OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 733, 30 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." SUMMER DIARRHOEA. Laßt W6ek, when dealing with this subject, we pointed out that Summer Diarrhoea rarely attacks babies unless they have been a little "out of sorts" or actually failing in health beforehand. We now enumerata some of the dangers to be avoided and the precautions to be taken. KEEP BABY GERM-PROOF.

When will mothers and nurses realise that a child who has apparently thriven for months, in spite of wrong treatment, may suddenly fall a victim to some malady against which his system would have been quite proof had he been kept in a state of perfe£t health and fitness, by paying due attention to all the simpla laws of life and primary needs of infancy. A baby may hold out against almost any form of ihattention or carelessness during spring, and yet succumb to the first drink of tainted milk givpn to him on a summer's day. The effect of such food on a perfectly healthy baby might be merely to bring on passing colic, or cause one or more green motion; but if the system had been insidiously undermined previously there might have been nothing apparently wrong with the baby—the effect of a single feeding with risky food might be an attack of acute diatrhoea, ending fatally, simply because the child had not acquired enough stamina to put up a good fight. If a baby is fed artificially, and there is no means of keeping pre-, pared milk below 60deg. Fahr., the mother Bhould heat up to 155deg. any residue left over at the end of 12 hours after preparation, and then cool it down rapidly as directed on pßge 28 "Feeding and Care of Baby," and keep it cool. If there is no thermometer in the house the milk may bs mildly scalded as follows: — HOW TO SCALD MILK. Place the jug of milk in a Baucepan of hot water, heat until the water boils, and keep boiling for 10 minuteß. Then cool rapidly in running water, etc., keeping covered as directed in the Society's book. EPIDEMIC DIARRHOEA. ' Under the above heading Dr Raplh Vincent, senior physician to the Infant's Hospital, Westminster, makes the following remarks on the disease more commonly known as "summer diarrhoea of infants": — "This disease is peculiarly liable to appear at certain times of the year,

and ia practically absent in other portions of the vear. The conditionn in which the disease crises occur dcrlng bot weather, find especially during a hot Bummer. The characteristic'of the disease in regard to the date of its appearance is that it appears mostly towards the latter end of the summer, when the heat has continued for some considerable time. —Memo by 'Hygeia': The worst months in New Zealand are January, February, and March. "As a mortal disease affecting babies, epidemic diarrhoea is the most serious of all. The number of death* depends on the temperature. If it i 3 a cojl summer the number of deaths is comparatively low; if it is a hot summer the number cf deaths is very high indeed. Naturally the hotter the summer the more the germa grow and flourish in the milk. The year IPO4 tfforded a sad illustration in England. The summer of that year waa very hot, and in many towns throughout the country nearly one-half tha babies under 12 months old died in the three months July. August, and September. These infants died because they were poisoned.Poisoned, as Dr Vincent proceeds to show, mainly by thn microbes contained in tainted milk, acting on babies who had not been kept in such a state of first-rate health and condition as to enable them to resist the attacks of germs. —"Hygeia." HOW TO PREVENT DIARRHOEA. In the case of so-called epidemic diarrhoea of infante,, however, tho disease is strictly avoidable. It can be avoided by taking the following very simple precautions: — 1. By always supplying "What Every Baby Needp, Whether Well or 111," see the Society's book, pages 1 and 2. Don't invite tho microbes to establish themselves in the interior of tne baby by keeping the soil ready prepared for "their growth. A stitch in timß "saves nine. Don't be careless about the baby's health merely because the season happens to be good and he appears to be flourishing and seemingly in no reed of special attention. Don't omit anything that he ia rightly entitled to have an<f that tends to keep him always at the highest pitch of health and fitness. 2. By not feeding him with germladen, poisoned milk or any other improper food.