunlight, excessive physical activity, pressing on the forehead. Anything that stimulates the nerve path between the nose and the brain can stimulate a sneeze.
When a baby sneezes, it is not like when an adult sneezes. They sneeze in short bursts. Adults tend to sneeze louder and more vigorously than babies. Babies do not seem to be bothered by sneezing, just like the they are not bothered by hiccoughing.
However if a baby is sneezing and also is coughing, has trouble breathing, refuses to eat, is lethargic or has a temperature above 100.4 F, the baby needs to be seen by a medical professional.
Interestingly, excessive sneezing is also associated with withdrawal from an opioid, such as heroin or methadone. When a baby has been exposed to those drugs during pregnancy, one of the withdrawal symptoms we see is excessive sneezing. We actually count their sneezes, along with other symptoms, to help us determine how much morphine to give them as they withdraw from those drugs.
The post sneeze blessing of, God bless you, is attributed to Pope Gregory the Great (died in 604), during the bubonic plague. It was because you do not breathe when you sneeze, therefore it was like a near death experience. By saying God bless you, it will prevent the soul from escaping the body and deter the devil from entering in.
God bless you.
Katie Powers, R.N., is a board-certified lactation consultant and perinatal educator at Manatee Memorial Hospital’s Family BirthPlace. Her column appears every other week in Healthy Living in the Bradenton Herald. Contact her at katie.powers@mmhhs.com.