OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2624, 20 November 1915, Page 10

OUR BABIES

fßi Htoeu.l

Published under tho auspices of tlie Royal New Zealand Health Society for the Ucalth of "Women end Children. • "It is wiser to put-up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." ' FOOD REFORMS FOR SCHOOLS. In a previous article wo pointed out how unfortunato it was that children attonding kindergartens should actually ho led and trained to form wrong habits by being given food between tho normal meal-times as a part of the ordinary routine of those institutions. We regret that similar practices obtain in boarding schools for older children. Customs of this kind wore excusable a«d indeed only natural when the processes and requirements of digestion were unknown. Now, however, that physiological investigations have proved conclusively that clear intervals of from four to fivo hours between meals afford tlio best conditions for the thoroughdigestion and assimilation of_ food there is not a particlo of justification left for allowing milk or "pieces" between meals. I can imagine that, at this stage, some of my renders will be exclaiming to themselves:— Is it fair that wo should be exacting in our rules of life and hygienic discipline frith regard to children, seeing that wo indulge in . morning and afternoon tea ourselves, and feel as if wo could hardly got along without themr-t'hat wo need some pick-me-up to sustain and reanimate us, and feel much better for it. Tlie fact that we, over-civilised and enorvatcd adults, have been gradually Accustoming ourselves to more and moro indulgences of this kind, and that many of us feel that we can hardly get along without early morning tea, mid-morning tea, and afternoon tea, in addition to our ordinary meals, and that when idling on board ship we a<Jtually get in a seventh refection, is no argument in favour of such practices for the young —quite the other way. Most of us recognise that these habits are mere artificial indulgences, which interfere with our proper meals and tend to give, us indigestion and "nerves." However, wo do get somo quid pro quo for our impaired health in the form of social enjoyment with our fellows, just as the Japanese used to with their endless tea ceremonies. But surely' the shallowest of us shouM bo able to see that theso habits, originating among sedentary townsfolk as a fillip for their jaded nerves, are the last tilings to encourage in children.

'Here again I can anticipate the school teacher intervening:— But you aro quite 'wrong in your assumption that wo give tlio children stimulants between meals. All that wo give is simple, nutritious, easily digestible food, which we hold to be necessary, or at least .desirable for building up their rapklly-grow-ing.tissues and sustaining.their flagging energies. An interval of four or five liours is surely t-oo long to leave a growing child without fresh supplies. The proof that we are right is seen in the fact that, without giving any "stimulants," wo see the child brighten up as the mere result of giving a glass of milk ■ and a biscuit. The obvious conclusion is that the food was needed, and', that the taking of it supplies . the increased activity just as a timely shovelful of coal sets the fire burning brighter. , This was the old assumption; but there could not be a greater fallacy. It takes hours to digest .food and get it absorbed into tho blood, packed away into tlio tissues and ready to bo burnt, by the oxygen in our blood. Much of* what wo take in to-day may- not bo burnt for weeks or months hence. Food supplies aro stored away for future use, according to the needs of tho economy. ALHNE CLIMBERS'. A person who has not learned the barest rudiments of the very modern science of physiology would gain much by a ten minutes' walk with an Alpine climber. Ask tho pioneers who first ascended and traversed Mount Cook What they took in tho way of food during their continuous trudging day. and night over ico and snow for 36 liours. They ato practically nothing. A few raisins, a little sugar, possibly a biscuit or jnvo—that was all. They knew by experience better than to waste the energies of their digestive and circulatory organs in doing the hard work of dissolving, preparing, absorbing, and assimilating food. They knew they had ample stores already laid by ,in their tissues and merely waiting for use. Contrast this position with that of tho'mother who thinks her child needs "sustaining" with a glass of milk and a biscuit before lie can be allowed to go out for a run before breakfast, or the schoolmistress who imagines that her girls need something to keep them going bctweon 8 o'clock breakfast and their 1 o'clock dinner. Again I cait imagine tho teacher persistently coming back to tho point that whatever one may say the food does somehow enter into their composition and nourish them, because within five minutes of tho taking of it tho' child is obviously brightened up and benefited. TEMPORARY STIMULATION. They might as well advocate that a child should bo taught to suck its thumb, and contend that it must get some nourishment out -of its thumb, b&oauso tho sucking of it' is capable of causing a certain amount of exhilaration.' I am quite serious, on this point. Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton, in his book on>"Tho Disorders of Digestion" says: "Tlio mere act of mastication not only supplies a stimulus to the sensory nerves m tlio mouth, it leads, to an increased supply of blood /to tho . nerve centres. . . . Tho pulso becomes more rapid. Tlio extent to _ which this occurs will hardly bo credited by anyone, who has not tried tho experiment. In my own case, I find tliat sipping half a wmeglassful of water will raise my pulse from 76 to considerably over 100.' So that, in fact, a glass of cold, water, slowly sipped will stimulate the heart as much as, or more than, a glass of brandy swallowed at a draught. The stimulant effect of sucking is soon learned by children, and we see them console themselves, and raise their spirits, by sucking their thumb •ivhen they aro depressed by being children, or by any childish misfortune; in fact, under conditions similar to those under which children of an older growth might keep their spirits up by pouring spirits down. Is anyone going to contend seriously that tho fact of our having such powers of temporarily stimulating tho nervous system and the circulation justifies our using these means out of their proper time and place?. Any doctor could tell us tlia.t one of the most fruitful sources of dyspepsia in adults is tho fact' that they have, made the unfortunate discovery' that they can temporarily pull themselves together and do away with feelings of discomfort, sinking, and faintnoiss "by taking 'a little something"—whether that something lie fluid or solid, milk or brandy. The difficulty is to break these vicious habits once they have been formed. Many a person tries in vain to "unwind tho accursed chain'' as De Qnince.v so picturesquely puts jt in his "Confessions of an Opium Eater." DR. I'ICKERILL'S WARNING. 11l New Zealand we have ;i special warning from our Professor of Dentistry, Dr. Pieltcrill, which it would be inexcusable not to take heed of. Dr. PickerilT attributes the excess of decay of tho teeth in New Zealand, compared with tho Old Country, mainly to phlMtf.h hrotg. wit

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