OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 721, 14 November 1914, Page 6

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." HEAT AND INFANT MORTALITY. WHY DO BABIES DIE IN HOT WEATHER? There ia an appalling increase in the baby death-rate during . hot weather. This has always been recognised more or leßs, but it ia only of late years that the matter has received any serious attention. Looking into the death rate of babiea in Paris, the latter part of the reign of Queen Victoria, Professor Budin found that in one week at midsummer 25 babies died in Paris; whereas the average number who died per week at midwinter was only 20. This was an extreme case; but it is quite a common thing to find babies dying in the hottest weather as compared with the coldest. Why should this be? DIARRHOEA THE MAIN SCOURGE.

First it was noticed that nearly all the summer deaths were due to diarrhoea, and the vast majority occurred in babies who were being artificially fed.

Further investigation showed that babias f«d on condensed milk, patent foods, etc., were not only prone to suffer from diarrhoea in hot weather, but they also tended to put up a poor fight agahißt any disease they might catch, and that they readily succumb ed. Babies fed with cow's milk and water did better, if tolerably good milk could be secured, and if any reasonable care was taken to keep it eool The risk was further reauced by scalding the milk during the hottest months, or on very hot days till better resulta followed on the use of milk properly modified and prepared so as to resemble human mik as closely as possible—in othre words, by using Humanised Milk. However, in spite of every pre cution as to artificial feeding—indeed, even in the case of breast fed babies—it was found that Infantile Diarrhoea was much more prevalent and fatal in summer than in winter This showed that the sole cause of "summer diarrhoea" was not the use of unsuitable fonds for babies—patent foods, condensed or dried milks—nor the usb of cow's milk unguarded by heating, cooling, etc, so as to keep down the rapid growth of microbes. Unsuitable and tainted foods were evidently mainly to blame; but some account must be taken of the harmful effects of heat acting not merely on the bany's food, but directly on the baby itself. We all know that very hot weather renders us languid and tired, and ten'ds to upset us, even as adultß. Recent investigations got to show that hot weather is liable to interfere very seriously with the digestive and nutritive processes in babies, unless great care is taken to give them plenty of fresh cool air day and night, and to modify their clothing or bed-coverings so as to prevent oppression and sweating when the weather happens to be unusually sultry. AN ABSURD FALLACY.

I find that many mothers entertain the absurd notion that a baby's clothing should not be lessened on specially sultry days. They think that any such change renders the baby liable to catch cold.

In reality the reverse is the case. Nothing tends to weaken and devitalise a baby and render it so liable to get colds and diarrhoea as being allowed to swelter and sweat overclothed in warm muggy, air for 24 hours. When the inevitable change to a cooler day comes, a baby so tieated is almost sure to suffer. If, on the other hand, his clothing and bedding had been ajdusted to meet the temporary rise in the thermometer, here would have been nothing to fear when the wind suddenly veered round from the saltry nor'-wester of Canterbury or Otago to the sharp cold of the sou'-westeer.

WHAT THE PLTJNKET NURSES FIND IN PRACITCE. Xhe Plunket Nurses find that, however carefully the baby's food is made and safeguarded, these is a general tendency of babies to be more or less upset on very hot days, and they find that the only effective means of combating this tendency is to give more outing and fresh air at such times, and to keep a sharp and intelligent watch on the bedding and clothig—not merely taking things off when there is a sudden rise of temperature.but being aiWays on the look out to resume immediately the ordinary coverings directly the wind veers round and the day becomes chil'y again.

AN ILLUSTRATIVE CASE. 1 have before me some very interesting notes of a case which shows clearly the effect of two hot nor'wester dayß on an ailing baby who was just beginning to do well. The parents kept a diary. On October Bth and 9th—the two hottest days we have bad this season—there are notes to the following effect:— October Bth.—Baby sleepless owing to hot weather and sweating. Took 21oz from breast end 7oz of Humanised Milk; total, 28oz. October 9th.—Nor'-wester continues; very sultry. Baby limp, listless, and fretful all day. Sweating very Took only 17oz from the breast and 6oz by bottle; total, 230z. The average quantity of food taken by the same baby for the succeeding week Was 340z a day, and for the next week 360z daily. The baby was weighed before and after each nursing to make sure exactly how much he was getting from the breast.

SPECIAL NOTE OP WARNING. It must not be supposed that there is any harm in a baby taking somewhat less food on a very hot day—quite the reverse. Less food is needed when heat is excessive—indeed, in the case of a baby at the breast, Nature provides for this in a very wonderful way.

Professor Von Pirquet, the leading authority in Vienna, has show that not only the quantity, but also the quality, of the milk drawn off by the suckled from the mother's breast ia influenced by the child's appstite. On a very hot day the appetite falls off more or less, and the baby soon ceases to suck, or languidly; hence it receives only the weaker fore-milk, while the rich after-milk, or strippings, remains behind in the breast.

The mother should take this hint from Nature if her baby is being bottle fed. Thus she may cut down the baby's day allowance, say, by a fourth or fifth on any exceptionally hot day, making up the quantity by adding boiled water to the food. If the baby appears to be troubled with thirst between meals at such times, it should be given a little plain boiled water by spoon or bottle. This applies equally to nurslings and "bottle feds.".

Bottle fed babies are specially liable to be overfed in hot weather, and the mother cannot be too strongly impressed with the fact that a child's average food requirement in summer is rather less than in winter, but that more rather than less water is needed. An ounce or two one way or the other in the day's supply of ten makes all tho difference in the Daby's digestion, growth, and comfort. More babies are seriously upaet by overfeeding than by underfeeding, especially in summer time.