OUR BABIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 35, 10 February 1913, Page 7

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygoia.) Published under the auspices ol the Society for the Health of Womet and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to main' tain an ambulance at the bottom.” This week we intended to deal further with the question of Mother and Nurse, but the harm which is being done to babies in the hot weather by the foolish use of the Thermos flask has been so forcibly presented to us that wo feel it necessary to sound a warning note with regard to it. DEADLY THERMOS FLASK. The latest deadly weapon coming into common use against the baby is the Thermos' flask. If a strenuous effort is not made to prevent mothers misusing this ingenious contrivance, it may prove as fatal to babitSs as tue long-tube feeder or the dummy. The two latter abominations have done so much harm in all directions that they are becoming discredited everywhere, but the Thermos flask is so handy for keeping tea, coffee, soups etc., hot for adults that the mother not unnaturally jumps to the conclusion that she may safely keep the baby’s milk warm by the same means. Nothing can be farther from the truth. There is all the world of difference between the effect of keeping liquids hot and keeping them merely luke-warm. It is true that the seeds, or rather the spores, of some microbes are not killed by boiling; but no germs can flourish or multiply if a fluid is kept as hot as we ordinarily use tea and coffee. The following extract from “What Baby Needs” page 46, clearly explains what it is essential for the mother to know in this connection: — Germs grow and multiply with fearful rapidity in blood-warm fluids, but their vitality is checked by any wide departure from a temperature of lOOdcg. Fahr., and ceases ,or falls to practical insignificance, when the temperature of a fluid is maintained below 40deg or oOdeg, or above 120 deg Fahr. v Note that a rise of 20deg above blood-heat checks germ-life more effective!}' than a fall of oOdeg below it—thence it is that in the tropics keeping the fluid hot may afford a far readier and more economical means of preventing injurious changes in milk than keeping the fluid cool. THERMOS FOR TROPICS. On account of tho retarding or destructive effect of heat on germs, we have actually advised tho use of the Thermos flask in the Tropics, in cases where ice is not obtainable for keeping tho milk cool; but there are few places or conditions in the Dominion in which wo woidd recommend this procedure.

If the mother could bo absolutely relied on never to allow the milk to fall below 120 deg Fahr., there would bo no objection to making use of the flask; but we are afraid that in practice women could not generally be trusted to make quite sure, by testing with a termometer, that they had always a safe margin ef heat on the right side. In any case I need scarcely say that a Thermos flask must 1)0. as carefully cleansed and sterilised with boiling water every time it is used as any other milk utensil. There is no form of moist or fluid food which is not liable to become converted into a very deadly and rapidly fatal poison if kept in a tightlyclosed vessel of any kind. This is the reason why we so often hear of people being killed by tinned meats, etc. However, the risk with such viands is as nothing compared with the peril to the baby of milk kept at ordinary summer temperatures or, worst of all, at blood-heat in a corked bottle, closed jar, or Thermos flask. Going Bad fa r more Dangerous than Turning Sour. If milk is kept in a vessel in such a way that the air can pass freely in and out, it of course tends to go sour after a time. But, though such sour milk may give rise to grave diarrhoea, etc., the souring is a very harmless process compared with the production of deadly poisons, which results from milk going bad, as it does when air is excluded. The tight closing of a milk jar or bottle converts the vessel into a septic tank, where the germs that work in darkness and away from the air grow apace, and do their dc.adly work. CAN’T TRUST US. No doubt a highly intelligent and careful mother could on occasion make good use of a Thermos flask on the lines I have pointed out; but seeing how inattentive most of us are to accuracy, the use of a thermometer, etc., f think the safest general advice is to recommend mothers not to use the Thermos flask for baby’s food in our climate at all. It is quite a common tiling to hear a mother speak of the convenience of keeping her child’s milk warm when she is travelling or picnicking, so that it may be just the right temperature when feeding-time comes round. 'The same thing applies where the mother resorts to the foolish practice of feeding the baby in the night. In this connection a common habit is to wrap tbe feeding-bottle in flannel r.lcng with a hot-water bag. On all hands one finds wernor. absolutely ignorant of the injurious effect of keeping liquids mildly warm, even for an hour or so—and especially ignorant of tbe deadly peril of go keeping them if the vessel be closed. If one could only sheet borne this one simple fact, many lives would bo saved every year, and there would be far less sickness among children of ail ages—but especially among babies.