OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1657, 25 January 1913, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

[BY Hygeia.] : |

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children; "It is wieer to put up a fcncc at tho, top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." y . . WHY BABIES DIE. ,At tliis season o! the year there is one thing which anyone interested in the welfare of babies should insist on over and over again, and that is ,the need for eternal care and watchfulness on the part of tho mother or nurse to prevent the baby being given even a single meal of risky or tainted inilk. Some women save themselves tho, troublo _of thinking,.or. taking, care, by indiscriminately .'boiling the milk every morning and evening; but they fail'to realise that by so doing they injure the nutritivo qualities of the baby's food and render the child more liable to :atch disease, besides'endowing it .with: less stamina to'hold out after disease has jained a ;foothold than'.would bo the case ivith a child fed for the .most part on anboiled' milk; ~■ . . • : : : Milk which has been boiled* condensed,' >r dried tends: to cause constipation, and t.must lie borne in mind that constiparion is first <tousin'to diarrhoea..-, A' constipated child is ■ liable at any moment to ;o to the opposite extreme and to readily icquiro intractable diarrhoea. . ■ Tho resorting to superheated milk ihould be limited to the times, occasions, tnd local circumstances which more or ess'necessitate its use. Thus, .in, oertain ocalities, during very sultry, trying weaher, the use of' superheated milk (wheher boiled, oondensed, or dried), properly ) nodified and prepared to suit the baby, nay be' a wise precaution.' But why.' hould the mother subject tho baby's milk' 0 the' pfejudical effects of superheating, very day in the week,' when, perhaps, ; van in a :bad'.locality there are not a lozen days'in £ho -.hottest ;month of the ' ■ear which'render this precaution deirable? ' ' The true housewife and mother watchte' 1 he v weather, ,'and notes.any. sharp rise or., all'-in"tho 'temperature, cveiv though her : iaby.is.Jrcast-fed andithers is.no milk to > ireparo: Sho is attentive to changes in tho, reather, because. sho has tof see .that, tho • ihild is neither underclad nor overclad lay or night; and' sho has to note tho lirection of. tho wind.' so as . to guard igainst undue draughts. But'if tho baby s reosiviiig cow's milk the' incantive to raying reasonable, .attention to -the reather is-infinito'y greater than in tho :ase of a nurseling at the breast. SAFE THE; BABIES. To save the baby from the curse of uarrhoea during tho next ~ihr<&'months he mother 'herself' in /Mod' lealth tnd breast-feed if possible; failing his, give humanised - milk according to he sooiety's directions" iji" "Feeding' and tore of Baby," or,'"What Baby Ife'eds." 1 It is worth noting 'that'"Kihlo'.babies fcrive better up to three or. four months if age if given one part of new milk vhojr to every three or four parts of hnnanised, milk than they, do if given hiinanised'milk puro. This is specially' ikely to bo the case if there is any tenlency to constipation; where the tenlency is the other, way, any 'extra' whey s apt to make , the infant still more reaxed.' Some babies are benefited by tho addi;ion of from two to four ounces •of boiled: lew milk with the day's allowance of hunanised milk. • A gradual addition in this lirection can be tried in any case'where :he "baby's weight fails to go up at the iverago rate, and;,this allowance cah':be '.ontinued if it appears to suit. , Hemember that heat, fermentation, and mproper food are the main causes of in'antile diarrhoea. Therefore secure the right; food at once, and'keep it'clean and sool in a shaded, open-air 6afe. Beware )f condensed milk, patent" foods, 'and simple diluted tow's milk with or' witli>ut cane sugar or barley water. Mothers ;o on using such foods so long as the oaby seoms to be doing well,, forgetful of the; fact that 6ooner ■ or;later ' the baby lsually breaks dorni, apd in any caw. will lot thrive 60 well' as on food' properly idapted.to the needs of infancy. If the >aby becomes ; ill, call .in a doctor without lelay. Remember .that, though diarrhoea s a common' ailment, it is' the one broad ivenue/leading to debility' and' death in nfancy, , Most of the children' who (lie iter of other ailments.have been maimed tnd weakened., first-of ail., by infantile Uarrhoea. •