OUR BABIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 24, 26 August 1916, Page 7

OUR BABIES.

I (By Hygeia.) Published under the auspices of the Kojul New Zealand Society lot the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." ! COLDS AND ADENOIDS. '■ I promised last week to give some authoritative data showing the great importance of exercise in preventing the tendency to "catch cold," and the connection between catching cold and adenoids. I think i cannot do better than quote an admirable analysis of this matter contained in the text-book on "Diseases of the Nose," by Dr. Ernest Waggett,. a leading London specialist. I shall make verbatim extracts, merely modifying here and there in order to make the essential meaning clear to the lay reader and to avoid medical technicalities.

j HOW COLDS ARE CAUGHT. Acute colds are caught in two different ways, and are said to be due either to infection or a chill. 1 1. Infection.—Sometime s a cold definitely runs through a household., and one must suppose that the essential element here is the actual virulence of the micro-organism. ■ 2. Chill and Exposure.—The onset of a cold is much more commonly the reslut of chill ' and exposure. One may gain some idea of the nature of this affair by a personal experiment. Choose a moment when your nose feels perfectly well to commence it. Sit down in an overhecteel room in your indoor clothes with thin socks on your feet and no boots*; on >:> the window to raw winter evening's air, and arrange for a draught slowly to chill the lower part of your person. At first you probably experience no discomfort at all, but after an interval you will find your no so feeling unduly dry and patent. A"e: an hour or so you will find the nos ihecoming blocked, and a, sense of dragging weight is felt about the eyes. A little later your noso will begin to run clear fluid, and if yo: examine this you will find that i ,

contains microorganisms in small growing clumps.

i It would seem that by sitting i the cold you have upset some local protective mechanism in the nose, and allowed the bacteria, which are of course, always being deposited from the inhaled air, to gain a font .hold and to multiply. . - Whatever the explanation, you will learn that the "common cold" of exposure may be prevented, and even en short in its initial stages, by doer jbreathing, and, better still, by active jexercise, such a s running. You will jfind that many middle-aged per.pl iwlio formerly complained of repeated ■ nasal catarrh have been cured. ' b; I adopting some routine form of gymnastic exorcise.

I Children of sedentary habits, and 'particularly those who are allowed t spend part of their day in overheated, Jill-ventilated rooms, and other partof it loafing about the streets without [sufficient clothing, are the special vie tims of chronic nasal catarrh and c adenoids. The essential preventive of adenoids i.s good domestic 1;:. giene, coupled with incentives t constant muscular exercise:. ACTIVE CAMPERS-OUT DON'T CATCH COLD. It is singularly interesting to go in to camp with a volunteer corps com 'posed of men leading a sedentary cit' life, and having none of the appea? ances of exuberant health. Whil under canvas and doing hard physic work, they may be wet through dr. after day and sleep in the mud, h\ you will hardly ever see a man shov. ing the least sign of a cold in th head.

ADENOIDS DUE TO R.EPEATEI COLDS. It is most important to bear i. mind that the common cause of ad< noids is repeated nasal catarrh, an 'that the catarrh is manly due i limperfect domestic and personal hygiene. Well ventilated homes and 'schools, good clothes, and regular ex ercisos, as well as the active playinj of games will, of course, not entirely prevent the occurrence of cold., i children. When they do occur it i quite worth while to bring them to 'speedy end by confinement to bed. ! When the great importance of the.-' ! facts becomes generally recognised, the disease of adenoids will become less prevalent, and the proper attitude of the profession towards it wil 1 be one of preventive medicine. EDUCATE THE MOTHERS AND NURSES. The duty of the medical profession which libs next to that of prevcnt'io;; is to educate all mothers and nurse: into a recognition of the early stages; of the disease—for as a rule children fare brought to the hospital only when some serious secondary effect flight 'ens the mother. Next week we shall continue thi article, showing what the mothers or nurse should look out for as signs of adenoids, and shall also refer to treatment.