OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2970, 6 January 1917, Page 5

OUR BABIES

TBY HiGEIA.I Published under tho auspices o£ the Royal New Zealand Society for tho Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to pit a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain au ambulance at the bottom." ' THE SCOUKGE''OiV SUMMER. While summer-time is delightful to all of us, and its warm days unit bright sunshine tempt people iiilo the open air, and thus tend to. banish the "colds," ".sure throats," ami "chest affections" of 'the*damper, chillier.,-seasons of tbe year—while this- health-giving: effect of summer on ■young and. old 'alike is recognised, in. every temperate regiuu of the: world, if is also found that summer kills fur more babies.-thaW any other season of the year. , - .' Tho reason ,is not far to seek. Most babies are .fed on .liquid food, which is specially liable to ferment in warm weather. Millc becomes infested with microbes; in other, .words,-:goes bad and becomes poisonous <■ more,. readily than any other food; and if we are not careful in the.selection of. a milkman it may have gone bad iu'Varm weather before reaching the home. -So, as an infant is-suckled, and; the-mother is not only regular, cleanly, and careful in' her habits, but also gives'tne baby, all . his simple primary rights foutiug, fresh air, sunlight,-.'exercise, etc.;, is no 6afer ( season than.'summer. Bui, however careful the-nio.lher may bo ( ,as to general hygiene, summer' is' dangerous, and often-fatal, if .there is any carelessness in 'artificial feeding. (whether resorted to in the early_months.or coming m the natural course':' later oni3iit weaning or afterwards), simply because microbes grow apace in warm weather, if milk is not properly attended to. ■ Summer Diarrhoea. - Why should diarrhoea .single out babies and. calves and leaves tlie" nurse-, lings more or less exempt from this special curse of summer?. In warm weather the young of horses,- pigs, dogs, cats, and the rest are almost liiiifouitiy healthy, while calves in ;all i directions are Victims to "scouring," aiid few biffies escape "the % same. scourge under.tho lame of "summer diarrhoea.""- ' Why Does Nature .Single Out Calve,* and Babies? Calves are sacrificed because man takes the cow's milk for himself, ami feeds the calf out of a bucket:' 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 sourcj. '. The important practical question which \vu havo to'face at the present moment is this:-, - , .. '•■

Are 111-liealth and Diarrhoea Inevitable During Summer Time for. Calves and Babies who Cannot'bo Suckled <

Certainly Jiot! In ■■ .froth', cases the trouble arises, not from-the more'fact'of artificial feeding, hut.because proper care is not exercised to' secure suitable food and to present 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 by the Society, there would ho little risk of disease. .Even with breastfeeding a baby may suffer' from summer diarrhoea, but immediate suitable treatment of such infants, or of those who have been''judiciously fed fry - artificial means, soon brings about recovery in the great majority of- cases., Among babies who have been improper!v fed,, on tho other hnjnd, tho 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 Budiu showed that the number of artificially-fed babies who died in Paris per week was about-20 in winter, but that in mid-fsuinmor the deaths rose to almost 200. per week. This is very strikingly 'shown in a diagram given on page '10 of the Society's pamphlet, "What Baby Needs." '...

A rise in the death rate among infants eiinitai* to the above oucurs in New Zealand during, warm weather, varying with the locality and tho heat of tho particular summer. Knowing tho cause, tho dis-' ease, is one of the most easily preventIt is not Nature or that inflicts tho 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 babies died in six weeks when tho weather was warmest. Among'breast-fed babies , the death rate for the same period averaged only 20 per week. The deaths that did take placo in either class were mainly the result of ignorance and carelessness (especially careless feeding of mother aiid child,, tho' nso of the lougtube feeder, lack of fresh air anil exercise, irregular habits, failure to keep tho breasts and the clothing covering, them clean, and use of dummy or oomfortor for the baby). During tho same three or four fatal summer months scarcoly a death from diarrhoea occurred among the babies whose mothers were availing themselves of rational ndvico tendered at the four creches then established in Paris on modern lines. About half of these more fortunate lmbies were suckled, and tho rest were bottle-fed with milk supplied at,the special "Baoies'lMilk Depot." In the provinces a similar result has been achieved. Thus Dr. Dufour, the pioneer in Normandy of the rational care of babies, including the use of humanised milk, shows that while tho death rate among infants averaged. 55 for the four principal towns, tho death rate among babies; whose mothers attended tho depots and got proper advice and food was loss than' 3 per cont.—in other words, only one-twentieth of tho mortality which. took place among the babies whoso mothers persisted in going their, own way.in spite of warnings and advice: The Plunket Nurses will he glad to see mothers and babies at tho Society s rooms. The nurses' services.are iree, and all mothers are welcome.