OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2675, 22 January 1916, Page 10

OUR BABIES

TBY Hyceia.l Publielicd under thii auspices of tho Eoyal New Zealand Health fiocicty for the Lteultli of Women ai.d Children. "It is wiser to put «p a fence at the top of ft precipico than toi maintain an ambulance at the bottom."' THE SCOURGE OF SU3IMER. While summer-time is delightful to all of us, and its warm days and bright sunshine tempt iwople into the open air, and thus tend to banish the "colds," sore throats, and "chest affections" of the damper, chillier seasons of the year—wh'ilo this health-giving effect of summer on young and old alike is recognised, in every temperate region of the world, it is also found that summer kills far morq babies than any other season of the year. The reason is' not far to seek. Most babies aro fed on liquid food which is specially liable to ferment in warm weather.' Milk becomes infested with microbes; in other words, goes bad and becomes poisonous, moro readily than any other food, and if we are not careful in tho. selection of a milkman it may liavo gone bad in warm weather before reaching the home. So long as an infant is suckled, and the mother is not only regular, cleanly, and careful in her habits, but also gives the baby all his simple primary rights (outing, fresh air, sunlight, exercise, etc.), -thero is no safer season than summer. But, however careful tho mother may bo as to general hygiene, summer is dangerous, and often fatal, if there is any carelessness ill artificial feeding (whether resorted to in the early months or coming in. the natural course later oil at weaning or simply because .microbes grow apace, m warm weather if mills is not property attended •to. SUMMER DIARRHOEA. Why should diarrhoea single out babies/ and calves and leave the rest of nurslings more or less exempt from this special curse of summer? In warm weather tho young of horses, pigs, dogs, cats, and the rest are almost uniformly healthy, while calves in all directions arc _ victims to "scouring," and few babies escape the same scourgo under the'name of "summer diarrhoea."

"WHY DOES NATURE SINGLE OUT CALVES AND BABIES?

Calves are sacrificed because man takes the cow's milk for himself, and feeds the calf out of a bticket. The baby is sacrificed because the mother's breast is denied to it also," and improper food, contaminated with germs, is substituted for the pure, perfect, blood-warm, living stream direct from the proper source. The important practical question which we have to face at the present moment is this: —Are ill-health and diarrhoea inevitable during summer time for calves and babies who cannot bo suckled? Certainly not! In both cases the trouble arises not from the more fact of artificial feeding, but because proper care is not exercised 'to secure suitable food and to prevent fermentation. For babies, humanised milk supplies by far the nearest approach to the mother's milk, and if kept cool and given according to the directions contained in the instructions issued bj the society, there would bo little risk of disease. Even with breast-feeding a baby may_ suffer from summer diarrhoea, but immediate suitable treatment of such infants, or of these who have been judiciously fed by artificial means, soon brings about recovery in the great majority of cases. Among babies who have been improperly fed, on the other hand, the risk of death from an attack of diarrhoea is very great indeed, and lasting debility is often left where the baby does not actually succumb.

DEATH TOLL OF -DIARRHOEA. Professor Budin showed that the number of artificially-fed babies who died in Paris per week was about 20 in winter, but that in mid-summer tho deaths rose to almost 260 per week. This is very strikingly shown in a diagram given on page 40 of the society's pamphlet, "What.Baby Needs." A riso in th«s death-rate among infants similar to the above occurs in New Zealand during warm weather, varying with'.tho locality and the heat of the particular summer. ..Knowing the cause, the. disease is one" of the most easily preventable, and the mother who allows her baby to succumb during the neixt few months should feel iu nine cases; out of ten, that the has herself to blame. It is not Nature or Providence that inflicts the curse of summer diarrhoea; but the mother herself. That -this is literally and absolutely true will be realised by anyone consulting the Paris diagram, which shows that over 1000 babites died in six weeks when the weather was warmest. Among breast-fed babies the death rate for the same period averaged only 20 per week. The deaths that did take place in oither class were mainly the result of ignorance and carelessness (especially earel \ss. feeding of < mother and child, the use of the longtube feeder, lack of fresh air and exorcise, irregular habits, failuro to keep the hi easts; and the clothing covering them clean, and use of dummy or comforter foil tho baby). During the same three .pr four fatal summer months scarceljy a death from diarrhoea occurrcdfamong the babies whose i> others were iavailing themselves of rational advice tendered at the four creches then established in Paris on modern lines.; About half of these more fortunate babies were suckled, and the rest were bottle-fed_ with milk supplied at the special "Babies' Milk Depot." In. the provinces a sijmlar result has been achieved. Thus Dr. Dufour, tho pioneer in Normandy of the rational care of babies, including the use of humanised milk, shows that while tho death rate among babies whoso mothers attended the depots and got proper advico and food was less than 3 per cent. —in other words only one-twentieth of ilio mortality which took place among thn babies whose mothers persisted in pding their own way in spite of warn, injgs and advice.