SUMMER SICKNESS.

Shannon News, 14 January 1927, Page 1

SUMMER SICKNESS.

PLUNKET SOCIETY NOTES. (By Hygeia). Summer Diarrhoea. As a disease affecting babies, summer diarrhoea is a most serious and deadly scourge. In New Zealand it occurs mainly from Christmas to the middle or end of March, the number of deaths depending on the temperature. During a cool summer the number is comparatively low; if the summer is hot the number of deaths may rise very high. Why Is This? Why should stammer not be the safest instead of the most dangerous time of year for infants? The reason is simple. Most balaies are fed on liquid food, which is specially liable to ferment in hot weather. Milk becomes infested with germs—in other words, goes bad and becomes poisonous, more readily than any other food. The hotter the weather the more the germs grow and flourish in milk, and if ive are not careful in the selection of a milkman, the cleansing of billies and jugs and the place where the milk is. kept, it 'may go bad in hot weather even before we aTe ready to use it. Tainted pasteurised ,milk is even more dangerous than unheated milk has gone sour in the ordinary way. Therefore we must be even more careful to keep bottled-city milk cool and loosely covered (not capped and sealed from access of air) than we are with ordinary dairyman’s milk. Babies who die from summer diarrhoea die because they are poisoned — mainly by germs contained in tainted milk acting on babies who have not been kept in such a state of iirst-rate health and condition as will enable them to resist the attacks of germs. All epidemic diseases, including summer diarrhoea, tend to attack the bodily ‘ ‘ unfit ’ ’ rather than the ‘ ‘ fit; ” but babies who are perfectly well may fall victims. Why Does Nature Single Out Babies and Calves? In warm weather the young of horses, pigs, dogs, cats, and the rest are almost uniformly healthy, while calves, are the victims of ‘ ‘ scouring, ’ ’ and babies still suffer or die from the same scourge under the name of ‘ ‘ summer diarrhoea.” Why? Calves are sacrificed because man takes the cow’s milk for himself and feeds the calf out of a bucket. The baby is sacrificed because the mother’s breast is denied to it, and improper food, contaminated with germs, is substituted for the pure, perfect, blood-warm, vital stream direct from the proper source. Are ill-health and diarrhoea inevitable during summer time for calves and babies who cannot be suckled? Certainly not! In both cases the trouble arises, not from the mere fact of artificial feeding in itself, but because proper care is not taken to secure suitable food and to prevent the growth of germs. For babies properly prepared humanised milk supplies by far the nearest approach to the mother’s milk, and if kept cool and clean and given according to the directions issued by the Society there is little risk of trouble. Even breast-fed babies may contract the disease, but immediate suitable treatment of such, or those who have been judiciously fed by artificial means, soon brings about complete recovery in the great majority of cases. On the other hand, among babies who have been improperly fed the risk of death is very great indeed, and lasting weakness and debility is often left, even if the baby does not die. This is a point which should never be forgotten, Infantile ailments leave lasting illeffects, even if they are not fatal. We cannot afford to expose our babies to the risk. _ What Can We Do To Prevent Summer Diarrhoea? First. —We must see that every baby has “the 12 essentials” in his daily life. We must see that every baby has what every baby needs. The first two pages of the Society’s book, “Feeding and Care of Baby,” should be perfectly familiar to every mother in the land. If the baby who has lived in fresh air who has been naturally fed, trained in regular habits, and has received all the other essentials for good health chances to get ill, he “ throws off the germ as the bow of on ocean liner throws off the spray —he is pretty well germ-proof.” _ Secondly.r—We must specially consider the matter of food. Natural feeding is the great preventive. Professor Budin has shown that in Paris, out of 250 deaths of infants occurring in one midsummer week, less than 30 were of breast-fed babies. As we have said, humanised milk is the best substitute; but in hot weather special precautions are necessary in the preparation and keeping of milk.