OUR BABIES

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 146, 23 February 1915, Page 2

OUR BABIES

(BY HYGEIA.) MORBID IJABTTS. In response to a series of letters of inquiry, I gave last week some notes on ''Earth-eating" and ether morbid habits liable to arise in childhood. The further extracts given at the end of this column from Dr Still's lucid and authoratitive remarks, based on his very extensive London experience, throw much light on the subject, and should prove helpful to any parents engaged in the difficult and supremely important task of trying to get a child whose habits have gone astray back into a normal channel.

It will be seen that the basis of treatment, is preventive—viz., the establishment of a strong, well-nourished healthy body. Lack of control tends to manifest itself in restlessness, insomnia, nervousness, irritability, bad temper, muscular jerkings and spasms, incontinence of urine, and faulty habits of all kinds, including sexual perversions; all these manifestations being specially characteristic, of the child who has not been properly built and trained as a "healthy animal." From childhood to the grave the power of control and of healthy selfdirection is at its highest when the digestion, nutrition, and bodily health and potentialities are at their top notch also. HEREDITY. Of course, heredity is an important factor. Undoubtedly children of socalled "nervous parentage" are more liable to acquire morbid habits than children of parents who are less alert land .more stable and phlegmatic; but I the 'child born with what is called a "nervous temperament" can be developed in the direction of its more desirable potentialities, instead of being al.owed to drift into wrong channels. Everything depends on the feeding, training, etc.—in other words, en the environments.

ENVIRONMENT.

Parents should realise that "Environment can knock Heredity into a cocked hat"—that the guardian 3 and directors of a child can do everything by proper feeding, care, and attention —indeed, the more nervous the tendency en account of unstable ho.-eJty, the more careful should the parents be to rear and train it on sound and sensible lines. As Dr Clouston. says, "Morbid potentialities need never become actualities. Once a child is born we can't change its heredity; but it is our duty to leave no stone unturned when we take charge-there is no limit to what we can effect by means of environment. " We owe every child its "natural rights"—the right to be well and regularly fed, to be given plenty of outing and exercise, plenty of fresh air and sunlight, ete.-aud surely the claims on society of those who start handicapped in anv way are as strong as the claims of those who str.rt with no such disabilities.

Extracts from Article on Morbid Habits in Children, by Dr Still. "There is no period of life at which habits are so easily established as in childhood; but, fortunately—for, like rank weeds, bad habits grow faster than good— childhood is a plastic age when the deep ruts of habit may yet be smoothed away, :«nd custom moulded to new tracks."

PICA: OR PERVERTED APPETITE

"Very curious is the habit which has been described as pica, or dirt-eat-ing; it is seen mostly in the later half of infancy—from one to two years of age;.-but, as Dr John Thomson has pointed out, it begins sometimes in later childhood, when from any cause the general health fails, and the child becomes anaemic. Dr Thomson lias recorded 11 cases, in nine of which the habit began before the child was two years old. "I have notes of 14 cases which have been under my care —seven boys and seven girls, —not including three eases of hair-eating, which ought, perhaps, to come in a different category. "The history of the child with pica is sufficiently shown by the following cases: "Ivy J., aged four and a-lialf years, was sent to me by Dr R. M. Stewart, of Dulwich. Since the age of 15 months she had had a craving for what her mother described as 'rubbish.' She was particularly fond of green stuff, such as raw cabbage-leaf and potatopool. A fortnight before T saw her she had pulled down a clematis in a ne : ghboiir's garden and cr.ten the leaves. She would also eat the wax faces of her dolls —had eaten five between Christmas and Febmnrv and

at times had eaten sand and mortar, and had also eaten part of her pinafore. When taken to consult, a doctor she was found eating the papers in his waiting room. "She was a very passionate child but apparently of normal intelligence Her appetite for ordinary food wasvery poor. She had had threadworms since the age of two years. "The only acute disturbance which had resulted from her morbid appetite was after eating privet leaves, when acute gastric symptoms had occurred. "Muriel J., aged three years, at Ihe

age of 14 months began to e?.t earth, and v.'hen placed in'her 'pram' to stop this she sucked the mud oft the wheels and ate it; she had a great fondness

for eating mortar, which sh" picked out of walls; she had eaten the tops off a dozen safety matches, and candlegrease was also a favourite. She ate the legs and arms off all her dolls if they were made of 'composition,' so that only china dolls could be used. She had a very bad appetite for ordinary food, and was so passionate that the day before I saw her she had thrown a scissors at her sister when thwarted of some desire; she had also suffered with night terrors. "She sometimes passed earth with her stools, and had glso vomited earth. Her mother stated that she herself had suffered at the age of 16 years with a craving for blotting-paper and linen, and used to get out of bed at night to eat towels." —Ceo. Frederick Still, M.D., F.R.C.P., Professor of Diseases of Children, King's College, London. (To be continued next week.)