OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 724, 25 November 1914, Page 6

OUR BABIES.

Published under the auspices of the Society for v 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." HOT WEATHER AND BABIES. Last week I showed that hot weather was liable to be a very serious matter for infants, quite apart from its causing milk and other liquid food to become unsafe owing to the rapid growth of microbes. I showed that, even where a baby is breast-fed, it i 3 liable to become upset and contract diarrhoea, and that this i 3 mainly attributable to not) having ample supply of pure fresh air, day and night, and to lack of common sense in regard to bedding and clothing. On this important subject I cannot do better than quote the following from the Society's book "Feeding and Care of. Baby," pages 84 and 72-3, given under the heading "Warmth" and "Prams and Hoods": — WARMTH. It must always be kept in mind that a baby's skin surface is three or four times as extensive in proportion to its size bb that of an adult; therefore when an infant is exposed to coo! air he must always be warmly enough clad to prevent excessive escape of heat. Small dumplings cool quicker than big dumplings. On the other hand, mothers tend to overclothe their babies in warm weather, thus making them delicate and over-sensi-tive to cold. The general tendency is to muffle up and overclothe babies rather than to underclothe them Thß greatest and commonest mistake in the clothing of babies is careless sudden changing from one style of garment to another —e.g., arms and legs one day and exposed Ihe next; changing from homely flannel to embroidered cotton finery for exhibition purposes; taking a baby out of a warm, stuffy cot indoors and wheeling him about in a pushcart, with bare arms and uncov-» ered dangling legs. "These are el- - cases, but there are few mothers who do not giva their babies colds by serious, though less obviuus mistakes in the same direction.

PRAMS AND HOODS

One of the moßt pitiable and exasperating sights of modern babyhood is the spectacle of an unfortunate infant sweltering and sweating tindor an American leather pram hood. Here, surely, is human ignorance at its worst—a glorious sunny day, intended to give life and strength to all young creatures, perverted' by the mother into an agency of debility and sickness for her offspring!

The ordinary unventilated leather pram hood ia the most injurious, as there is no current /of pure air passing over lh3 baby's head. It is specially harmful in warm weather, when the baby's breath stagnates around the mouth and nose, so that it breathes its own breath over and over again, thus poi3oning the system. The enfeebling effect is increased by the fact that the hot air causes sweating and general limpness of the whole body. To make matters worse, the mother or nurse often throws a light wrap over the front of the hood to partly cut off the light. This common practice converts the canopy into a veritable Black Hole of Calcutta. The woman who does n>t hesitate to allow a tender infant to swelter thus in a tiny, dark, clos?, foul tent, with the sun pouring down on it, would quickly faint herself if similarly treated. By the use of a proper ventilating canopy, such as that devised by Lady Plnnket now extensively used throughout New Zealand—all this ia obviated.

A baby out in the midst of n greon field under a close leather pram hood on a warm sunny day may bo actually far worse off for air and heulthy stimulation than if indoora in an ordinary room. Everyone knows how bad it is for a baby to be- kept indoors, but few realise that it may be even worse off under a leather pram hood in the open air and sunlight! The ideal sunshade is a tree, shrub, or hedge, such as animals instinctively seek on bright days. Next best iB a verandah or wall; failing these, and for use when being wheeled about, there should bo a canopy or blind or a» umbrella-like sliade sudicing to keep off the wind and the direct ray 3 of the sun from particular directions, but not causing heating up of air and stagnation around the baby's head. If there is n closefitting hood it should be made of wicker-work, which stops draught, but allows free passage of air. The best colour for a pram-shade is groer inside and white outside. Simple white linen is too glaring.

Soma years ago wa made a series of precise observations in order to find out; exactly how much higher a thermometer would register under the ordinary dark blackish green Am-rican leather pram hood, midway between the baby's head and the canopy, compared with the temperature of the outaids air. We found that, on a mild, pleasant day with an atmospheric temperature of GOdeg Fahr., the temperature under the canopy, exnosed to the direct rays of the sun, would be from 75deg to Nat only wo lid there bo from 15deg to 20deg excess of heat under tho hood, but the heat would be of tho worst kind—the sweltering, oppressive heat of air saturated with evaporation from tha perspiring head of the child mixed with its stagnating breath. As Dr Barrett, of Melbourne, pointed out in his recent lectures, when the thermometer- registers over lOOdeg in Melbourna on a dry day the air may not be at all oppressive, while a temperature of 80deg or 90deg at Singapore would be relatively unbearable owing to the excess of moisture. WHAT DR SCHERESCHEWSKY ,SAYS. Dr Scheresehewsky, of Washington, an important 'member of the United States Public Health Service, contributes a striking article on "Heat" and "Infant Mortality" to the Annual Transactions of the American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality—a body which embraces in its memberships almost all the leading medical and lay authorities on tire welfare, of mother and child in the United States. The doctor says—

HEAT AND MORTALITY. By far the most conspicuous phenomenon in connection with the mor tality of infants ia the well-known increase in. the number of their deaths which takes place in the summer month?. . . Hot summers produce an abnormally high infant deathrate, and cool summer* the reverse. Forty year 3 ago, almost no doubt existed, in America at least, aa *to the direct effect on tha baby itself, as the essentialcause of increased Infant Mortality in summer.

However, Dr Schereschewsky goes on to show that thß building up of knowledge during the last 40 years regarding thp rapid growth of bacteria in wurm fluids, and the relationship of microbes to disease, caused the medical profession almost to lose sight of tha harmful direct effects of fieat on the baby until the matter wa3 again drawn attention io recently. n There has been accumulating in the last few years, especially in Germany, evidence which clearly shows that due attention tnußt be paid to safeguarding the baby from the injurious direct effects of heat on hot days, a<J already indicated. Dr Schereschewsky Bays: —"We must now as!; ourselves if the summer ia not, after all, by its direct action on the baby, the determinant of a large part of the Bummer mortality of infants." As hot days are becoming frequent, we ask mothers and all those to whom the cara of children is entrusted, to give special attention and consideration to the articles which are appearing now. Tho effect of heat on babies will be dealt with further in next week's is3Ue.