OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 622, 26 November 1913, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. "ft is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." BATHING, EXERCISE, REST. The word "bathing" is so closely associated with the idea of washing or cleansing that f>w people have any clear realisation that the process would still be essential for perfect growth and development, and for ensuring sound, robust health, if it were not needed at all for cleanliness. In reality the bodily mechanism cannot be run aid built up properly without bathing, using the term to denote alterations of heat, cold, etc, acting an the suif.:ce of the body. The merest smattering of, physiology teaches us that none of our organs work by simple automatism —that they do not work simply fiom within as a clock works during the time for which it has been wound up, but that they have to be subjected directly or indirectly to varying stimulations transmitted from without by means of impulses arriving at the nerve centres ill day t.hroegh the millions of living telegraph wires called nerves These messag. s reach the vital telegraph offices ret only through special nerves, =uch as those ot seeing and hearing, but in infinitely greater number through what are called nerves of common sensation, the nerves which go to every speck of skin, and are intended to be kept at work conducting impulses thence to the centres as long as lire lasts, as long as the various organs need to be kept at work in due accord at their appointed fades*"—the heart muscles of the blood tubes, air tubes, and focd passages regulating delivery, the glands secreting digestive and other fluids and excreting and getting rid of waste products, brain feeling and thinking. To keep this hive of strenuous energy going "whole," going in "wholth," or, as we have chosen to alter the word, in "health," the d'iv.rs and regulators must be called upon to do their appointed tasks. If they are sllowed to be habitually idle while the body is biivg built the building will be imperfectly done,and vitality will be feeble. Hence the importance of healthy bodily environment; during the growing 'period important, indeed, throughout life, but trebly important in babyhood and youth. SLEEP. The part which stimulation of the nerves plays in keeping the vita! organs going may be realised by reflecting how we pave the way to sleep by cutting off the outside stimuli — how the healthy, living being appraaches as near as may be to reßt and death. It does not suffice to merely withdraw light and sound. Sleep will not usually come unless we reduce the stimuli acting on the skin and muscles hy letting the body lie comfortably slack and inert on some soft substance which will leave nothing to be supported by voluntary muscular 'effort and will prevent appreciable irritative pressure at any part. Under such conditions, if the body be also covered so as to maintain a kind of passive warmth, stimulated neither by undue heat nor cold, a normal person cannot keep awake at the end of an active day. Sleep h necessary for rest, lecuperation, and growth. The more rapid the growth the more sleep the organism needs. Before birth all is sleep; a newly born babe should sleep nine-tenths of the time at six months sleep is reduced to about two-thirds of the time; at 60 years six heurs may suffice. SENSORY STIMULATION. But it must not be inferred because a six-month's old baby sleeps for 16 hours, out of the 24 that therefore there is no need for stimulating its activities during the waking period. Quite the contrary is the case. If the sensory nerves —nerves U at convey impressions of light, sound, touch." variations of heat and cold, etc.—and the. muscles are not kept active every function must suffer more or lesssleep itself, digestion, development, etc. but most of all the baby will tend to lack spirit, cheerfulness, activity, and intelligence. The one thing not to do is to keen a baby coddled in a nursery, warmed as commonly reeommended,, to a temperature of TOdeg to 75deg Fahr. A very prema tore infant may need at the start an artificial atmosphere warmed on the principle of a chicken incubator, but a healthy baby when a few . days old, may be put cut into the pure open air in a sheltered corner of a sunny verandah, care being taken to protect it from strong light or draughts. The nursery for a normal baby is better kept below the than above GOdeg. In fact, sn ordinary cocl room with an open fire to prevent dampness and to secure ventilation rather than any marked warmth, isfjthe be3t condi tion for a healthy infant, provided thai it is properly else! and covered, and shielded from direct draught. An air-bath |of varying temperature, to which the exposed parts of the skin should be daily subjected, pro motes the action of all the organs, and is the best means of obviating the risks of "catching cold." Indeed, "catching cold" is the natural result of oddiing, alternating with careless exposure, to draughts. But the habitual exposure of limited skin areas, hands, face, etc , is not enough. More widespread stimulation is needed and this is afforded to a sufficient degree at first during the changing of clothes, bathing, drying, etc. It should be noted that a warm atmosphere is always desirable when an infant is being bathed, and special care should be taken to prevent draught. This can ba effected hy mean 3 of a screen, if cosy position before the fire cannot ba secured otherwise.