OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 199, 17 May 1919, Page 5

OUR BABIES

18/ Hi'onii.l Published under the auspices of the Hoyal New Zealand Society for tho Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at urn top of a precipice than to maintain un ainbulanco at the bottom." TEATS. Last week, in answer to a, question by a correspondent, we were giving an extract from the, society's book. "Feeding and C<ire of Baby," with reference to teats. This week we shall finish the quotation and deal with our correspondent's third and last question. EVIDENCES OP DETEHIOKATION. The rapid spoiling of teats, as ordinarily kept, is easily proved. One simple test of fitness for use is the rate of How when a feeder, say half-filled with milk, is turned upside down. With a new teat the milk should drop extremely slowly or not at all—indeed, none may appear even at the aperture. Assume the last condition: On trial, say. it is found that the baby takes its feeding in a quarter of an hour. Wo regard this aB tho ideal test. It is scalded six times daily and kept in boracic solution; tested a few days later, the milk drops every minute; at the end of a week it drops every low seconds; in a fortnight it droits several times a second; in thfee weeks the drops touch one another; and at the end of a month the milk spurtß out. The baby meantime has taken a quarter of an hour over his bottle at every feeding. Naturally tile nipple lias been regarded as satisfactory; but in reality the child has.insidiously come to do less and less work at each meal, and in tho end is doing almost r.ono. Anxiety about microbes has made us too forgetful of an equally important, if not more urgent, matter—viz., the ensuring of a sufficiency of daily work for the muscles of tonguo, mouth, mid jaws; involving secondarily an adequate nipply of blood to the adjacent teeth, nose, and pharynx; and, ultimately, freedom from adenoids and other conditions associated with imperfect development of the upper food and air passages. The following is a simple means of preventing growth of microbes, and at the same time preserving the teats in the most effective way:— HOW- TO KEEP TEATS. 1. Immediately after fecdine rinse the outside of the teat with cold' or warm (not hot) water, and rub with common 6alt. i

2. Turn teat inside out, rinse, and then cub thoroughly with common salt.' This removes the "milk slimo" which always gathers on the insido surface of teats.

3. Rinse with clean, boiled water .not hotter than the hand can bear.

4. Place tho'-clean, wet teat in a small Perforated box surrounded with recentlybaked sawdust, which ensures dryness, equable temperature, practically still air, and absencc of light. (Details will bo supplied on ' application to the local Plunket nurse or to tho matron of the Karitaue Baby Hospital, Duncdin.) The whole process of cleansing and putting away tho teat should occupy only a few minutes—minutes well spent for'(he sake of tho baby. If preferred tho cleansed wet teat may be put on a saucer and then dried quickly on a, warm plate-rack and stored in a small covered jar or box. No. brush is needed for cleansing teats. Rubbing witli tlic fingers and a pinch ol salt is preferable. Question 111. . Is it possible to relieve the paiu litUo infants often suiter from through teething other than by givine cooling: mtdicine' and paying 'special attention to tho ohild's food, etc.? Learne<! doctors 1 know, affirm sometimes that if infants aro correctly fed they will not suffer, also that, teethinc, being a natural proeesß, tlierd' should bo no paiu. I ain sure this is wrong, for babies nursed by their mothers often show great discomfort, as also do those fed 011 humanised mill:, and they received cooling medicine and were treated in as scientific a manner as babies could be treated, Reply. The eruption of a tooth is a crisis ir> the life of a baby, and, iust as in the case of us adults when wo have our own criticaj poriods in life, there is generally some nervous disturbance )n the organism. ff the baby has been well cared for and has had all the essentials for health freely bestowed ■ tiio disturbance is usually so slight that the teeth may appear almost without warning. 011 the other hand, babies who Save been donied the simple hygienic require-' ments suffer very much during teething, and ivhcn Die teotli do conic are frequently so bad as to bo practically useless. Tho latter may happen even with naturally-led babies, if the mother has taken 110 thought or trouble to lit Herself for her sacred duticß, When such ait one, in addition, lives in u close, stuffy, poison-laden atmosphere and takes Jier baby into bed with her instead of providing a cradle and having a stream of pure outside air flowing tnrougii the oenroom all night, the harm done is irreparable.

Mothers who 'are careless with regard to fresh air are usually superior to such "fads" as regularity of feeding, regularity of other liubits, etc., and so tho poor little mites suitor untold ills, rmd are really worse oil' than properly eared for, artitiefally-fed infants. Tlie woman who suckles her baby but ncglccts everything cleo is a more "unnatural" mother than she who, failing in'the one respect, docs her best to malic up in otiicr directions.

We are inclined to ag*cc vilh the learned doctors" who affirm that "teething, being a natural process, there should be 110 pain." In support of this wc quote the following' from "Our Teeth: How Built Up, How Destroyed. Hoyr Preserved," by ,• 5: ..ty PttNuyr dental surgeon, Evelina Children's Hospital, London, and Dr. Frank Harrison, lecturer 011 dental surgery, Sheffield University, 1908:— 'l'lio whole process of teething i's normally a physiological or natural one, and should be accomplished without the manifestations of constitutional disturbance, beyond frotfulncss on the part of the a ohild, with slight swelling of the gums and an increased flow of saliva. If any reflex irritation occurs during absorption and the cs■cape of the tooth, it is reduced to a minimum from the fact that the teeth aro cut in groups with intervals of rest between, instead of all coming through about tho same time This arrangement is decidedly in favour of the child.

The answer U> this question will bo continued next week.