Caida De La Mollera
Caida de la mollera means "fallen fontanel". The actual etiology
may be any severe illness resulting in a 10% loss of body weight in an
infant such as bacterial or viral dysentery, meningitis, or sepsis.
Children with caida are commonly felt to be neglected and there is an
high degree of maternal guilt (which may not be recognized by the
health care professionals). The etiology is felt to be mechanical in
origin--the fontanel being pulled down by the soft palate when the
nipple is pulled too suddenly out of the infant's mouth or by a sudden
jolt, bump or fall. Symptoms are dehydration, crying, inability to
achieve sufficient suction while nursing, fever and diarrhea.
Remedies include: pressing upward on the soft palate with thumbs or
fingers, sucking the anterior fontanel, holding the baby upside down
over water with or without shaking or hitting the feet. Poultices are
applied to the fontanel with raw egg, oil, or liniment and the hair is
pulled up (so that the roots will raise the skin back up). This is the
most challenging and potentially fatal pediatric folk illness.