OUR BABIES

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 140, 16 February 1915, Page 2

OUR BABIES

(BY HYGEIA). (Fubished under the aupice of the . Sosciety for the Health of Women and j Children). j "It is wiser to put. up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." ) DIRT, MUD, SAND, PAPER, AND j RAG EATING. Recently a mother asked one of our. Plunket nurses about the habit of dirteating in children. A baby girl, 18 months old, said to be healthy-looking-, was breast-fed for three months. She is said to have a strong objection to solid food ,anl practically lives on milk. She drinks plenty of water. "Since, able to walk and finl'her way about she "has had a mania for eating dirt, which she eats freely at every -opportunity. Her bowels are regular." A few months ago I received the following letted from a mother in the country:, 1 am wondering if you can give us any solution in your baby column as to why children eat mud, clay, and sand. Is there some need in their system? , . i^lf! Mf little boy is 16 months old, "and is fed according to "the book," as Ave mothers call it. ' At that age he should sleep all through the night, should he not ? that is, from 6 p.m. to about 6 a.m. Baby often wakes between 10 and 11 p.m., in spite of a good tea, will not sleep again till I feed him with milk. Sometimes he sleeps till 1 or 2 a,m., and then till 7.30. Thanking you in anticipation,—l am, etc., P.S.—I meant to tell you that baby ■will even lick the wheels of his go-cart for mud, and lick the gravel stuff dropped on the floor. It is not safe to

' leave him in a sand-box; he eats so j much of it. | This shbject was dealt with fully i in our column three yeai-s ago on account of several letters of Inquiry. I cannot do better than quote these old articles, as the comments made at that time will be most helpful to moth- ■ ers struggling with this difficulty toj day. I THREE LETTERS ON EARTHj EATING. "Reader" writes: I have a wee baby 15 months. She has been very delicate, and suffered from bronchitis and then . cholera when five months old. She » went to a skeleton, weighing only 111 b when seven months od. Now she is strong and well, quite • plump, and walks every where; but since she start, ed to walk she has been eating earth. First she started on the earth in my flowerpots, which had a dressing of soot, but now I often get her with a lump half as large as an egg, eating ; and enjoying it. Do what I will I cannot step her. Will it injure her, or does her system require lime or salt? What should I do? I am afraid it may bring on Summer Cholera again. Is there any danger, and what can I do? P.S. —She is also fond of dock leaves and seeds, always eating them. A nether mother wrote as follows concerning a similar case: T am writing to ask your advice about my baby girl, aged one year and four months, who will eat dirt, and stones if we let her outside. It is distressing to have to keep her in, because she loves to be oat. A third mother wrote at the NewYear: I am writing to you again about baby, who is now 14 months old. She is the picture of health —happy, and as good as one could wish —running about amusing herself, nearly always outside; but is, and has been, restless at nights, turning and tossing, and sometimes having a short cry. One would think there must be a pain

somewhere, but where I can't imagine. Her bowels are always healthy. She still sucks her ngers when going to

sleep. I've been wondering if thaihurts her in any. way. She puts grass, leaves, etc., in her mouth, and I daresay swallows some too, but we watch all we can. Perhaps you might be able to tell me what, is causing baby's uneasiness. Some weeks later the following was received from the same mother: Thank you ever so much for your kind letter. I have had a wire-netting fence round the verandah, but baby is net at all satisfied with that since she learnt to walk two and a-half months ago, and I don't think children should be crossed too much in matters of that kind. It seems quite natural that she should want away outside to play on the grass and see the "booties," as she calls the flowers. However, for the next month or two I will be with her as much as possible and so prevent her eating foreign substances. She does not seem so bad now as she was three weeks ago, so I am in hopes of her stopping the habit. 1 took your advice, and opened the bedroom window as much as a window will open, top and bottom, so that it looks like one pane of glass. The bedroom door is open, and there is an open fireplace I have not noticed worms in baby's motions. Are not babies very hungry when they have worm ? I once thought he might have worms, but could see lo indication of them anywhere. I am sending you a photo of baby, taken when 13 months .old. You will see she is sturdy, though not nearly as fat as a number of babies I know.

COMMENT AND REPLY

The third baby shows the least, departure from the normal —indeed, many mothers would be inclined to say that there was nothing out of the way in a baby early in its second year putting into its mouth, or even swallowing anything it could lay hands on. This is true to a large extent; the normal baby does, of course, tend to carry everything to the mouth and test it there (coal, dirt, blacking brushes, etc.) until it has learned tc combine the information received through the senses c-'f sight, touch, and taste, etc., and so discriminate between what is and what is not fit to eat. In these interesting researches the older child is aided by the more or less pleasurable feelings following on the eating of one kind of material as compared with another; but the baby has no such guide, it has acquired a bad habit the habit is liable to prove very hard to eradicate unless dealt ,with prompt l* and thoroughly. In older children a morbid habit al , lowed to persist and develop for i time may defy all subsequent efforts tc! overcome it* Thus "biting; the nails to the quick" may grew into a life habit. T remember a case of the kind in a singularly clever and attractive little girl in London who was quite a musical genius and had the most brilliant prospects as a violinist when approaching her teens. She then, became a "nail-biter." Little was thought of. the matter at first, and when it was taken in hand by a physician later on all efforts at mastery failed, and the child's musical career was brought to a close.

Dr Still, Professor of Diseases of Children at King's College, London, says: There is no period of life at which habits are so readily established as in childhood, but, fortunately, for like rank weeds, bad habits grow faster than good, childhood is a plastic age when the ruts of habit may be smoothed away and custom mouldde to new tracks. There is some divergence of opinion in regard to the average age and the nature and prospects of chillren who become "dirt-eaters." Thus Dr Holt the leading authority in New York, speaking from his American experience, says in his little book .on the 'Care of Children," addressed tr nothers and nurses:

QUESTION: "When are nail-bitin'c iml dirt-eating seen, and how arc ;hey to be controlled?" ANSWER: "These habits belong especially tc children over three years .old." (This is true as regards "nailbiting]" but "dirt-eating!" generally commences when a baby is between one and two years of age.—HYGEIA.) "They are particularly seen in tho.se who are excessively nervous or whose general health is below par, sometimes in these who develop serious nervous diseases later in life. Children with such tendencies should be clcsely watched, and every means used. to break up these habits early. "Dirteating' is a morbid craving which is rarely seen in a normal child."

Dr Still says: "There was nothing

ill any cf my 14 cases to suggest any mental deficiency." He summarises treatment as follows: (1) Prevent the child obtaining dirt, coal, mortar, etc. (2) Improve its general health, especially its digestion. There is no part of treatment more valuable than a few weeks at a bracing seaside place or, if this is not obtainable, at seme high-standing, breezy inland country place. At the same time it will be necessary to aid digestion by the most careful dieting. My readers will realise that there is no condition calling for more careful attention to "What Every Baby Needs whether Well or 111" (see page

1 of Society's book.) than the presence of morbid habits. Make the child a "healthy animal!" I shall deal further with the subject of morbid habits in another column.