Re: [CH] question of age

danceswithcarp (dcombs@bloomington.in.us)
Sat, 15 May 1999 11:28:17 -0500 (EST)

On Fri, 14 May 1999, Tom Cuneo wrote:
> Rob and I
> were manning the booth when a 5 year old girl came up and dipped a chip
> into the bowl of sauce, before rob or I could stop her in a panic (and she
> took a pretty good chipful)  she ate it, walked away smiling, then a few
> minutes later brought her YOUNGER brother back by grabbed another chip and
> handed it to him, we freaked out even more trying to stop her, He ate it,
> never wimpered, never cried, Rob and I were comletely flabergasted,
> freaking out and yet amazed all at the same time  ..... 


A kid that lived across the street from us growing up had absolutely no
sensitivity to peppers.  We'd sneak jean's chinese off of the ornamental
bushes just to feed them to him and watch him not react.  

I have a very good friend who is a general surgeon and we have talked a
lot about kids and pain in general.  There's a strong belief in the
medical profession that kids don't feel a lot of pain like adults do.  Oh,
they feel real broken bones and real bad burns but there's actually a
line of thinkig that the failure to feel less intensive pain by kids is
a self-protection mechanism since kids are so prone to getting injured by
things that won't hirt adults.  Since cap pain isn't real pain there may
be some biological barrier at wirk (WIRK?) on some that lets them get away
with things us adults would never do with chiles.

Or..........maybe kids are just genetically superior to us adults.



carp