SOURCE OF INFECTION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 25 November 1927, Page 9

SOURCE OF INFECTION

BABIES' COMFORTERS CONDEMNED. THEIR ABOLITION ADVOCATED. Because they expose the children to risk of infection from all manner of complaints, comforters should be abolished in New Zealand, as they have been in France, Dr. G. J. j- Blackmore, medical superintendent of • V the consumptive sanatoria at Christchurch, said on Wednesday. “It is a perfectly logical move, and should have been carried out years ago,” said the doctor speaking of the French decision. “Comforters are very unhealthy. There is no telling what sort of things they pick up. They are most unhygienic. I have told the nurses at the Cashmere Fresh Air Home that the children must never be allowed to have comforters. It is purely a matter of hygiene so far as we are concerned but I am not sure that the constant sucking of these things has not a bad effect otherwise. It is not natural. Constant sucking creates a large amount of secretion. Thli is intended for the softening of foods, and is not intended to be constantly poured out and absorbed into the stomach. But the great thing, of course, is J just a matter of health from the infection point of view. In a house where there is consumption the germs fall about the patient's bed and on to the floor. Now, if a child lets its comforter fall on the floor, and then puts it into its mouth, it is also putting germs there. That is the trouble. All sorts' of germs must get on to these things .They certainly should be abolished.”