"SALVAGE."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 457, 16 March 1909, Page 3

"SALVAGE."

WITH THE PLUNKET NURSE. Go out some, day with the Plunket nurse on her rounds, as''Dominica" did; visit with her \from house to house —sometimes from room to room—and from one grey street to another, calling on mothers and infants, listening to accounts of symptoms, to suggestions for treatment, and at the end of four hours you will come home fagged out, dazed, with one bewildering impression that the world is entirely filled with babies, ill, convalescent, or blooming, and , one firm article of belief hammering itself into your brain—"A five months old naby must not bo fed on Irish stew."

Thoro is a vague idea abroad that it is the mission of the PJunket nurse, to advocate the us© of humanised milk for babies in every condition, but this is a great mistake. Nurse . Macdonald is a trained nurse who has given special attention to the treatment of baby ailments,' and she is to be consulted by any mothor who is dissatisfied with tho progress her baby is making. Sometimes a doctor will send a mother to her for advice, other mothers will come or send for her of their own necessity, but it is obvious that no one treatment will suit every case. 0110 baby that we visited, a littlo white-faced thing with' Bweet appealing eyes, had been pulled through lan illness with the help, of the ■ humanised milk, but constitutional weakness developed; it was evident that it was a case for a hospital, and the nurse could only assure tho mothor that, hard though it would be to part with tho child, it was best to send it whore it would receivo more constant caro than was possible in a'large household. Another -baby several months old had been almost given up by the doctor a few weeks ago, after a very bad .attack." It was almost difficult to beliove this, so well did the baby look now. The nurse looked at it very critically, tallied with the mother for a littlo while about its diet, and'-after suggesting, that a littlo raw meat juico would bo very good for tho child, gave directions for preparing it. Tho next baby' visited was in a very sad way, and its littlo face was very pitiful. Marasmus was its trouble, and as it was wrapped up snugly in a cot in a close little kitchen, the nurse had a good deal to' Bay about tho absolute'necessity of having plenty of .fresh air. The youngest of a family of threo, where the eldest girl is only four years old, was next to' bo visited. This was a little triumph for humanised milk. When the nurse was called to this pase she found that thefe -was nothing better to ,be dono than to order humanised milk, thoiigh it must be understood that she is never in a hurry to do that. For many months the baby had been fed on this food, with tho result that, as both mother and Nurse Macdonald declared, she was tho flower of the family. Two of tho last children to be called on wero very fine hoys, sturdy and active. Each of thorn had been weak and ailing when the nurse first went to see them. One is npw a jolly little chap, running about and looking tho picture of health,, and the other, who had been in a sad'way, is now a perfectly beautiful child,, who will not sit *° admired by any chance visitors, but shuffles about the floor at such a rapid pace that his parents have their work cut out to. keep him out of mischief. Another, a very , tiny baby with clear eyes and a-gener-ally healthy appearance, was very violently ill before it was a month old, and now, after a month's feeding with humanised milk, it is picking up wonderfully, and begins to look like a littlo health advertisement. But cno could go on qupting case after case, each resembling some other pretty closely and not altogbther, giving a really good impression of what \tllo Plunkct nurse s duties are. It is interesting to. talk to her as sho goes aboutand hear what are. the difficulties with, which sho has to contend. Tho greatest of all is tho indiscriminate giving and taking of advice. Ihero never seems to have been on all this wide earth a woman who did hot think she could prescribe for her neighbour's baby, and the suggestions offered aro sometimes so wild that one marvels how any child ever Certainly the, angel who looks after little babies has a most exasperating time, and ho must always have his arms wide open expecting the infants to fly back to him soon alter they reach this dull, gossiping, conservative old world. A great many mothers have not the faintest idea that a baby should or should not eat, and ono hears of twelvehours old infants boing fed 'on cornflour, gruel, or biscuits. It seems to many women impossible that milk should in itself be a . nourishing food, and great is their belief in °/ '1° cn,st - With a cr "st in •fcitol +k1 a l s . orts of odd times, they v cl ! off - one moth er' v T ? < j' s ! l)our to £ ll 'o her five-months hi hni v 1 S^i"'- 1 Ivas wllat sllß gave he baby, sho said, platefuls of it at a time, and her baby grew fat, though it did not develop in other ways. Manv of these mothers consider humanised mill/is too much trouble to prepare, and in its pl ace they will advise tho inexperienced mother to give some sort of easily cooked patent food, quite regardless of the fact that the human sed milk contain, all tho things that „ baby requires, while the patent food will be deficient 111 some particular. It is easv tn ~n,ilS 1 how difficult it is sometimes for tho nurse who can only pay occasional visits, to contend with the.advice of tho lady across tho way, who is instant in season and out of season with her kindly-meant but unscientific advice, and it. is not to be wondered at if tho young mothor backslides and takes tn crusts; patent foods, and long-tubed bottles That is another thing the nurse is verv fi:m about. Tho sight of a long-tubed bottle is evi in her eyes Sho knows how impossible it is to clean them properly, and how frequently digestive disorders are caused by the unciean rubber. Whenever she can, she persuades tho mothers to substitute the tubeless bottlo, which is easy to clean. Hero in Wellington over-crowding and great poverty mako lifo very hard for many a littlo babv. Ihcro aro a great many households whero 'it would bo practically impossible for the mothor to preparo mimanised milk for her baby, and in some of these cases tho nurse has prepared it herself and sent it every dav. What is wanted is a place where tho milk can bo prepared and supplied at a reasonable* rate and what is wanted more than anything else is a pure milk supply for Wellington. If the members of the Council and the Parliamentary representatives could go 011 her round with tho Plunket nurse, and see what the conditions of life are here in Wellington, surely they would do their best to secure this reform, at least, and arrange for some system of supplying pure milk to tho babies of tho city.