OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1919, 29 November 1913, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

fßi Hygeia.l

Published under the auspioos of the Society for the Health of Women' and I Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipico than to maintain an ambulance at tUo bottom." KOTE.—T\\© Socioty strongly dis&p* ' proved ol tho uso of artificial foo<fa t is a substitute for mothers' or humanised milk. .Full directions for • tho preparation of tho latter aro contained in tho Society's pamphlet entitled "What Baby Needs." BATHING, EXERCISE, REST. The word "bathing" is so closely associated with tho idea of washing or clcansiug that few- people liavo any clear realisation that tho process would still bo essential for perfect growth and development, and for ensuring sound, robust health, if it were not needed at all for cleanliness. In reality, tho bodily mechanism cannot bo run and built up properly without bathing,using tho term to denote alterations of hoat, cold, etc., acting on the surface of tho body. Tho merest smattering of physiology teaches us that none of our organs work by siniplo automatism —that they do not work simply from within, as a clock works during tho timo'for which it has beeu wound up, but that they havo to bo subjected directly or indirectly to varying stimulations transmitted from without by means of impulses arriving at tho nerve centres all day long through tho millions of living telegraph wires called nerves. These messages roach tho vital telegraph offices not only through special nerves, such as thoso Of seeing and hearing, but in infinitely greater number through what aro called nerves of common sensation, tho nerves whitfh go to every speck of skin, i and aro intended to be kept at work conducting impulses thence to tho centres as long as life lasts, as long as tho body continues to live, ns long as the various organs need to be kept at work in'duo accord at their appointed tasks—the heart muscle pumping, the chest heaving, tile muscles of tho blood tubes, air tubes, and food passages regulating delivery, the glands secroting digestive and other fluids, and excreting and getting rid of waste products, tlio brain feeling and thinking. To keep this hive of strenuous energy going "whole," going in "wholth" (or, as wo havo chosen to alter the word, in "health"), the drivers and regulators must ho called upon to. do their appointed tasks. If they arO allowed to be habitually idlo whilo the body is being built, ing will bo imperfectly done, and vitality will be feeble. Hence tho importance of a healthy, bodily environment during the growing period—important, indeed, throughout life, but trebly important in babyhood and youth.

' SLEEP. Tho part which' stimulation of the nerves plays in keeping the vital organs going, may be realised by reflecting how wo pave the way to sloop by cutting off outside stimuli—how tho healthy, living being approaches as near as may bs to rest and death. It does not suffico to merely withdraw light and sound.

Sleep will not usually cornc unless wo reduce the stimuli acting on tho skin and muscles by letting tho body lie comfortably slack and inert on some soft substauco, which will leavo nothing to bo supported by voluntary muscular effort, and will prevent appreciable irritative pressure at any part. Under such conditions, if the body bo also covered so as to maintain a kind of passive warmth, stimulated either by undue heat nor cokl, a normal person.cannot keep awako at the end of an active day. Sleep is nccessary for rest, recuperation, and growth. The moro vapid the growth the- moro sleep tho organism needs. Bcforo birth all is slt'op; a newly-born babe should sleep nine-tenths of tho timo; at six months sleep is reduced to about two-thirds of tho time; at 60 years six hours may suffice. .

SENSORY STIMULATION. But it must not be inferred because a six months' old baby sleeps for 16 hours out of the 24 that therefore there is no need for stimulating its activities during the waking period. Quito the contrary is tho case. If tho sensory norves (nerves that convoy impressions of light, sound, touch, variations of heat and cold, ete.) and tho muscles aro not kept active every function must aufl'er more or less —sleep itself, digestion, development, etc. —but most of all tho baby will tend to lack spirit, cheerfulness, activity, and intelligence. Tho one thing not to do ia to keep a baby coddled in a nursery, warmed, as commonly recommended, to a temperature of 70deg. to 7adeg. Fahr. A very prcmaturo infant may need at the start' an artificial atmosphere warmed on tho principle of r. chicken incabator, but a healthy baby, when a few days' old, may bo put out into the pure open air in a sheltered corner of a sunny verandah, care being taken to protect it from strong light or draughts. Tho nursery for a normal baby is better kept below rather than above COdeg.-. In fact, an ordinary cool room with an open fire to prevent dampness, and to secure ventilation rather than any marked warmth, is tho best condition for a healthy infant, provided that it is properly clad and covered, and shielded from direct draught. An airbath of varying temperature, to which tho exposed parts of the skin should bo daily subjected, promotes tho action of all the organs, and is tho best jncaus of obviating the risks of "catching cold."\ Indeed, "catching cold" is tho natural result of coddling, alternating with careless exposure to draughts. But tho habitual exposure of limited skin areas, hands, face, etc.,. is not enough. More widespread stimulation needed, and this is afforded to a sufficient degree at first during tho changing of clothes, bathing, drying, etc. ' It should bo noted that a warm atmosphere is always desirable wheu an infant is being bathed, and special caro should bo taken to prevent draught. This can bo effected by means of a screen, if a cosy position before 'the fire cannot bo secured otherwise. Full direction for the preparation of humanised milk is contained in _ tho society's published pamphlet entitled "What Baby Needs."