OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2681, 29 January 1916, Page 10

OUR BABIES

TBT Htqeia.]

Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealond Health fiocicty for tho Health of | Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulancc at tho bottom."

i SUMMER DIARRHOEA',

Last week, when dealing with this subject, wo pointed out that summer diarrhoea rarely attacks babies unless they have been a little "out of sorts," or actually failing in health beforehand. Wo now enumerate some of tho dangers to bo avoided and the precautions to be taken. KEEP BABY GERM-PROOF. When will mothers and nurses realise that a child who has apparently thriven for months, in spite of wrong treatment, may suddenly fall a victim to some malady against which his system -would havo been quite proof had he been kept in a state of perfect health and fitness, by paying duo attention to all tho simple laws of lifo and primary noods of infancy. A baby may. hold out against almost any form of inattention or carelessness during spring, and yet succumb to the. first drink of tainted milk given to him on a warm summer's day. Tho effect of such food on a perfectly healthy baby' might be niarely to bring on passing colic, or to cause one or more green motions; but if tho system had been insidiously -undermined previously (though there might havo been nothing apparently wroug with tho baby) the effect of a single feeding with risky food might bo an attack of acute diarrhoea, ending fatally, simply because the child had not acquired enough stamina to put up a good fight

If a baby is fed artificially, and tfiero is no means of keeping prepared milk below 60deg. Fahr., the mother should hoat up to 155deg. any residue left over at the end of 12 hours after preparation, and then cool it down rapidly as directed on page 23, "Feeding and Care of Baby," and keep it cool. If there is no thermometer in the house .the milk may bo mildly scalded as follows: —

HOW TO SCALD MILK. Place the jug of milk in a saucepan of hot water, heat until the water boils, and keepboiling for ten minutes. Then cool rapidly in running water, etc., keeping covered as directed in the societys' ,book. EPIDEMIC DIARRHOEA. Under the abovo heading, Dr. Ralph Vincent, senior physician to the Infants' Hospital, Westminster, makes the following remarks on the disease more commonly known as "summer diarrhoea of infants" : —This disease ;is peculiarly liable to ajjpear at certain times of the year, and is practically absent in other portions of the year. The conditions in which the disease arises occur during hot weather, and especially during a hot summer. The characteristic of the disease in regard'-to the date of its appear, once is that it appears mostly towards the latter end of summer, when tho heat has continued for some considerable time. (Memo, by "Hygeia": The worst months in New Zealand aro January, February, and March.),

THE MOST FATAL DISEASE. As a mortal disease affecting babies, epidemic diarrhoea is the most serious of all. The number of deaths depends on the temperature. If it is a cool summer the number of deaths is comparatively low; if it is a hot summer the number of- deaths i 3 very high indeed. (Naturally the hotter the summer tho more tho germs grow and Sourish in tho milk.) The year 1904 afforded a sad illustration in England. Tho summer of that year was very hot, and in many towns throughout the country nearly one-half _the. babies under 12. months old died in the threo months July, August, and September. These infants .died because they were poisoned. (Poisoned, as Dr. Vincent prooeeds to 'show, mainly by the microbes contained in tainted milk, acting on babies who had not been kept in such a state of lirst-rato health and condition as to enable them to resist tho attacks of germs.—"Hygeia.") Dr. Vincent emphasises the fact that the name "Epidemic Diarrhoea" is liable to be somewhat misleading, because, although all epiJcmic diseases tend to attack the bodily "unfit" rather than tho "fit," yet people who are quite well may fall victims.

HOW TO PREVENT DIARRHOEA. In the case of so-called epidemic diarrhoea of infants, however, the disease is strictly avoidable. It can be avoided by taking tlie following very simple precautions—namely:—

1. ,13y always supplying "What Every Baby Needs, \Vhetbcr Well or 111" (see the society's book, pages 1 and 2).

Don't invite the microbes to establish themselves in the interior of the baby by keeping the soil ready prepared for their growth. A stitch in time saves nine. Don't be careless about tho baby's liealth merely because the season happens to he good and he appears to he flourishing and seemingly in no need ,of special attention. Don't omit anytiling that he is rightly entitled to have, and that tends to keep him always at the highest pitch of health and fitness. 2. By not feeding him with germladen, poisoned milk or any other improper food.