OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 248, 8 July 1918, Page 3

OUR BABIES

1 ■ FBI HTGSU.I

i'ublishecl under the auepicee o[ the Boynl Now Zealand Society for the Health of Women end Ohildrcn. "It in wiser to put up a Icuue at the top of a precipicu than to maintain nu ambulance at tho bottom." THE DANGEES OP WINTER TIME. In midwinter wo arc free from extreme anxiety with cegard to infantile diarrhoea; hut, this is the season when we find babies all over this country suffering from coucha and colds, sore throats, bronchitis, and pneumonia. These diseases pull them down, dama£e their ,-wholo breathing apparatus, Rire thorn adenoids, prevent the proper development of their ohesta, and tend to make them catch cold again and again throughout childhood and afterwards. This appears to me to bo tho moat. Berious side of tho matter: the damagine and weakening of the whole budding organism, through want of a little forethought and common sonse on the part of parents, and their failure to" get- a grip of what is necessary in the way ol prevention. High Winter Death-rate. There is another aide to the question of letting infants catch cold—namely the large part it plays in piling up the death rate. Turn to our annual statistics, or the annual Btatifltic3 of any country, and you will find that, while children die of diarrhoea in Bummer, they mostly' die from colds and chest attentions in winter, and it should always be borne in mind that a very large number of those who do not actually succumb in infancy, through catching cold, fall a prey later on to tuberculosis All this miserable train of evils would be avoided if parents could only be brought to realise that prevention is eaaily aohieved, and can bo achieved in one ■way only—namely, by giving every child its natural rights of abundance of pure, cool, fresh air, plenty of exercise and outing in the open air, avoidable coddling in warm, study rooms at any time, avoid' ance of excess of clothing, and, above all things, avoidance of carelessness as tu clothing. It is difficult to school oneself to Bpea"k with patience on these matters. Daily one sees little children taken from warm beds in warm kitchens (where they never ought to be) out into the open air with bare arms, bare legs, and totally insufficient wrappings; and then the mother, finding that her child catches cold, blames Frovldenoo or the cold, pure air for the results of her own stupidity. Again, look at the children placed in draughts on the 6oor, or Just inside an open doorway; or, worse still, propped up on a pillow in front of the flro .just aftor a warm hath, "toasting its toes," ae shown in the picture and. described on page 67, "Feeding and Caro of Baby." Toasting Baby's Toes. This last crazy custom is less prevalent than it was when it first came prominently under ou;; notice nearly fourteen years ago, and I think the society's picture has had something to do with bringing home a conviction of the folly of the proceeding. ''Toasting the baby's toes" used to be one of our besetting troubles. Almost every new nurse brought the same fatuous idea with her, and, spite of all warnings, we used to find the babies lying in the draughtlest place in the room, with damp I heads, Bushed faces, and , cold, blue, little bare legs, supposed to be warming up after tho bath. And the nurses would defend their action by eiying that it was the custom, or that the leading doctors nowadays preached fresh air, and said you could not have too much of it. A Personal Reminiscence. How well I remember a capable, clearheaded mother, full of common sense herself, saying to me in despair regarding her baby: "Johnny is always catching cold, and the nurse nearly drives me to distraction. She came to me with the highest recommendations; she Iβ really capable and well trained in most matters, regular us to food and habits, clean, tidy, most attentive, and vory fond of the babv; but on tho matter of fresh air she "is simply mad. 1 try to reason with her 3 J nnd bal)y P lac€{l iu a diW araugnt near tho open door or tooeting his toes in front of the fire, and toier a screen at any time; but she actually caste you up at me; saying that you f.n'd Dr. — say that people can't have too much fresh air I" Such things always call HI) in my mind the clever saying'of an eminent authority on the fresh-air trcfttr flient of consumption, when dealing \ulh the atupid lack (if common sense often shown by over-zealous partisans: "gome people have a positive passion for unnecessary discomfort.." » A.B I have said, it is very difficult sometimes to write caJmly about the unnecessary pains and penalties imposed on babies by thsir parents and guardians, and I.am certainly not in a. calm mooc! Kißt now. I am told that a uiother'3 firstborn (who had been brought to do v.-ell, and was quite- on the right track after a more than qrdinn-rily olu-qucrcd career, duo to errors in feeding), is now laid up with bronchitis. Of course, the parents ■will put the attack down to a 'visitation of Provident';'." just as Herbert Epmcpr tells us pnrents did last century whenever their children got ill.

Wh.it Herbert Suenccr Sa.ys. Paronlsi commonly regard sickness no a lnisfortunu-iia a vieifcation of Provifcenoc. TJiinltiuir after the present chaotic fashion they asiimie that i'Jfoe cvilu come without causes, or that tho oausire arc supernatural. Xothitiß of the kind • • • cenoraliy parentß themselvei- arcs responsible ior all this pain, this debility, this misery. ... In utter ignorance of tho simplest laws of life, they liavo tsen unaerminiu; the constitutions nf their children, and so Jiavo inllictra and premature death.

flow are we to Bot all parents to Rraon the fact that neither chance nor Providence forces uronnhitis or any other »r.ch malady on us or our children, but that wa ourselves nctaally arrange ahead fortlieir coining— V.-C aiye tho microbes a. staniinjt invitation to inrn<ie our bodies and tii'i , ; poEHasbion. Strangely enough, we arr nirprisod and annoyed when the gei'T.i nocept our opea invitation and upeui the whole household!

Parents could keep their children .ilmys Btrong and almost proof against. clUt.v.o \: they would only conform .to the sire;i!sHt, primary laws nod needs of healthy !i\ir.;:. s<B shown on pases 1 ami 'I a' tJic soi'ir-ly's book. But there are plenty tf n!-()o!o who won't lake the truable—v,-.-ii:"r iako an , / trouble—until the baby is ill: ''.'."n, too late, tlicy are ready to spend cr -So anything in order to cura what 'they c :.'ild so easily J avo praventt'd.