OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1895, 1 November 1913, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

TBT Htobu/I Published undor the auapioes of tb* Boeioty for the Health of Wouwx and Children. "It ii wlwr to put up a. fenoo at tilt top •f «. proclaim than to maintain »n unonUnce at tin bottom. NOTE.—The Society •trongly di«ap- ' proves of the use of artiflolal foods Oil a substitute far motions or numanlsed milk. Pull directions lor the preparation of the latter are contained in the Society's pampnJet entitled "What Baby Needs." THE LONDON CONGRESS ON INFANT MORTALITY AND CHILD WELFARE. (Continued'.) London, September I. Last week I devoted o portion of my artiole to describing and commenting, on a visit paid to the London Hospital, in company with members of tho Siedioal Congress, and shall now continue the subject. In the first baby's cot we saw there was a tiny infant, loft to itself with a feeding-bottle three-quarters full. I picked up the feeder (which had no cover), and found that the milk wa.° almost bold. -

One marvels at such' careless and faulty treatment exhibited to the world under the very eyes and countenance of eminent doctors and nurses. These authorities are responsible not only for an example set to a large section of tho Medical and Nursing professions, but the London Hospital )« rogardeo. by the teeming millions of the East End as embodying everything that is best for' the welfare of suffering humanity—from cradle, to old ago. Oui leaders can judge for themselves as to how the difficulties of the problem of reform in such \ matters strike ub on this side of the world! _ We have been working among mothers in Bethnal Green,' not far .from the London Hospital, and were puzzled at first to find how universal was

HAND-EMBEOIDERED TENNIS FBOCK. t(ho "crummy habit," whereas in St. Pancras on© sees a considerable number of babies without it. Now we know the reason-; as I said j lost week, the use of the dummy is \ absolutely, forbidden in the St. Pan-1 eras School for Mothers Further, hygienic cradles aro not only on exhibl-1 tion in that school, but aro supplied, provided with a chaff mattress and a piece of blanket and waterproof, at Is. 6d. each. I shall havo something to say later as to the denunciation of the dummy at the dental section of .tha Interna tional Congress. EXERCISE. As regards the need of oxerciße for both mother and child nothing in. the whole proceedings of the Congresses was more striking than the way in whioh this important factor of health was left out of account, apart from what the dentists said in their special Bection as to the necessity of adequate use of mouth, jaws and teeth, in order to onsure proper formation and .development of the parts and freedom from decay. As regards expectant and nursing mothers, we sat hour after hour listening to delegates (both men and women—mainly describing the ■ways and means by which they cot moro nourishing materials for mothers, and were inducing them to take more food. But fresh air was scarcely mentioned, and exercise not at* all, until Dr. Truby King drew attention to the faot that, even in England, probably less than a fifth of the mothers really suffered from lack of food, and that the general tendency m ratJher to ovor-eat, especially whero / ignorant nurses told expectant women, as tfhoy so often did, that they mu\t "eat for two —two who at most would not weigh more than one and a-twentiotht Dr. King spoke strongly as to the ©xDerionce and conclusions arrived at by breeders of tho lower animals, who one and all give exercise the first place for the welfaro of mother and offspring. Ho specially cited horses, cows, dogs, and sheep, among which ho said practical experience showed that parturition was rendered unsafe and difficult if insufficient exorcise was provided or induced —the offspring of indolent mothers being inferior among the lower animals just as they were in the case of human beings. At the concluding meeting of tho Infantile Mortality Congress the chairman, Alderman Broadbent, referred to these and other allusions to the lower animals as '-'a strange new element in tho proceedings of this congress, coming from abroad, which had proved very thought-provoking?" However', what interested us most in this connection was'the emphatic testimony as to the paramount importance of exorcise for women that followed onco the subject had been broached. Several doctors,got up ono after th« othar 1

to support Hs claims, and to state quite unequivocally that the tendency of motherß was to over-eat nowadays and to cause indigestion, becauso adequate oxeroise was not taken, Dr. Erio Pritchard, physician to & leading London hospital, said that even among the poor of Marylebone it was the woman who had to work hard .at oharring and scrubbing who came off best at child-birth. While deprecating over-work, and claiming proper exe*H»tiori from unduo drudgery or excessive work of any kind, he said, it was most important to protest against inactivity and indolence, and especially to make olear that ovor-eating, oombined with unduo passivity, was a far more common source of trouble at child-birth and afterward than shortness of food, on which so muoh attention tended to he focused. As regards the ohildreii, what strikes one and all coming from New Zealand, Australia, and Oanada, is the extraordinary way in whioh children in the West End are coddled, in houses or wheeled in perambulators and' go-oarts for years after they ought to be spending most of their timo out on the grass in the parks or on sand heaps, quietly busy in their own little ways, or laughing, shouting, running, playing, romping, and tumbling over one another. Of course, all English children of the well-to-do are not spoiled. One sees very marked exceptions. For instance, next door to us there U a doctor's family where the children are sturdy, ideal little ouiH)f-door romps and splendidly developed. Indeed, while one swallow i does not make a summer, these ohildren ' tend to. support John Burns's contention that "doctors' families are the best off. as shown by an infantile death rate pi only 4 per cent., as oomp«fed with 10 per cent, or more in the general.community." EXERCISE FOR JAWS AND TEETH. As for exeroising the jaws, there is a general agreement that the worst teeth are not found among the ohildren of the poor in the East End of London, where they tend to take "what's going," and often got most damaging food, but among tho spoiled indolent pap-fed children of the West End, where neither the mothers nor the nurses seem to have any idea that the jaws and teeth aro intended for use in infancy. On the contrary, they almost invariably cut off the crusts; and, if any meal is given, tlioy finely mmce or even pound it, and never dream of giving raw apples, etc. As a result, the food is bolted almost without chewing or mixture with saliva, and indigestion, bad teeth, and 'adenoids naturally ensue. One sees many a sturdy, healthy child in the wosßt quarters of tho East End who would moto than hold its own againßt the eoft, fat, pampered ohildren of the . West End. Indeed, there, are in a(l directions most convincing object-lessons as to the equal or greater national need for the domestio education of well-to-do girls .■ arid mothors, as contrasted with confining training m motherhood to the pooror olasses, who alone receive attention in these matters here in Eng'innd.

AH our experience on this Bide of the world goes to confirm tho wisdom of the policy which our New Zealand Plunket Society has always pursued in this matter, and which is so clearly embodied in . the printed rules just received from Cbristchurch:— This form of education ("Education in Motherhood") will be free, because it is in the highest interests of tho State that, as far as possible, every woman in the Dominion shall be induced to avail ■ herself of the services offered by the society, with a view to the betterment of tho race—the recipient herself being always regarded as a potential health-advocate and teach- \ ' eiv.\' ■'■'■■' Of course, the majority of tho cbildreirof the East End are gravely dam'agod!rand. more or loss stunted through the unhealthiness of their homes and adverse conditions of life, due largely to the ignorance of their parents. But what one feels most strongly is that for the "East Enders" there ib every exouse, compared with wealthy families in tho West End. However, even among the well-to-do tho fault is tho fault of,society rather thor of the individual. What right has thb' nation to expect anything of its most favoured girls when they come to bo mothers if their whole environment, training, and education have left out of oa-ount normal'all-round development, high domestic and womanly ideals, and especially if tho subject of motherhood has been tabooed and the care of children never even mentioned? The society strongly disapproves of the use of artificial foods as a substitute for mother's or humanised mik. Full directions for the preparation of the latter is contained in the society's published pamphlot entitled "What Baby Needs."

Glaxo Builds Bonnj Babies.—Advt.