OUR BABIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 25, 28 January 1913, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia.) Published under the auspices or the Society for the Health, of Womes and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” WHY BABIES DIE. At this season of the year there is one thing which anyone interested in the welfare of babies should insist on over and over again, and that is the need for eternal care and watchfulness on the part of the mother or nurse to prevent the baby being given even a single meal of risky or tainted milk. Some women save themselves the trouble of thinking, or taking care, by indiscriminately boiling the milk every morning and evening; but they fail to realise that by so doing they injure the nutritive qualities of the baby’s food and render the child more liable to catch disease, besides endowing it with less stamina to hold out after disease has gained a foothold than would be the case with a child fed for the most part on unboiled milk.

Milk which has been boiled, condensed, or dried tends to cause constipation, and it must be borne in mind that constipation is first cousin to diarrhoea. A constipated child is liable at any moment to go to the opposite extreme and to readily acquire intractable diarrhoea.

Tiie resorting to superheated milk should be limited to the times, occasions, and local circumstances which more or less necessitate its use. Thus, in certain localities, during very sultry, trying weather, the use of superheated milk (whether boiled, condensed, or dried), properly modified and prepared to suit the baby, may be a wise precaution. But why should the mother subject the baby’s milk to the prejudicial effects of superheating every day in the week, when, perhaps, even in a bad locality there are not a dozen days in the hottest month of the year which render this precaution desirable? The true housewife and mother watches the weather, and notes any sharp rise or fall in the temperature, even though her baby is breast-fed and there is no milk to prepare. She is attentive to changes in the weather, because she ha<s to see that the child is neither underclad nor pverclad day or night; and she has to note the direction of the wind so as to guard against undue draughts. But if the baby is receiving cow’s milk the incentive to paying reasonable attention to the weather is infinitely greater than in the case of a nurseling at the breast. Save the Babies. To save the baby from the curse of diarrhoea during the next three months the mother should keep herself in good health and breast-feed ,if possible ; failing this, give humanised milk according to the Society’s directions in “Feeding and Care of Baby,” or “What Baby Needs.” It is worth noting that some babies thrive better up to three or four months of age if given one part of new milk whey to every three or four parts of humanised milk than they do if given humanised milk pure. This is specially likely to be the case if there is any tendency to constipation; where the tendency is the other way, extra whey is apt to make the infant still more relaxed. Some bailies are benefited by the addition of from two to four ounces of boiled new milk with the day’s allowance of humanised milk. A gradual addition in this direction can be tried in any case where the baby’s weight fails to go up at the average rate, and this allowance can be continued if it appears to suit. Remember that beat, fermentation, and improper food are the main causes of infantile diarrhoea. Therefore secure the right food at once, and keep it clean and cool in a shaded, openair safe. Beware of condensed milk, patent foods, and simple diluted cow’s milk, with or without oauo sugar or barley water. Mothers go on using such foods so long as the baby seems to be doing well, forgetful of the fact

that sooner or later the baby usually breaks down, and in any case will not thrive so well as on food properly adapted to the needs of infancy. If the baby becomes ill, call in a doctor without delay. Remember that though diarrhoea is a common ailment, it is the one broad avenue leading to debility and death in infancy. Most of the children who die later of other ailments have been maimed and weakened first of all by infantile diarrhoea.