OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1671, 11 February 1913, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

[BY HYGEIA.] Published under tho auspices of the Society for tho Health of Women'and Children. ■ . "It Is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulanco at tho bottom." This week we intended to deal further with tho question of mother and nurse, but the harm which is being dono to babies in tho hot summer weather by the foolish use of the Thermos flask has been so forcibly presented to us that wo feel it necessary to 6ound a warning noto with regard to it. ; DEADLY THERMOS FLASK. Tho latest deadly weapon coming into common uso against tho baby is the Thermos flask. < If a strenuous effort is not made to prevent mothers misusing this ingenious contrivance, it may prove as fatal to babies as tho long-tubo feeder or the dummy. The two last-named abominations have done so much harm in all directions that they are becoming discredited everywhere, but the Thermos flask' is so handy for keeping tea, coffee, soups, etc.,' hot for adults that tho mother not unnaturally jumps to the conclusion that she may safely keep tho baby's milk warm by the same means. i Nothing can be farther from the truth. There is all, tho world of difference between the effect of keeping liquids hot and keeping them merely luke-warm. It ,is truo that the weds, or rather the spores. of somo microbes are not, killed by boiling; but no germs can flourish or multiply if a fluid is kept as hot as we ordinarily use tea and coffee. The following extract from "What Baby Needs," page 46, clearly explains what it is essential for the mother to blow in this connection:— , Germs grow and multiply, with fearful rapidity in blood-warti fluids, but thciP vitality is checked. by any wide departure from a temperature of lOOdeg. .Fahr., and ceases, or falls to practical insignificance, when the ( temperature of a fluid is maintained below 40deg. or 50deg., or. above 120 . dcg. Fahr. ' Note that a rise of 2fldeg. above , blood-heat checks germ-life moreetfec- ' tively than'.a fall of 50deg. below it —hence it i 9 that in the- tropics keeping: a fluid hot may afford a far readier and more economical means . of preventing injurious .changes in milk than keeping tho fluid cool.

" thermos, foe tropics. On account of the retarding or destructive effect of heat on germs, wo have actually advised the uso of ,tho Thermos flask iV the tropics, in cases where ice is not obtainable for , keeping tho milk oooij but there are few places or conditions in the Dominion in which wo would recommend this procedure. , , , If the-mother could be absolutely relied on never to allow, tho milk to fall below KOdeg,-.Fahr.'i thero' would objection to making uso of'thb naek; but wo are; afraid that in practice women could not generally be trusted to make quite euro, by testing with a thermometer that they hod always a safe margin of heat on the right side. In any ease I need scarcely say thct a Thermos flask must bo as-carefully cleansed and sterillsed with boiling" water every time it is u&d an any other milk utensil. . Thero is no form of moist or fluid food which' is not liable to bccomo converted into a very deadly and rapidly fatal poison if : kept in a /tishtly-closed vessel of any kind. This is the.'reason why wo 60 often hear of. people being killed by., tinned meats, etc. Howoyor, the risk wtp such viands is as nothing compared'with tho peril to tho ;'baby of milk kept at ordianry summer temperatures, or, worst of all, at blood heat in a. corked bottlo, Closed jar,' or Thermos flask. GOING BAD FAR MORE DANGEROUS / THAN TURNING SOTJR. :. . . I If milk is kept' in a vessel in such a iray that the air can pass freely in and out; it, of courio tends to go sour after a time.. But,' though such sour milk-may give Hse to grave diarrhoea, etc., the enuring is a very harmless process compared with the production of deadly poisons, which result from milk going bad, as it does wh?n air is excluded. The tight closing of a milk jar or bottlo converts the vessel into a septic'tank, whero tho germs that.work in darkness and away from the air grow apaoe, and do thoir deadly work. CAN'T TRUST US.'' No doubt a, highly intelligent and careful mother could on occasion make good use.of a Thermo3 'flask on tho linos I liavo pointed outj but seeing how, inattentive most of us are to accuracy, the use of a thermometer, eto., I think tho safest., general advice ft to recommend mothers not ,to \iso the Thermos flask for babys food in our climato at ."all. ; ' It is quito a common thing to hear a mother speak of tho convenience of keeping her child's milk warm when she. is travelling or picnicking, so that it may bo just tho right temperature when • feedingtime comes round. The same thing .applies where the mother resorts to the foolish practice of feeding the baby'in the night. In this connection a common habit is to wrap the feeding-bottle . in flannol along with a hot-water bag. _ On all hands one finds women absolutely ignorant of 1 the injurious effect of keeping liquids mildlj; warm, even for on hour or so—and especially ignorant of the deadly peril of .so keeping them if the vessel bo closed. If one could only sheet home this one simple fact, many lives would be saved every year, and there would be far less sickness among children of all ages—but especially among babies.