OUR BABIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 78, 23 July 1914, Page 7

OUR BABIES.

BABIES’ GOLDS—A MOTHER’S LETTER. (By Hygeia.) The following letter has just come to me from the country:— May I ask you to write at some future due on the subject of “Babies' Colds.” This common ailment is very prevalent, and is rather difficult to deal with in very young 'children. 1 have a dear wee girl, three and ahalf months old. She is entirely breast-fed, has her meals regularlv, and sleeps by herself. She is very happv and contented, and never has a “dummy.” Some time ago she caught a severe cold, and was nearly choked with the phelgm in her nose and throat. [ rubbed her nose, chest, ftiid back with warm olive oil, gave her occasional sips of honey, and sprinkled her pillow with eucalyptus. Will you kindly tell me if all that was the best that could have been clone? I am sura many mothers will read your answer with interest. There is another point on which ,i am doubtful. Should the scaly formation on top of the baby’s head be removed. Several mothers of large families have told me not to touch it; that it serves as a protection for the teiider head. Others, again, advise to remove it with warm olive oil and a fine tooth comb. I would value highb yohr opinion on the subject. Just one more question! Are the so-called “Electric Teething Bands” of any value or is the benefit attributed to their use purely imaginary? They certainly have more than out Royal testimonial, and to my knowledge, several children who wore them cut their teeth without trouble.

REPLY. In the meantime the only comment I need pass on so-called electric teething hands is to say that they may be put in the same category with othei high-sounding appliances such as socalled electric or magnetic belts, which exert no electric or magnetic influence over the body, and would probably be more than useless if they did. Babies’ colds are quite another matter—indeed, with the exception of indigestion ad diarrhoea, there is no dis eased condition on which it is more important for parents to have clear ideas regarding nature, causation, and prevention. But why limit our attentioi to colds as affecting babies? Why noi look at the matter more broadly, seeing that colds often run through the whole house, and the baby catches it from the Why not dea! with the nature, causation and pre vention of “colds” in general COMMON COLDS. NATURE, CAUSATION, AND PRE VENTION. Common colds are generally regard ed as mysterious, accidental, and iron or less unavoidable- visitations of Pro vidence.. In reality they are nothing of the kind. They are no more rays tcrious or inevitable than Constipation or Diarrhoea, and they are pro cisely analogous to such fevers as pnen monia, pleurisy, measles, or typhoid fever. Common colds are not merely like fevers; they are actually fevers—tbe.i are always due to an invasion of the body by millions of microbes which breed with amazing rapidity in the nose and upper air-passages, and quickly poison the blood and affect more or less every tissue of the body causing the victim to feel hot and cold by turns, fevered, thirsty, and sore, sick, dull, languid, and miserable. Hostile microbes are always liable to be lurking about the mouth, nose, and throat, and if someone introduces a specially virulent strain of germ into a homo it is apt to make a successful campaign against the whole household, if the family happens to live under conditions which render the tissues i f their bodies feeble fighters in general,

and specially inefficient to combat tin. particular class of organism. In other words,if they happen to be people who habitually live in warm, stuffy rooms, fail to fortify their bodies daily by cold sponging or bathing followed by rubbing, and active exercise, and who do not avail themselves of the healthy vitalising effects of open air and sunlight. The way to ensure proper hardiness and resistiveness in the case of the baby is specially dealt with in “Feeding and Care of Baby,” pages 1 and 2, 61, 82 to 85, 146 to 148, and 160. I quote the following from page 82, and leave the mother to read for herself the rest of the passage, and to look up and study also what is said on the other pages referred to. In this way she will prepare herself to grasp fully the significance of what 1 shall have to say next week, not only as to Babies’ Colds, but as to the whole subject of fortifying ourselves in .a practical, common-sense way against the colds, sore throats, coughs, and influenzas which play so insidious a part in undermining the constitution and in keeping people below the proper standard of health among all civilised communities.

EXERCISE FOR BABY. SENSORY AND MUSCULAR. Sensory exercise (which comes to us mainly through the skin) is most important, because it is what “runs us.” It is the main source of the stimulation of all our bodily machinery, including even the voluntary muscles. The essential vital organs (nerve centres, heart, lungs, digestive, and excretory organs, etc) depend for their activities almost entirely on stimuli corning to them through the sensory nerves; hence one cannot overstate the advantage of pure, fresh, flowing air day and night, and of open-air outings, especially in sunshine. Keep the skin active. A large amount of exercise should be taken, from an early age, in the form of vigorous suckling, kicking, waving the arms, etc., and later on by crawling. Every such activity should be encouraged. At least twice a day the infant should have for lo to 20 minutes the free, unhampered use of his limbs. CATARRHAL FEVERS, COMMONLY CALLED COLDS. The above is the title of a medical book of over 100 pages by Dr. R. Prosser White, who sets out to show that “colds,” while among the most serious of human ailments, are strictly avoidable, and are simply fevers, and that, like these maladies, they can be prevented by making the body fit,

strong, and resistive, and by keeping our homes as free as possible from poisonous germs, which accumulate in stuffy rooms, etc.