OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 732, 23 December 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."

BEWARE OF SUMMER,

INFANTILE DIARRHOEA

As this is the season during which Summer Diarrhoea tends to become rife among babies, it is important to emphasise the fact that the disease generally attacks infants who have been more or less out of sorts for some time previously. The immediate cause of the diarrhoea is fermentation and poisoning due to rapid growth and multiplication of microbes in the stomach and jTwels.

THE ENEMY SOWING TARES. The seed sown by the million along the course of the alimentary canal in milk which liaa not been properly safeguarded from contamination in the dairy, the milk cart, and the home —especially the last-mentioned. Im-perfectly-cltiansed, unscalded milk jugs and feeders, the use of long-tube feeders, and the failure to rapidly cool the milk in water, if not quite cool at the time of delivery, together with failure to keep the jug loosely covered in a cool outdoor safe, instead of in the house—these are the means by which the "Enemy sows tares" in the delicate interior of the little child. It is pitiable to think that in nine caseH out of ten the "Enemy" is not the "Devil," but a loving mother —a mother ignorant of ths simple laws and needs of child life, careless or incompetent as to their fulfilment —a lurid example of the devilry of love and ignorance. GROWING THE TARES. However, even tares won't flourish on soil unsuited 10 their growth, and fortunately a single sowing wich tainted milk rarely causes grave illness unless the soil—the system of the baby—has bean previously prepared for the microDss by some lack of attention to primary hygienic

I do not mean that the baby has necessarily been what, would bs called "ill" or even "ailing" before an attack of severe diarrhoea, but in the majority of cases it would be found, on careful inquiry, that at least he had not been doing quite so well bb usual for some little time. A GRADUAL FAILING. If the baby has been weighed he would probably have been found not to be growing at thß normal rate, due to some irregularity of feeding, excess, or deficiency in the food allowance, or unsuitable food. The baby had probably been falling off in spirits and appetite, had been more fretful and restless than usual, and may have been troubled with constipation, colic, or some such source of discomfort and disturbance of the system. Such conditions predispose to "catching diarrhoea" just as thp.y predispose to "catching cold" cr getting any other form of sickness, and the risk is greatly iacreased if any of the factors necessary for the parfoet health and fitness of the baby—not only the food and feeding—have been receiving insufficient attention. —See

"What Every Baby Needs, Whether Well or 111," on the first and second pages of the Society's book, "Feeding and Care of the Baby." OTHER CAUSES OF FALLING OFF. The mother is often much surprised when the doctor says: "I think your baby has been upset by ynur keeping him too much in this stuffy room," or "by too frequent or irregular feeding," or "by not giving him enough outing and exercise," or by keeping him too much muffled up," or "by your exp;Bing his poor little bare legs in the po-cart," or "by allowing him to lie sweltering under tho canopy of his pram with the Bun shining down on it," or "by the use of the long tube feeder or the dummy." The mother replies incredulously, "Oh, it can't have been any of those things; he has had the long-tube feeder, etc., all along; I have never treated him any different from the beginning, and you know how splendidly he has been doing until the paat day or two." SAPPING OF THE SYSTEM GRADUAL.

Parents have great difficulty in realising that hostile influences like the above, which may Becm to do the baby no harm though continued for months, will havo been gradually leading all the timo to such a weakening of the system that the baby will be liable to catch any ailment that may be going the roundß, and, having become ill, will show little power of recovery. An attack of Summer Diarrhoea, which would be thrown off quickly by a healthy baby, may lead to the death of one whose body has been less soundly built in the first instance, or whose strength and vigour have been undermined by not doing the best for him afterwarda.