Our Babies

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 29 June 1917, Page 4

Our Babies

(By Hygeia). Published under the auspices of tun Society for the Health of Women and Cnildren. "It is wiser to put up a fence at t e top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." A Widespread Fallacy. Strangest of all adverse criticisms of the work which is being done for motherhood and babyhood throughout the Dominion is the not infrequent remark: I-think it is much better for babies to have a tight for their lives: then if they are weaklings and unfit to live they go under, while those who ought to survive are rendered stronger by the contest.

My attention was pointedly drawn I -to this particular fallacy recently by ?» i friend. . " j It had been quite seriously urged on ! him, with some warmth, that the • Society was liable to do babies .a' grievous wrong by making things top j easy for them —by giving them too f ..good a time. It was contended that on j Darwinistic principles babies would ! suffer through being deprived of the j boon of their natural "struggle for j existence." ' | Of course, the special struggle of j our civilisation to which babies have ! really been subjected during the past! half century, and which has brought j about so much all-round disease and ! degeneracy, has been a most artificial \ and damaging contest to all concerned, j It is sheer nonsense to speak of patent ! foods, condensed milk, dummies, and | socthing powders as if they were i Natural adversaries, and it is equally ! ■bsurd to suppose that any baby is j benefited by having to contend against j - foul air, lack of sunshine, lack of exer- j else, irregular habits, etc. Ail such! artificial stresses damage the babies j who survive—the originally strong, as • w-Il as the originally delicate. The ! child who has been through this mill I c m-s out with all his organs and ' ftcul'ifß dwarfed and weakened by the • p-oc s~a result'quite the converse; oi ihßt ro-.templated by Darwin as the I outcome of the Natural struggle fori e> ists-nce.

Car farmers don't set about improvI e their crops and raising the standard of their flocks and herds by subjecting: them to a struggle against the results of starvation, neglect, and carelessness: why, then, should parents be more hopeful as to the results of such neasures when applied to their own offspring? Tbey should surely rmiise that maUreated babies make srior men and women. A Natural Struggle. two stags or two game cocks h motives against one s.notntr two - rics to the race may be expected—--1) ' Each combatant develops bis les, and indeed, his whole orm and powers, in the contest.

2) The progeny tends to be that i e victor. People who talk glibly about the 'Struggle for Existence" should retainer that certain simple and innnry conditions have to be fulfilled :r, orzcr to ensure that the result shall c: ocurficial and not harmful to the

Bearing dn tbia matter, I may qnote a passage from "The Feeding and 'are of the Baby" (page 148), which will make the matter still clearer. Effects of Baby Ailments. Daring illness of any kind all work in the direction of building and repair is imperfectly done. Hence it is that the nails are always marked by a groove after fever—the bottom of each groove consisting of the portion of the cail which was formed daring the illness. For the time being all the nails ar» thus locally thinned; bnt this mattera little, since the nails are constantly growing and being cut off. N >t so with the enamel of the teeth. Enamel is formed once for all, in infancy and childhood, and if there are thin portion?, due to debility, indigestion, attacks of diarrhoea, etel, dur-/ing-the time when the enamel is in course of formation, the teeth will tend to decay wherever there has been aa inadequate deposit of the necessary protective covering. D'ental. surgeons are always telling us that nowadays the coating of enamel i» exceeding thin—often, indeed, al-

most absent in places. Can wo wonder at this, seeing that few children enjoy uninterrupted good health during their early and moßt important growing years! The mother who wants to ensure hei* baby-—sound, loDg-lastirg teeth must see to it that ha is kept a3 healthy as possible throughout. Every illness should b8 regarded as at lea3t temporary victory for the microbes —a defeat which retards the growth and development of the whole organism, and renders it an easier prey to most other germs in the future. Pitched battles waged with microbes are a waste of time and energy precious to the growing child, and leave his tissues weakened, not strengthened, by the fight. Yet as soon as the baby has "recovered" from any illness, the mother thinks the results of her mistakes are at an end; but this is not so —more or less of life-long damage has been done. A check sustained in early life always leaves a permanent impress on the organism, whether plant or animal. Farm crops which have been blighted in £be Eeedling stage may Sourish afterwards and give a good yield, but not so good as if the plants had gone straight ahead. Tree 3 which bavt been transplanted or diseased in "infancy," though they may afterwards grow "remarkably well," do not attain the ultimate stature or perfection of trees whosu progress has been subjected to no such temporary interruption.