OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 294, 31 August 1918, Page 2

OUR BABIES

. fBY HIOBIA.I I'tibllshed under tlio auspices of the Boyal Now ZeuTand Society for tho Health of Women and Children. "It. is wiser to put up a foncu at tho top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom" OVKH-ANX tOUH IIOTHEKS. The following is extracted from a uurea's letter received a few weokti ago:— A NUKSFS LETTER. I ain very pleased to read the. "Our liabics'" column every week, anil am sure it must help the mothers a great deal. 1 am going to ask if it would be possible 1o write an article imploring the mothers of New Zealand not to worry over their babies too much. It is difficult to got tho right typo of nurse, because she is allowed no responsibility or use of discipline. Some mothers simply worry themselves into a nervous breakdown over their children; the child is never left alone for a minute; its little brain is never quiet, and even when asleep the mother is bending over it every few moments to see If it is awake, etc, Don't Worry. If we were asked what is tho greatest curse of modern life from a health point of view nine out of ton of us would probably 1 answer, "iNerves." Quito rightly. Wo are only too well accustomed to nervous hysterical women and girls and even children; but do people auniciently realise that quite young babies can have tho.r nerves thoroughly upset By injudicious treatment, with disastrous consetiuences to their digestion and general health? This fact iB at tile bottom of far more of our babies' troubles than most of us think. I do not say a word agahißt their being surrounded with all the love of which we are capable, but it should be "a calm and sensible, uot-'a worrying and agitated love. You may say, "How can a tiny baby, incapable of speaking and thinking, be affected by the state of mind of those who are handling it?'' 1 can only reply that the experience of our flunkct. and Karitanc nurses shows that they are very much affected by it. One only needs to remember that a horse .instantly recognises tho hand of a nervous rider or driver to realise that it is not necessary to be a .speaking and thinking being in order to. be adversely affected by an.atmosphero of nerves and of lack of self-control. It is ; hard for young mothers, many of whom have themselves grown up with a damaged nervous system, to t..ke their babies calmly, as it were, especially tho first, one. But if they realised how much they harm litem simply by worrying too much over them, they would snaro no effort towards self-control. Certainly one potent reason for. worrying over babies has been the utter unproparedncsß of "iris for the solemn responsibility of motherhood . Wo do not. worry over that

• which we understand how to do. Education in Mothcrcraft Essential. Until quite recently knowledge was supposed to come to the mother with the baby, and many a girl has found herself left cruelly in the lurch, confronted with <ill sorts of little problems, to which the fact of motherhood has not 'brought the expected key. Often she has been ashamed to confess ignorance, but has struggled on until things have gone thoroughly wrong. If sho had lcarrit the solution of theso problems beforehand, how much anxiety to hersolf and dainago to the baby might havo beon saved? An .over-anxious mother harms her baby not only by the atmosphere with'which she surrounds him, but by the actual irregularity of her dealingß with him. She is apt to feed him, or, at least, pick him up whenever he cries, and to "spoil" him generally. It must bo remembered that a baby may be spoilt from his very first day. He needs a certain amount of handling and change of posture, but more than this is moßt harmful. Strict regularity of all' habits is absolutely neceßsary. This applies equally to the baby w.ho has been damaged not by worry, but by being treated too much as a -plaything. The over-stimulated baby will not digest his food properly, and therefore will not thrive. We all know that unset nerves will affect our own digestion. With a baby it is even more likely to happen. A baby needs much more rest and quiet, than an older child or a grown-up person. The younger ho is the moro ho sleeps, and the more he needs to sleep. Once upset, ho begins to be spoilt, and so it may go on, the baby getting always more upset, and eoiißeoueutlj- more spoilt, the mother growing more and moro worried, one reacting on the other, till the mother is broken down and the baby in a thoroughly bad state. Quito a number of such babies come to Kn.ritn.nc, and it is found that their whole complaint is "jiorves." At the hospital they are cared for devotedly, but at the same timo with firmness, not rocked or patted to elecp, not carried about or fed during the night, and not worried over, and their troubles disappear very rapidly, Many, however, do not come to the hospital, but may bo nndcr a, Plunkct nurse, or, perhaps, the mother has -a Karitaue nui'BO for the baby. Often, where the mother is of a nervous disposition, the nurse's task is a very hard one. The l mother will not leave the baby sufficiently i alono, and will not let the nurse order his j day with due discipline. ' A baby may bo ' very young indeed, and yet. try to get his j own way. With n mother who cannot treat ' him quietly and firmly, ho may quito early ' become a perfect little tyrant to his own i great detriment and the discomfort of i everyone in the house. i T.ho injunction, "Don't worry," immortal- ! iaed by Donald Ilankey, needs to be often i on the lips of Plunket- and Karitane nurses. To rush to the other extreme is, howover, equally bad, but I must leave that side of the question until later.