OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 101, 22 January 1921, Page 5

OUR BABIES

"Hygeia.”)

(Ry

z'ubliched under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to •maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” HEAT AND INFANT MORTALITY. There is an appallinir increase in the 'baby death-rate durine-hot weather, inis has always been recosnised more or less, bnt it is only of late years that the matter has received any serious attention. Lookinc into the death-rate of babies in Paris in tho latter part of the. rel ™, ’*! Oueen Victoria. Professor Budin fo’ 1 !'” that in one week at midsummer 2.-0 baoies died in Paris: whereas the average number who died per week at midwinter vias only 20. This was an extreme case; but it, is auite a common thine to find from five to ten times ns many babies dtlnc Jn the hottest weather ns compared witn th* coldest. Why should this be? THE MAIN SCOURGE. First it was noticed that nearly all the summer deaths were due to ££* the vast majority occurred in babies wno were being artificially fed. Further investigation showed that babies fed on condensed milk, patent foods, etc.. were not only prone to suffer trom diarrhoea, in hot ‘weather, but thev also tended to nut un a poor fight any disease they might catch, and that they Tendiiv succumbed. Babies fed with cows milk and water did better, if tolerably good milk could be secured, and if any neasonnble care was taken to keen it cool. The risk was further reduced by scalding the milk during the hottest months, or on very hot days. Still better results followed on the use of milk properly modified and prepared bo as to resemble human milk as closely as possible—in other words, by using humanised milk. However, in spite o.f every precaution as to artificial feeding—indeed,.. even in the case of breast-fed babies —it was found that infantile diarrhoea was much more prevalent and fatal in summer than- in winter. This showed t*iat the sole cause of “summer diarrhoea was not the use nf unsuitable foods for babies, nor the neo of cow’s milk unguarded bv heating. cooling. etc., so as to keep down the renin growth of microbe'’. Unsuitable and tainted foods were evidently mainly to blame; bnt Rome account ULTJ’t be taken of th« harmful effects of'AoX acting not merely on the baby’s fob's, but directly orf the baby itself. Wo all know that verv hot weather renders us languid and tired, and tends to unset us, even as adults. Recent investigations go to show that hot weather liable to interfere vc»rv seriously with the digestive and nutritive processes in babies, unless great is token to give them plenty of frest:'"Uool air day and night, and to modify their clothing or bed-c.ovcrings so ns tn nr event oppression and sweating when TtTe‘ _ Weather happens, to bo unusually sultry. AN ABSURD FALLACY. T find that many mothers entertain the absurd notion teint a baby’s clothing should not be lessened on specially sultry days. They think that any •uvh change renders the baby liable to caich cold. In reality the reverse is the case. Nothing tends to weaken and devitalise a baby and render it so liable to get colds and diarrhoea na being allowed to swelter and sweat overclothed in warm, muggy air for 24 hours. When the inevitable change to a cooler dav .comes, a baby so treated is almost sure to suffer. If. on the other hand, his clothing and bedding had been adjusted to meet the temporary rise in the thermometer, there would have been nothing to fear when the wind suddenly veered round from the sultry, nor’-wester of Canterbury or Otago 'to the sharp cold of the sou'-wester. WHAT THE PLTTNKFT NURSES FIND IN PRACTICE. The Plunket nurses find that, however carefully the baby’s food is made and safeguarded, there is a general tendency of babies to be more or less unset on very hot days, and they find that the only effective means of, combating this tendency 13 1° J? lve more outing and freili air at such times, and to keen a sharp and intelligent watch on the bedding and clothIng—not merely taking things off when there is a sudden rise of temperature, but on t Jl e lookout to resume immediately the ordinary coverings directly the wmd veers round and the day becomes chilly again. 1