OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 115, 8 February 1919, Page 5

OUR BABIES

I"B'/ Hygeia.l Published under the auspices of tho Royal Now Zealand Society lor the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a lencu it mo top of a precipice than an ambulance at the bottom." THE COLD BATH. For tho last few' weeks I have been dealing with the advantages of a tinny colfd bath, followed by active exercise, for healthy infants -who have passed the age of 18 months or two years, lly special reason for, devoting so much space to tins subject .l'Ußt now ia the fact that the summer season is tho best of all tunes foi instituting the-cold bath, whether one is dealing with normal children, whom one wants to maintain in good health ano render still more vigorous, robust, ana resistive to disease, or whether one nas tho charge of a delicate ailing child, whoso systom lacks the tone and stamina necessary for the proper nutrition ana growth of the body, necesßary also as a basis for tho high spirits' aud radiant joy of perfect childhood. ' At this stage I am prepared to hoar the mother of the Victorian era (the typical mother of tho last century, vhose ' mistaken .ideas have done so much to impose on the raco our lattor-day curse of indifference aB to maternity and inability to fulfil its calls)—l am prepared to hear this, mother of many irrational diceß exclaim with uplifted hands: Cold bath for delicate babies! Ib it not bad enough to suggest Buch hard usago for the strong? : Are we not to' be allowed to shield tenderly and protect our infants when they are sick? What new outrage is tliiB?" _ u I leave tho answer, to Dr. Emmett Holt, Professor of Diseases of .Children at Columbia University. I'rofeßsor Holt.is uni versally recognised as possibly the highest authority of tho day'on h'® su "l el i, .He says, under the heading. ".The Cold Sponge or Shower Bath":— :The Cold Sponge or Shower Bath. This should be given in tho moraine before breakfast, and in a. warm room. . The child Bhould stand in a foot-tub containing warm water enough to cover the feet, then a. large sponge holding about a pint of water at a temperature of from 40deg. to 60dcg. Fahr. Bhould be squeezed three or four times over the chest, shoulders, and Bpino of the child, the skin being nibbed meanwhile. The bath should be followed by a brisk rubbing until a thorough reaction is established. This is very useful at all ages, but a particularly valuable tonic in ' delicate children. It may be used in ■ those only 18 months old. Not tho least of the beneficial resultß is the full expansion of the lungs from the strong cry which the bath usually excites. In young infants a cold plunge may be substituted. Thiß should lie merely a single dip of the entire body in water at a temperature of 50deg to 60deg. Fahr. In order that beneficial, effects shall follow the cold sponging, a good reaction bo established. If children laclc sufficient vitality to secure this, and if they remain pale, pinched, and _ blue for some time' after tho bath, it must be discontinued altogether, or water of a higher , temperature tused.—(From "Diseases of Infancy and Childhood, by Dr. L. Emmett Holt. Page 57.) WHAT OTHER NATIONS ARE SAYING AND DOING. The above .is the typical poin t of view of those whose opinion carries most weight in the United States to-day: but lam prepared'to find eome' mothers not willing' to' rely on American testimony alone, and inclined to trust rather to the more conservative phyßicians of tho Old World. In this connection, prejudice against our co.usinß across tho Atlantio is entirely misplaced, because during tho last quarter of a century they have given Infinitely more minute and painstaking attention' to solving! tho difficult problem "how best to rear and educate our children" than any other branch of tho hu-_ man race. In Bpito of great strides in ' Bclentiflcv and material progress, tho Old .World as a whole has lagged sadly behind in dealing with the recognised and acknowledged tendency to racial degeneration which lias dogged tho footsteps of our advancing civilisation, and iB summed up 'by tho "Eugenists" to-day in the phraße "Eugenics or Extinction." However, of late years the Old World has been gradually waking up here and there to the need for paying some attention to things other than wealth, political economy, material ''progress, tho advance of science in general, and tho nature and needs of plants and tho lower animals. Tho health, fitness, and happiness _ of man himself are beginning to be realised as also worth more than a mero passing thought. Men and women of hard common ' senso find themselves to-day echoing and paraphrasing the thoughts of Rusliin and repeating with more or less conviction that.. tho wealth of nations lies in tho people themselves—in life itself — not in mere hoardings and accumulations, whether of things material or of the •ejidless "information" and so;called '"knowledge" of the schools. THE LEAD IN GERMANY. . In Germany practical scientific observations a&d researches dealing with tho tundamental need>3 of child life, undertaken during the last 10 years, have dorio much to make up for the apalUy and neglect of the imst. German phyßicians havo long been life eminent in everything concerniuc bathing. They havo spared no paiiiß in order to arrivo at' reliable, definite, conclusions regarding the effects of water applied under varying* conditions as to temperature and duration of cxposuro, etc. As the outcome of all this patient research, we are left in no manner of doubt concerning the. enormous all-round benefits derivable from the ipoming "cold tub," ' followed by a brisk rub down and aotivo exercise. It was the Germans who first of all clearly formulated and enunciated tho conditions under which the ■ greatest benefit might be derived from cold bathing; They showed conclusively that in general, within reasonable limits, tho colder the water tho more invigorating was tho effect on tho, whole system, provided that tho immersion or affusion was ■of Bhort duration—only momentary at first,'; and even this stage arrived at by a suitable gradual lowering day by day of the temperature of tho water ÜBcd. Granted theso precautions (along with rapid undressing, vigorous rubbing down and quick dressing, followed by active ex- ' ercise whero .possible, and, where not possible, by the uso of a sufficiency of suitable warm wrappings to ensure prompt, comfortable reaotionl-granted theso things, it has been found that "hardening" by cold bathing is tho most powerful and beneficial agency for assuring physical and mental vigour when the nursling stago of infancy is passed, and well on into old age. First Line of Defence. Along with proper feeding, fresh air, .and exercise, cold bathing has proved to be the most efficient of all barriei'B against delicacy of constitution and the tendency to. catch cold or fall a prey to consumption iand other invaders of-tho system. Further, it is found that the growth and development of the. body are promoted, not stunted (as some had supposed would be the case), by tho use of measures comprehensively embraced under tho term "hardening"—judiciously carried out These conclusions, I may say, aro in entire accord with numerous practical experiences that have come under my own personal observation in connection with the work of tho Society for'the Health of Women and Children during the last 12 years.