The book on : The Ghanaian custom of massaging a baby’s head with hot water and ointments;
The damage to the baby’s brain development.
Passage of air and food in the head.
Question: Where does the air that we breath pass inside our head?
Answer: In Pictures 22 and 23 we see a model of a brain inside the head.
We see the grey brain that lies in an enclose place surrounded by the white bones (white line).
From the brain the spine goes down along the back.
The blue color marks the air passage from the nose down to the lungs.
The yellow color marks the food passage that goes from the mouth down to the stomach.
The blue arrows mark air passing along the air passage (Picture 22). No air goes up to the head where the brain is.
Picture 22: The passage of air in the head.
Picture 23: The passage of food and liquid in the head.
Question: At the base of the throat the passage of the air meets the passage of the food. How come the food does not get into the air passage and chock us?
Answer: At the base of the muscle of the tongue there is a small valve that can open and close the air passage.
When we swallow food, the small valve closes the air passage. So, the food (marked with red arrows) can not enter the air passage (Picture 23). When we breath the small valve is open (Picture 22)