OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 203, 22 May 1920, Page 5

OUR BABIES

|"BT HTOBU.I Published nnder the auspices of the • Royal Now Zealand Society for the ■ Health of Women and Children. , . "It la wiser to put up ft fence, at the ■ top of a preoiplco than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." ) KEEPING BABY SLEETING IN BED BESIDE PABENTS. Kecentlv I wrote stroucly, on this offence, in connection with the death by ovorljrmsr of two babies in one month in Duncdin eonie nine years afro, and a similar case which occurred during tho pnst month. At tho same time I referred to tho irreat wrong inflicted oh the very large number of babies -who are injured for life hy living at riitrht in the vaporous, inuggy, enervating air beside tlieir parents. Do people realise'the ocean of air as they do the ocean of water? I am, perfectly certain they do not;, though air is Just as real. a. substance as water, ana in one sense is more immediately important to ns. A fish livine at tho bottom of the ocean of -water, and never coming to the surface, -would not realise tnap water was anythin? at all. . It misrht say to itself. "I know there is nothing Between me and that rock yonder, because I can see through and swim through the intervening space; it is merely empty . space." If the fish were once to go to ino surface and thrust its tail un into the air, it would grasp the fact, that water, was a, very real substance, but it woum now imagino that in reaching Aolovfit its own ocean it had come indeed, to a complete void and emptiness. Tho fish would not realise that it had only reached tho bottom of another ocoan-the Brent ocean of air. which covers tho whole world for mifen deep. . „„„„ Human beings arc in' much the same position as the deep-water _ fish.: re\ er having gone up 'to.tho top of their ocean, they do not really understand that air i'b nnything-that it is real matter-real and substantial. How many people truly apprehend, for instance, that every livino thin* in the world.is built mainly out oi air and water, and that m its immediate relations to human existence and •-lWllty, air is by far thb most important loon. Without.air wo did in three or four minutes. Without water wo die in three o-- four dayß. Without ordinary food .wo can live for threo or four week, cr even ifis'a'mazing that wo should voluntarily subject our children or ourselves to .the devitalising influence of damp, sodden, enervating air for five hundred minutes every night. <whon we know that .tlib complete withdrawal of air for only a few minutes will stamp out life' for. ever. Children habitually deprived of- nurefrejli air crow up soft, pale, and feeble in hody and'mind compared with thos? reared in the open air, and they fall ill and succumb to disease much more readily than those who are broueht up ruddy, healthy, and hardy. . ■■ ~ , Every particle of vegetation, every herb and tree, every trait and flower, every block of coal, every drop of oil is f«»en. tially built out of tho air, not out of the solid land, as so many .people sail imagine; and back to tho atmosphere they return sooner or later. We all Know this in ono sense, but we signally fail to grasp it- in another. Wo learn it ns a kind of shibboleth: but how many of.us nut this knowledge to practical use m our. own lives or in tho rearing of pur families? When will our: peonle understand that an abundant nupply of pure, cool air day and night-Gods bounty to all, rich and poor alike-is ,ono of tho greatest privileges and blessings of existence; a gracious gift that would be' regarded as even more worth struggling and payino- for than good food, but for tho fact that it is invisible,, intangible, free, and therefore unappreciated ana unaccepted? " , . '•.finch'a sad occurrendo as the overlyine of a, baby, proves conclusively how much room there is for real practical -education in the hygiene of tho homo and the individual. •■; 'i ~ ' ... ~ We have lately baett dealing with the teaching of health in the schools. What an enormous advance in/.he health of the whole community would take place if. from now on, all the children in onr schools w«ro broueht to understand the advantages of pure, cool, fresh air by day and night, and were practically taught how to ensure them in the school and in the house; and at the same time were ©neonrajed to form the habit of living in clean,.pure air. TTiifortunately. tho actual- daily practice in most cohools would seem to be designed to prove the very, opposite. . Practice is better than precept. ■■ ■ ... : What. is the use of morely telling children they ought to live in pure, cool, fresh air, swim, play, active eames. and tako plenty of outdoor: evercise, if the class room 3 are close and stuffy, and no adequate playgrounds or other, facilities for healthy recreation aro provided. 'j.lio formation of healthy daily. habitE ie the main essential. . If proper hyaicoib training and, practice obtained in all our schools it is unthinkable that in after life any man or woman would commit the senseless folly and crime of keeping a baby in bed with them.