OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3976, 8 July 1915, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

By Hygein

Published under the auspices of the Royal Mew 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.”

COOL FRESH AIR FOR RABIES

Last week I had to interrupt the continuity of the articles o r \ “Fresh. Air for Babies,” but I will resume' now my quotations from the very sensible remarks by Dr apd Mrs Fitz in their “Problems of Babyhood.”

My previous article concluded with the words: —“After a three-hours’ sleep in an ontsido window-box in zero weather (mid-winter, Boston. U.S.A.), a six months’ baby properly protected will come in with glowing cheeks and a body radiating warmth.” Then they proceed :

A BABY IN A BLIZZARD. I know that to many mothers this will seem incredible. I remember well the horror of one another who, on learning that a six months’ baby was asleep out-of-doors one winter day, exclaimed, “A baby out in a blizzard!” When the baby came in she rushed to feel its rosy cheeks., its cars, and nose, fo’he could hardly believe her own senses when she found them’ warm. Her own two little boys were jealously guarded from every breath of cold air. In .response to a remark about the baby’s marked freedom from nose and throat troubles, she admitted that her children on the contrary., wore almost. never free from colds. FRESH AIR BEST FOR ALL.

The idea that it is a safe procedure only with constitutionally strong children, who survive because of tlieir abnormal strength, is a most pathetic perversion of cause and effect, and has gained what semblance of truth it lias only through the common criminal neglect adequately to clothe children in cold weather. The shivering little mite in the fine raiment which sacrifices warmth to daintiness, is predestined to physical depression, and, of course, cannot he subjected to stimulating conditions; but the vigorous little human animal whose blood runs warmly in its well-protected body will tingle with the physical exhilaration from exposure to crisp life-giving air. BEST TONIC AND BEST SEDATIVE Moreover, the coolness of fresh air is not only a tonic for the physical, but is a most valuable sedative for the nervous system of the growing child. Where everyone realises tin; feverish restlessness consequent upon excessive heat, it seems strange that so many ignore the soothing influence of cold. I have seen a child refuse to sleep m a room with a temperature of 65dog Fahr. tossing to and fro upon his bed, and I have seen the same child when taken up and put into an outside ventilated wiiulow-hox, the awnings of which were thrashed by driving sleet, fall immediately into a restful sleep, which lasted for three hours.

KARITANE BABY HOSPITAL. The views of Dr Fitz are entirely borne out- by the Society’s experience in connection with the Karitane Hospital, near Dunedin, where delicate babies live in the pure, fresh air day and night, winter and summer. The bedroom windows are left wide open, and provided the beds are properly made (see pages So and JGO “Feeding and Caro of Baby”), and kept out of the direct lino of draught between window and chimney, besides being protected from driving wind by a screen when- needed, no (‘olds are caught. WHAT THE NERVES SAY.

Indeed, the nurses who «mio for training at Karitane all remark how much they are impressed with the effect of fresh air on the weak, delicate mortals'who are sent to the hospital! to recuperate. These babies often arrive with colds; but a few weeks of proper regular feeding and iresh an seem to make, them ‘‘cold proof. ’ 'i he babies practically never “catch cold” in the hospital, though they sleep in bedrooms whore the windows are as wide open as they will go, and the am current is flowing fresh and free across the room and out ol a wide-open window on the opposite side, or else up the chimney. Except for delicate, coddled babies at the start, or lor prematures, no fires or other means ot heating the bedroom is resorted to.

The difference in the appearance and “feel” of a “fresh-air baby’’ as compared with one who is “coddled is most striking. The iresh air babj is ruddy, firm fleshed, active, jolly, and a sound sleeper; while the average coddled baby is pale, pasty, querulous, and fretful, often snuffing with cold and usually a bad sleeper. As for sickness in general, iresh cool air and activity arc the greatest- safeguards against getting ill, while coddled children tend to catch “everything that’s going,” and are not good at recovering.