OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 670, 20 May 1914, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. " It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipica than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." AMERICAN BABY-SAVING CENSUS. Ihe following account of a project of the United States Central Government authority at Washington for throwing light on the factors militating ngainst child life appears in' the Technical World Magazine. It has been forr. arded to me by Mr W. Jenkins, our "Society's Foreign Correspondent," and will, 1 am sure, be road with interest.

"The lack cf knowledge of how to care for. infanta is one cf the great evila that require a remedy. Bus we have too evidently believed that it waß the individuals ana not the public's business to set right the wrong. This vital matter, however, ought to be more the concern of the nation than even tariff or banking reforms, and the Federal Government at lest hss taken a hand. Under the supervision of Miss Julia Lathrop, director of the children's bureau, a tremendous work will be going on that will have for its aim the securing of hygienic conditions for the helpless infant.

TRE NATION GUILTY. One hundred and fifty thousand murders are going to ba committed in the United States during the year, and the law ia going to take no cognisance of the matter. Worst of all, these victims will be the most helpless and pitiful of cur citizens. This slaughter is not peculiar to this year; it has been going on from time immemorial. It is not a deliberate thing, bat it might just as well be. It is due to ignorance, stupidity, and neglect. Government statistics show that the mortality of infant 3 under one year of age, in this great enlightened land, is not less than 300,000 every twelve months and that exactly half of these deaths are unnecessary. That is the murder on a vast scale which we as a nation sre guilty cf.

THE LIGHT OF DAY NEEDED. But a changs is coming shortly, if the intelligent will only ba cn the alert to give their very necessary aid. Miss Julia Lathrop, Director of the Federal Department's Children's Bureau, has been entrusted by tha national authorities with conducting the vast plan of finding out why all this is so—why to-day the chances of life with an infant are only even with thnse of death. —Memo, by Hygeia: "This cannot refer to the infantile death-rate during the first year of life, but probably means that half the babies born in the United States do not survive ths full period of infancy, in other words, that they dia within a few-years of birth." The United States is not ths only land at which the finger of shame may be pointed; r.o, not by any means! The entire civilised world ia equally at fault. The annual massacre of the innocents is placed at the appalling figures of some 3,200,000. But, if we con< inae to claim a place in the vanguard of civilisation, we ought to show culpable world how to minimise this tremendous loss. Tc-day, when a scientific investigation of anything is begun reports in the form of figures are usuallv demanded as a basis for drawing conclusion?. That is the method Miss Lathrop ia adopting. Federal appropriation has been maris for the purpose. It is still partly problematical aa to which cities will be selected for starting this tremendous campaign, but local conditions will largely influence the final decision in the matter.

STARTING THE INVESTIGATONS. Work will probably be begun in those parts of the country where there exists an adequate compulsory birth registration law. New York City, tbs progressive States of Pennsylvania and Michigan, and practically every New England State, can qualify. Therefore, this is the territory that will first be exploited. Agents will be sent from house to house, and it is expected that there will be hearty co-operation and support on the part of the parents in this great work. WHAT THEY INTEND TO ASK ABOUT. Such questions will be aßked as svill show what the home conditions are, whether or not the child is bottlefed, how it is dressed, nationality of parents, family income, a brief account of the previous life of the parents, etc. "We have dealt only too long with statistics of death," Mism Lathrup asserts, "and now let us consider statistics of birth and life and living." Only children up to one year of age will be considered in this tabulation. From ths fairly accurate birth registration records a complete list of all infants of the required age can, of course, be obtained. The history of the child will then be put on record. If it is dead —and the chances, as have been pointed out, are equal for such a contingency—the cause of death will be returned.

WHAT THEY EXPECT TO FIND OUT.

Now from all these various biographies it can be deduced which conditions are most inimical to the welfare of the child, and which are productive of health. The question at diet, the most vital one to be considered in the rearing oE children, will, it is expected, have an immense amount of valuable light thrown upon it. The relation of birth to death rate may also be thoroughly worked out. In New Zealand where, until recently at least, labour conditions have been superior to those of most other lands, the death rata of these under one year is but 68 to the thousand.—Latest available New Zealand statistics, 1912, show ony 51 per thousand.—lt is more than a coincidence

that, by way of contrast, the unhappy cities of Lawrence and Fall River, Maesahusetta, show a raspective death rate of 172 and 190 to the thousand. BABIES ALLOWED TO "TUMBLE IJP." In too man? instsnce3 babies are no's reared, but are permitted to tumble up. After the infant is weaned, the ignoranfi [jarenl balisves that it is fully qualified to struggle with the sort of ill-balanced end hard-to-d'gest diet which its seniors reduce their efficiency upon. No wonder colic and convulsions follow.

Flies, milk contaminated by dirty feeding bottles, foul air, irregular feeding, and sheer negect are all contributory causes to our enormous infant mortality. Even cow a milk, though it be of the purest sort, literally may bring starvation to the child. This is particularly true of the _ rich fluid of the Jersey. The fat globules form, sometitrios, an oily lining in las stomach, thereby prohibiting digestion. and the resulting assimilation cf the milk. When under the best of circuraatareea apparently whoJsscme foods so readily derange tha little digestive apparatus, the average conditions that confront the hapless child surelv are appailfcg. IMPORTANCE OF PROfES FEEDING. In view of the magnitude of the recent disclosures of infant mortality, it becomes impossible to overestimate the importance of the subect of scientific feeding. Furthermore, when all is said and. done, the fact should not be overlooked that Nature, provides the inosfc scientific of all methods. In the matter of child welfare the State of lowa took a pianeer step when sho inaugurated, two years ago, a babies' health contest. Otner States have einca fallen into line, and, through arousing a competitive interest, are accomplishing indirectly

the desired end. STATISTICS OF LIFE v. STATIS-

TICS OF DEATH. The.work of tlia Government Bureau, however, is the first comprehensive attempt that has been made to supersede statistics of death wich those, of life. Through the dissemination of these lesults it ia hoped that certain principles vital to the care of infants will become a matter of common property With such knowledge put to general application we may look to see a baby's chaneo of living advance beyond the startling 50 per cent, basis. The Government experts in the suggested census do not, of course, expect to supersede local action. The purpose is to work hand in -hand with the city and State authorities wherever this aid csis ha obtained. Further, it ia fully expected that local sentiment in the matter mas be so crystallised that independent action to carry out the remedies proposed by the Government will be taken by the various communitiaj.