OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 140, 8 March 1919, Page 5

OUR BABIES

I'B'f HTGSIA.I

Published under the auspices of the Eoyal Now Zealand Society for t lie Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at tno top of a precipice than to niaintaia an ambulance at the bottom. the scope op tub pluxket NURSES. There seemß to be great need for a clear explanation as to the period v, hicb tho Plunhot nurses are intended to ctnu in their services to the public. In Bomo quarters tho impression seems to exist that tho nurse's duties end when thebaby is 12 months old. Yot tho very name o the society—which .is not for the of women and babies, but ot , children, should have provented such an idea from over growiiiK up. lbat it has, however, crown up is proved bs Mich remarks as the following, which I ha%e heard unite lately:—"Baby is a year oil this week, so this is the Inst time I shall bring him to tho Plunket nurso; «M did have a copy of 'The Feeding andOaie of Baby,' but I don't know -where it lias pot to since fcaby was a year old. That the dangers of the second year ana onwards are not sufficiently realised is proved also by tho difficulty the nurses sometimes experience in getting cioeo ftt* tontion paid to detail after tho first birth* day is reached, although the mother may have been most .systematic up to tnat POmt ' THE SOCIETY'S PROTEST. 'Hie time has come to protest energetically against this orroneoiis impression. It is strange that it should have been entertained anvwhere. for the society s textbook has largo sections in it devoted entirely, to the needß of tho. second or l&tei years, and emphatic warnings are uttered about the danger of want of knowledge and method when tho time comes for solid food to be given. Some 30 pages towards the end of tho book are given up In thf enro of the troth., the development of tho habit of mastication, and the prevention of such diseases as adenoids and rickets. These important questions ha.vn their beginnings, certainly, in tho period before birth and in the. first, twelvo months, but success or failure in these directions depends greatly on systematic care throughout the second year and onwards. Without this the child may be, and often is, ruined as regards his. future health, even- wlien he has thriven well, for the first year. NO SUDDENNESS IN NATURE. Moreover; tho baby does not suddenly become a child, uor the child suddenly a man or woman. Each stage merges imperceptibly into the next. . Sensible parents will look and read ahead, not trying to tako in every detail for months m advance, but in such a way that they are,.always prepared for tho next step Such parents could not fail to realise that at no time does the need for knowledge and caro suddenly leave off. It takes about 20 years to make a man or woman, and at any stage during those years (in which we are building for the future alt the time) ignorance and carelessness will seriously mar the growing structure. The younger a child, an animal, or a plant is the more easily and lastingly it is damneed. Thn.t is why the first, year is considered tho most important. PROM/EMS OP TIIE SECOND YEAH.Hut the second year has problemß all its o.ivn, by far the most urgent of which is the care of the teeth and tho dovelop; .ment of tho haibit of mastication, which has mich far-reaching effects on tho whole future health of the child. Tne appalling state of tho toetli of our olilldren (those in New Zealand being as bad as anj;, if not worse than most) is our most serious national Question. It is a greater menace to health than any other disease, and has been at the bottom of a very large number of rejections lor the army and of unfitness of every kind among tho genorul public. Once again I say that the foundations of good health and sound teeth aro laid before birth and during tho early months; but the best beginnings can be ruined later on, and with them the whole future health and efficiency of tho individual. A hundred other matters, 3uch aB sleep and exercise, exert far-reach-ing inlluonco on tho development of a child long after the first year is past, and tho Plunket nurses aro always ready to help parents in tlieso directions. At Ipast until children are of school ago and como under medical inspection, paronts 'Bhould keep them under tho supervision of tho Plunket nurses. When this is done throughout the country wo may hopo to see a rapid lessening of tho present- widespread unfitness among school childron. Much of this unfitness dates from the i'rst year, but much also' from tho timo when the child was thought to be past the need for special caro.