OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 686, 15 July 1914, Page 3

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 precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." BABIES' COLDS—A MOTHER'S LETTER, The following letter has just come to me from the country: — "Your weakly column in the Otago Daily Times is, one which I regularly read, and look forward to. It is a great boon to young mothers to have such interesting and useful knowledge presented weekly. I certainly have found it so, and wish to thank you for the benefit 1 have derived from your articles. "May I ask you to write at Borne future date on ths subject of "Babies' Colds." This common . ailment is very prevalent, and is rather difficulty deal with in very young children.

"I have a dear wee girl, tbree and a-half months old. She is entirely breast-fed, has her meals regularly, and sleeps by herself. She is very happy and, contented, and never has a 'dummy.' Some time ago she caught a severe cold, and was nearly choked with the phlegm in her nose and throat. "I rubbed her nose, chest, and back with warm olive oil, gave her occasional sips of honey, and sprinkled her pillow with eucalyptus. "Will you kidly tell me if all that was the be3t that could have been done? lam surd many mothers will read your answer with interest. "There is another point on which I am doubtful. Should tie scaly formation on the top of baby's head be removed. Several mothers of large families have told me to not to touch it; that it serves as a protection for the tender head. Others, again, adr vise/to remove it with warm olive uil and a fine tooth comb. I would value highly your opinion on the subject. Just one more question! Are the so-called "Electric Teething Bands' of any value or is the benefit attributed to their use "purely imaginary? They certainly have mora than on« Royal testimonial, and to my knowledge, several children who wore them cut their teeth without trouble.

REPLY In the meantime the only comment I need pass dn s so-ealled electric teething bands is to say that they > may be put in tbe same category with other high mounding appliances, such as socalled electric or magnetic influence over the body,, and would probably be more than useless if they did. Babies' colds are quite another matter—indeed, with the exception of indigestion and diarrhoea, there is no diseased condition on which it is more important for parents to have clear ideas regarding nature, causation, and prevention. But why limit our attention to colds as affecting babies? Why not look at tbe matter broadly, seeing that colds often run through the whole house, and the baby catches it from the grown-ups? Why not deal with the nature, causation and prevention of "colds" iri general? COMMON COLDS Nature, Causation, and Prevention. Common colds are generally regarded as mysterious, accidental, and more or less Unavoidable visitations of Providence. In reality they are nothing of the kind. They are no more mysterious or inevitable- than constipation or diarrhoea, and they are precisely analogous to such fevers as pneumonia, pleurisy, measles, or typhoid fever. ' Common culds are not merely like fevers.' they are actually ■, fevers — they are always due to an invasion of the body by millions oE microbes which breed with amazing rapidity in the nose and upper air passages, and quickly poison the blood and' affect more or less every tissue of the body, causing the victim to feel hot and cold by turns, fevered, thirsty, ari'dsore, sick, dull, languid, and miserable.

Hostile microbes are always liable to be lurking about the mouth, nose, and throat, and if someone introduces a specially virulent strain of germ into a home it is apt to make a successful campaign against the whole household, if the family hap-< pans to live under conditions which render the tissues of their bodies fee Die fighters in general, and specially inefficient to combat this particular class of organism. In other words if they happen to be people who habitually live.in warm, stuffiv rooms, fail to fortify their bodies daily by cold sponging or bathing so followed by rubbing and active exercise, and who do not avail themselves of the h%althy vitalising effects of open air and sunlight. g The way to ensure proper hardiness and resiativeness in the case of the baby is specially dealt with in "Feeding and Care of Baby," pages 1 and 2, 61, 82 to 85, 146 to 148, and 160. I quote the following from page 82; and leave tha[mother to read for herself the rest of the passage, and tu look up and study also what is said on the other pages referred to. In this way she will prepare herself to grasp fully the significance of what I Bhall have to say next week, not only as to babies' colds, but as to the whole subject ot' fortifying ourselves in a practical, common seine way ag»inst the colds, aore throats, cojgha, and influenzas which play .so insididua a part in undermining the constitution and in keeping people below the proper standard of health among all civilised communities. EXERCISE OF BABY Sensory and Muscular —Sensory exercise, which comes to us mainly through the skin, is most important, because it is what "runs us." It is the main source of the stimulation of all our bodily machinery, including even the voluntary muscles. The essential vital organs—nerve centre, heart, lungs, digestive, and excretory organs, etc—depend for their activi-

ties almost entirely on stimuli coming to them through the sensory nerves; hence one cannot overstate the advantages of pure, fresh, flowing air day and night, and of open-air outings, especially in sunshine. Keep the skin active. A large amount of exercise should 'be taken from a very early age, in the furm of vigorous suckling, kicking, waving the ams, etc., and later on by crawling. Every such activity should be encouraged. At least twice a day the infant should have-for 15 to 20 minutes the free, unhampered use of his; limbs. CATARRHAL FEVERS, COMMONLY CALLED COLDS. The auove is the title of a medical book of over 100 pages by Dr R. Pressor White, who sets out to show that colds, while among the most serious of human ailments, arte strictly avoidable, and— are simply fevers, just 'as measles and typhoid are ■ fevers, and that, like these maladies, they can be prevented by making the Body fit, strong, and resistive, and by keeping our -homes as free as possible from poisonous germß, which accumulate in stuffy rooms, etc. Continued Next Week