OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 746, 17 February 1915, Page 2

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." DIRT, MUD, SAND, PAPER, AND RAG EATING. Recently a mother asked one of our Plunket nurses about the habit of dirt-eating in children. A baby girl, 18 months old, said to be healthylooking, was breast-fed for three months. She is said to have a strung objection to solid food, and practically lives on milk. Sne drinks plenty of water. ;; "Since able to wa'k and find her way about she has had a'mania for eating dirt, which she eats freely at every • opportunity. Her bowels are regular." A few montha ago I received the following letter from a mother in the country:— ''l am wonder,ing if you can give ua any solution in your baby column as to why children eat mud, clay, and sand. Is there Borne need in their system? My little boy is 16 month old, and ia fed according tu 'the book,' as we mothers call it. At that age be should sleep all through the night should he not? —that is, from 6 p.m. to about 6 a.m. Baby often wakes between 10 anl 11 p.m., and, in spite of a good tea, will not sleep agsin till I feed him with milk. Sometimes he sleeps till 1 or 2 a.m., and then till 7.30. Thanking you in anticipation,—l am, etc." P.S.—I meant to tell you that baby even licks the wheels of his go-cart for mud, and. licks the gravel stuff dropped on the floor. It is not safe to leave him in a sand-box: he eats so much of it.

This subject was dealt with fully in our column three years ago on account of several letters of inquiry. I cannot do better than quote these old articles, as the comments made at that time will be most helpful to mothers struggling with this difficulty to-day. THREE LETTERS ON EARTHEATING. "Reader" writeg:— "I have a wee baby aged 15 months. She has been very delicate, and suffered from bronchitis and the cholera when five months old. She went to a skeleton, weighing only 111b when Beven months old. Now she is strong and well, quite plump, and walks everywhere; but since she started to walk she has been eating earth. First she started on the earth in my flowerpots, which had a dressing of soot, but now I „ften get her with a lump half as large as an egg, eating and enjoying it. Do what I will I cannot stop her. Will it injure her, or does her system require lime or salt? What should I do? I am afraid it may bring on Summer Cholera again. Is there any danger, and what can I do? She is also fond of dock leaves and seeds, always eating them.

"Anotber mother wrote as follows concerning a similar case:—■ "I am writing to ask your advice about my baby girl, aged one year and four months, who will eat dirt and stones if we let her outside. It is distressing to have to keep her in, because she. loves to be out." A third mother wrote at the New Year—

"I am writing to you again about baby, who is now 14 months old. She is the picture of health—happy, and as good as one could wish —running ah jut amusing herself, nearly always outside: but is, and has been, very restless at nights, turning and tossing and sometimes having a short cry. One would think there must be a pain somewhere, but where I can't imagine. Her bowels are always healthy. She still sucks her fingers when going to sleep. I've been wondering if that hurts her in any way She puts grass, leaves, etc. in her mouth, and I daresay swallows some too, but we watch all we can. Perhaps you might be able to tell me what is causing baby's uneasiness." Some weeks later the following was received from the same mother:— "Thank you ever so much for your kind letter. .. I have had a wire-netting fence round the verandah, but baby is not at all satisfied with that since she learnt to.walk two and a-half months ago, and I don't think children should be crossed too much in matters of that kind. It seems quite natural that she should want away outside to play on the grass and see the "booties," as she . calla the flowers. However, for the next month or two I will be with her as much as possible and, so prevent her eating foreign substances. She does not seem so bad now as she was three weeks ago, so I am in hopes of her stopping the habit. I took your advice, and opened the bedroom window as much as a window will open, top and bottom. The bedroom door is open, and there is an open fireplace. I have not noticed worms in baby's motions. Are not babies very hungry when they have worms? I once thought she might have worms, but could see no indication of them anywhere. I am sending you a photo of baby, taken when 13 months old. You will see she is sturdy, though not nearly as fat as a number of babies I know" COMMENT AND REPLY. The third baby shows the least departure from the normal —indeed, many mothers would be inclined to say that there was nothing out of the way in a baby early in its second year putting into its mouth, or even swallowing, anything it could lay hands on. That is true to a large extent; the normal baby does, of course, tend to carry everything to the mouth and test it there—coal, dirt, blacking brushes, etc. —until it has learned to combine the information received through the senses of sight', touch, and taste, etc., and so discriminate between what is and what is not fit to eat. In these interesting researches the older child is aided by the more or less painful

or pleasurable feeling following on the eating of one kind of. material as compared with another; but the baby has no such guidn, and once it has acquired a bad habit the habit is liable to prove very hard to eradicate unless dealt with promptly and thoroughly. In older children a morbid habit allowed to persist and develop for a time may defy all subsequent efforts to overcome, it. Thus "biting the nails to the quick" may grow into a life habit. I remember a case of the kind in a singularly clever and attractive little girl in London who was quite a musi;al genius, and had the most brilliant prospects as a violinist when approaching her teens. She then became a "nail-biter." Little was thought of the matter at first, and when it was taken in hand by a physician later on all efforts at mastery failed, and the child's musical career was brought to a close. Dr Still, Professor of Diseases of Children at King's College, London, says:

"There is no period of life at which habits are so readily established as in childhood, but, fortunately—for, like rank weeds, bad habits grow faster than good —childhood is a plastic age when the ruts of habit may be smoothed away and custom moulded to new tracks." There is some divergence of opinion in regard to the average age and the nature and prospects of children who become "dirt-eaters." Thus Dr Holt, the leading authority in New York, speaking from his American experience, says in his little book on the "Care of Children," addressed to mothers and nurses:Question: "When are nail-biting and dirt-eating seen, and how are they to be controlled?"— Answer: "These habits belong especially to children over three years old." (This ia true as regards "nail-biting," but "dirt-eating" generally commences when a baby is between ono and two years of age. Hygeia.) "They are particularly seen in those who are excessively nervous or whos« general health is below par, sometimes in those who develop serious nervous diseases later in life. Children with such tendencies should he closely watched, and every means used to break up these habits early. 'Dirteating' is a morbid craving which is rarely seen in a normal child." Dr Still says: There was nothing in any of my 14 cases to suggest any mental deficiency." He summarises treatment as follows: 1. Prevent the child obtaining dirt, coal, mortar, etc. 2. Improve it 3 general health, especially its digestion. There is no part of treatment more valuable than a few weeks at a bracing seaside place, or, if this is not attainable, at some high-standing, breezy inland country place. At the same time be necessary to aid digestion by the most careful dieting.

My readers will realise that there is no condition calling for more careful attention to What Every Baby Needs Whether Well or 111" (page 1 or the Society's book) than the presence of morbid habits. Make the child a "healthy animal!" I shall deal further with the subject of morbid habits in another column.