OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2120, 11 April 1914, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

TUT HTQIU.I

Published under the auspices of the So,«J»ty for the Health of Women nnd Children. "It Iβ wisor to pot up a fenoe ».t the top »t a. precipice than to maintain an ambulance at toe bottom." FRESH-AIR BABIES. Tho difference between the coddled baby who" is kept in the warm, moist, used-up air of tho paronte , bedroom, compared with tho bai>y that has a cool, airy room to itself, is truly astonishing. ' The reader may say: "Inat ia all very well; bub you are lorgotttng that the parents' bedroom may be_ thoroughly treali and properly ventilated— wnat then?" My reply is that most people consider their bedroom "properly ventilated" when, they keep the top Bash open a few inches, and very often they almost, do away with the , effect of this by blinds or curtains. Hpwovo-r, suppose- they do open tho window quite wide, and suppose also that there is a good, broad, free current of air streaming across the bedroom and_ going up a...chimney ;at the opposite side 01-tho room —in how 'many such cases do you fiiyl tho baby's cradle or cot placed, on the. opposite aide of the stream,', as shown on page 65 of "Feeding and Gare of' Baby," not on tho same side as th\ parents' bed? I venture to say that, except .-where- the Plunket mirse hasexplained and demonstrated what ought tte dono,; there aro not five cases in a hundred where the baby is given, ;;the stimulus all night long of pure, cool, unpolluted air. - ■ : • WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? It.makes all the difference in the world. Our nurses have reniarkedjOver and over again: , "You can nearly a ivays tell, a fresh-air baby by its colour and firmness." Of course, paleness and flabbiness may bo brought about by wrong feeding—especially by the-uso of condensed milk, patent foods, etc.; but tho most universal cause of debility is lack of fresh air and exercise. Indeed, it is quite a common thing to come across babies who are'very pale and soft though entirely breast-fed. The mother may say that she has noticed the pallor herself—indeed, that she has been wondering whether her milk was too poor. More often she will say: "Oh, the paleness >is nothing; people- tell mo that suckled babies are often pala, though perfectly healthy." It is quite truo-that'nurslings often lack colour and. firmness, but it is never true that such 'babies are perfectly healthy. It is very easy fo, provo this; all that needs to be- done is to place the cradle in a .BepaTate airy room and to give the baby a reasonable, amount of outing and kicking exercise, and the change which takes place in its vigour, vitality, and appearance, even in the course of week or ten days, is often truly astonishing. _ 1 am-not speaking of tlio improved surface' colour that may be brought about by the mere tanning effect of sunlight and exposure, but the true, rich, "red-right-through" that suffuses the face.of the baby whose blood has the proper : redness Brought 'about by living in pure fresh air day end night.. r , - ■

MALNUTRITION AND RICKETS. • I was very much struck some time ago by a caso to which my attention was drawn by a doctor. Two children of ■ strong, well-to-do parents both showed marked rickets, though they had been entirely breast-fed until ten months of age. Tho elder had adenoids, as well, and the younger'child, was un■able to crawl or _stand, ; 'at'l3. ( months.; r The mother was r 'a! strong/ -healthy" woman, and the children appeared to have every advantage except fresh air in the bedroom. They woro always "catching cold." They slept in a long, narrow room with their parents, tho children's cots being farthest removed from the window, which was kept partially open. Quite recently,.in London, I saw several cases where infants wero pale, delicate, and ricketty in spite of wealthy and luxurious surroundings. Rickets isgenerally supposed to be the' result of poverty and ignorance; but it is quite common among tho children of tho well-to-do, especially, where they are wrongly fed, besides , sleeping in an "over-warm" room along with a nurse. So-called- "scurvy-rickets" is actually more- common among the infants of those who are well-to-do than among tho poor, and Dr. Clement Dukes drew attention some years ago to tho fact that a largo proportion of the-. boys of wealthy parents going to the great English public schools showed , clear evidences of having suffered, from malnutrition and rickets during infancy. There is no excuse whatever for depriving any child of the great safeguard afforded by having plenty of puro, cool, fresh air in the. bedroom. Of course, there are cases among tho • extremely poor, living in slums in the Old World, where pure 'air for the baby ie as difficult to procure as pure, good food; but this is comparatively rare in our own country. , ' ' It is impossible to impress too strongly upon aft parents that the outside air, eveu in densely-inhabited streets and -backyards, is always comparatively pure, and that it is quite a common thing for parents,-living in-the open country in the midst of,green fields, to keep their baby all night long , in a bedroom atmosphere ten times as impure as that of thfe so-called istitlling courts of city slums. '".. All Plunket. nurses tell us the same story—that it is far easier to getpar•ents to .take reasonable troublo with regard' to preparing and safeguarding milk for , tho baby than it is to'get them'to Rive their child the inestimable benefit of cool air day and night. The fact is that parents aro afraid of cool, ■fresh air; they think it will give their baby cold; whereas it is the ono and only means by which babies can be; prevented from catching cold. Surely nothing can be mori> striking than tho fact that the people who tend to be most sonsitivo to cold and chills—tho people suffering from consumption—soon, 'find themselves free from all tendency to catch cold simply because they are all day long and all night loiig in pure, cool, gently-moving air. Now, what is .true of'. consumptives' is true also of people in general, and of babies in particular, whether well or ill. A baby will scarcely take disease if kept habitnall.v in-pure, cool air and properly beddeil and clothed, besides being reasonably fed and tended. BABY HOSPITALS. One illustration must suffice. In tho wealthy and luxurious baby hospitals of Berlin and Vienna, where tho Continental bad habit of keeping the wards stiflingly close prevails, andwhnro tho air is habitually heated t<, 70deg. Fahr., it is found that tho babies are always catching some kind of epidemic "cold or chest trouble (for instance, influenza, .bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia), and that, on the average, every child who remains in the institution contracts ono such fresh malady every month of its sojourn. In our society's baby hospital at Dunediri, on the other hand, whero a gentle flow of pure, cool, fresh air is the absolute rule, tho institution is entirely free from' such epidemics.

HOSPITALISM. "HospitalismuS," as tho German call it.- is the'eurso of European baby hospitals, and accounts for their high death rate. Tho reason why wo liavo no hospitalism at the Karitano Hospital is tho fact that wo are not afraid of pure, vHelair, but dread warm, muggy air. Of course, tho worst of all tilings is careless change from warm, stuffy rooms to cold air and draughts, especially if

there is also carelessness as to clothing. "I need to. say nothing as to tho habit of having tho baby sleeping in bed with the mother. That habit is unspeakable, and ought to bo regarded as not simply vicious, but criminal." Glaxo Builds Hontur Babioe.—Advt.