OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1651, 18 January 1913, Page 15

OUR BABIES.

[BY HYGEUi]

Published undor the auspices of tho Socioty for tho Health of Women and' Childi'cii. "It is wiser to put up a fence at.the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at tho bottom."!

THE CUBSE OF SUMMER. While summer-time is. delightful' to all of us and its' warm days and .bright sunshino tempt people into tho open air,.and thus tend ito banish tho "colds" sore throats, and "chest affections" of•'• the damper,' chillier seasons of tho yearwhile this-health-giving effect of summer on young and old alike is recognised in every temporato region .of the world, it is also found that summer kills far.inoro babies than any other season of the year. Why is this? Why should summer not bo the safest instead of the most dangerous timo of year for, infants? The reason'is not far to ;seek. Most babies are fed on liquid food which is specially liable to ferment in warm weather.' Milk becomes infested with microbes; in other word's, goes bad and becomes poisonous,-mora'readily than uny other food, and if wo are not careful in the selection of a milkman.itvmayhave gone bad in warm weather before reaching the home. So ;long as an infant is suckled,' and .tho. mother is not only regular, cleanly, and careful in'her habits, but also gives tho baby all his simple primary rights (outing, fresh.air, sunlight exercise, etc.), there is no safer season than summer.' But, howoyor careful tho mother may bo as to general hygiene, summer is dangerous, -and often fatal, if thero is any carelessness in artificial feeding (whether resorted to 'in tho early months or coining in the natural'course' later on at weaning or afterwards), simply, because microbes grow apaco in warm weather if milk is not properly attended. to., :' ••.■'.■ . , .'.,.'•

:;,, SUMMER DIARRHOEA.' .- ! Why should diarrhoea singlo out babies and calves and leave tho rest of nurslings more < or'; lesa exempt from this special curso'of summer? In warm weather the young of horses, pigs, dogs, cats, and the rest are almost uniformly healthy, while calves in all directions aro victims to "scouring," arid-few" babies escape the same scourge under tho name of "summer diarrhoea."

Why Does Nature Single out Calves and Babies?.

Calves, are sacrificed because man takes the cow's milk for himself, and feeds tho calf out'of a bucket. 'Tho baby is sacrificed because the mother's; breast is denied to, it also, and improper food, contaminated with germs, is substituted for the pure, perfect, blood-warm, living stream i '-direct from -the proper source. The important practical question which we have to face at the present moment is this:— '.-■'.

Aro ill-health and diarrhoea, during summer time for calves and babies who cuunot bo suckled?" '

Certaintly not! In both cases the tronble arises not from the mere fact of artificial feeding, "but because proper caro is not exercised to secure suitablo food and to prevent fermentation; For babies, humanised milk supplies by far the Nearest approach to the mother's .'niilk, and if kept 000 l and given according to tho directions' contained in .tho instructions issued by the society, there wpuld bo little risk.of disease. "Even'with breast-feeding ; a |bnby -.may(suffer+from-summer■. dinrrh6pa; but - ! immediately' suitable '"treatment of such infants, or of those who have been judiciously.fed.by' artificial.means, soon brings about 'recovery in; the great majority of cases. Among .babies who havo,been improperly fed on-the other, hand,, the risk of death from, an attack of diarrhoea is very greht indeed, and lasting debility is often left where, the baby does not actually succumb.

DEATH! TOLL OF DIARRHOEA. ' Professor Budin showed that the Humcit lVfts , -[)er';wcck, , -was ; but that in mid-summer tho deaths rose to almost 260 per week., This is very strikingly-shown in a diagrahi given ;'oh page 40 of the Society's pamphlet. "What Baby Needs."

Ansein tho c death rate among infants similar, to the' above occurs' in 'New Zealand (luring varying with. th« locality and the heat of the particular summer. Knowing tho cause, the di°«aso is ono of the most easily preventable, and tho mother, who allows, her baby to succumb during-the next few months should fcel," : in -nine '''cases •. out of ton, that she has herself to blame. It is not Nature or [Providence that inflicts tho curso of summer diarrhoea, but the' mother -herself.. --That [this is-literally and absolutely ''truo.v,wlll bo'vrealls-' cd by -j/fl.nydne .'• consulting - the';', Paris 1 diagram; which shoW^liiit'over.'iCOO.-babies' died in six weeks wheiVtKe-'wcjtßer-was".' warmest.. - Among breast-fed basics :? the death-rate for the same period averaged only 20 per week. The deaths that did tako placo-in'cither class were mainly the result of ignorance and carelessness (especially careless feeding of mother and child, tho use of the .long-tube .feeder, lack of fresh air and exercise, irtcgular habits, failure' to '■ keep tho breasts rind ,tho, clothing covering thorn clean,'and use ot dummy or comforter, for the baby). During tho samo .three 1 or; fourfntal .sum* mer months scarcely a death from diarrhoea occurred , among the babies; whose mothers-were availing themselves'of -rational advice tendered at'tho four c.eehea then established in Paris on ; modern lines. About half of theso.more fortunate babies were suckled, and the rest were bottle-fed with milk supplied at tho' special ''Babies' Milk Depot." In tho .• provinces a similar result has been achicvod, Thus Dr. Dufour, the pioneer in 'Normandy of the rational care of babies, including the' use of humanised milk, shows that while the death rate among infants averaged 55 for ,tho. four principal towns, "the, death rate among babies whose mothers' attended tho dopots and got proper advico and food was less than 3 per cent.—in other words, only of the mortality which took place among the babies'whose mothers persisted in going their own way in spite of -.warnings and.advice. -.-.'■

SUMMER IS ON US. It is hoped, now we are reaching tho critical summer period for babies, that mothers in our midst will avail themselves of, tho printed advico issued by the society; and also make uso of the practical instructions which aro given every Wednesday afternoon, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Karitano Baby Hospital, Anderson's Bay, Dunedin, or that they will communicate with the Plunket Nurse. The' services of the Plunket Nurse are always available for any mother who desires advice or help.' It should bo realised that if a baby can not bo' breast-fed, it should receive pro-perly-graded and prepared numanised milk from tho start. In Dunedin, _in cases where the mother's milk fails, humanised milk proporly graded for the baby is delivered at any home. Nothing can bo more senseless and absurd than the way in whioh Women, subject their babies to wrong feeding urtil. they become ill, and then frantically turn to some other method. If- they treated their offspring properly during the most risky period of life—namely, tho first few months—tho rest would usually be plain sailing, and they, would save, the lia-by from an infinity of harm, andescape unonding trouble and regrets for ■themselves. '.-"-■'■

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