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Three instances of emotional problems in infancy are discussed with the aim of confirming or denying the psychoanalytic theory on the oral phase of libidinal development. One child manifested an unusual amount of sucking activity at five and one half months of age which was traceable to severe frustration caused by a thrush infection in its first days of life. It later went through a very severe biting phase.
A second child manifested inconsistent behavior related to feeding and biting which might have been the consequence of a bad relationship with its mother and a sudden change to a rigid foster mother.
A third baby developed normally until ten and one half months but suddenly stopped after undergoing a severe local and systemic reaction to a smallpox vaccination. The boy then regressed to his earlier excessive sucking activity with marked impatience and with no biting activity at all. Leitch states that more detailed and systematic studies are needed in order to determine both the range and variability of infant behavior and the relationship between specific modes of behavior and constitutional, physical and environmental conditions.