OUR BABIES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 233, 23 June 1915, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

(BY HYGEIA.) (Published by request of tbe Taifcape Plunket Society.) "It is wiser to put up a fence at tno top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." WHAT IS THE BEST FOR BABIES? In a couple of columns a few weeks ago we dealt with the subject of air. Just after the first article appeared the following letter was received, and we think the suggestion contained in it is worth following. Of course, if any subeet of special importance to the work of the Society should crop up, it would be gone into at once; but meantime it maj- be helpful to our readers if wo amplify what is said in the Society' book with regard to the "Essentials for Health.'-' LETTER. Your notes in this column are most interesting. I, with several frienc's, look for them regularly each week. We were wotidering, unless the prograranv is prearranged, if you would be so kind as to give an article each week on the "Twelve Essentials for a Baby"—it Is the first chapter in .Or. Truby King's book, "The Feeding and Care of Baby." . I see that the first essential- —Frosh Ah - —is taken this week. Hoping you will forgive us for raking this liberty.—Believe us to be, etc., INTERESTED. The Best Site for a House, the Best .Air, and Plenty of Sunlight.

We have in the Dominion no centre of population which is not reasonably healthy, though it would he possible to select almost anywhere a particular situation or house which would not be desirable.

The main points for the health are i the avoidance of a low-lying, damp situation, or one unduly shaded by a steep hillside or by buildings or trees, i etc. On the other hand, excessive exposure to prevailing winds without ! readily available shelter is up desirable. . especially for babies, because it limits ' the time they can spend in the open j air. Favour a site with the ground trending more or ess northwards, nor southwards. A free, open, porous soil is certainly best, but clay need not be- feared if there is ample drainage and the roads are good. In an ordinary house, where servants are not kept, the health of smill children depends very much upon wliether the room in which most of the indoor life has to be spent looks towards the midday sun or directly away from it, as is commonly the ease. The baby should be out or doors as much as possible, and when indoors during the daytime it- should Vie in the lightest, brightest room In the house. In most cottages the reverse is the case. Mother and baby live in the kitchen, which is small, overheated, and looks southward. An ample living-room with a verandah looking north for the baby to play on, is best. The range or stove can be recessed. The mother who wants her baby to be healthy and to grow up to

vigorous maturity, should give it as much fresh, cool air and sunshine as possible. Problems of Babyhood. Ti. emphasise fart'.<«.;;• r.'ie paramount importance of outing and perfect purity of air. I cannot do better than quote the following admirable introduction to a book, "Problems of Babj'hood," written by Or. Fritz, a professor of hygiene at Harvard University, and his wife. The book is dedicated— To those Parents who deem the Training of their Children their Supreme Privilege and Duty. Building a Constitution.—Frerh Ale. One of the most important recent changes in medical practice is d'l2 to rhe lecignition of fresh, cold a ,r . The modern treatment cf consumption las proved most brilliantly that such air has the power of so far icrcasing the vigour and resistance, of even the more sluggish tissues of the body a.s to enable them to combat and overcome, disease already established in the system, when all other curative measures have failed. Persons who in their weakness had dreaded every change of temperature, had protected themselves religiously against every current of fresh air, had anxiously consulted the thermonetcr before trusting themselves out of dc<v»'S, and had . smothered themselves in heavy veils, lest they should take a full breath of undiluted cold air, have found themselves able almost immediately, even in the vigorous climate of an Eastern winter in the United States, to live out of doors during the day and to sleep at night, in an unheated hut with one side open, verandah-wise, to the weather. And the result has boon no* Ceatli by cold nor yet a lingering decline, but health and resistance to disease through the physiological stini.ua ti on t-T the vital functions by judicious exposure. The sole conditions have hco.n an abundance of simple food and bodily warmth through adequate woollen clothing. Fouled, Warm, Breath-Laden Air the Ideal Poison.

The change of attitude on the part, of physicians has of necessity affected the attitude of the laity. The generation which shuddered when it felt a cold draught, which dreaded the imaginary poison of the night wind, which entombed itself in closely shut rooms, regardless of the actual active poises; of its own breath, is, fortunately, passing aw ? ay, and now, instead of the pclief that, only the strongest can etiw.C fresh air, is the knowledge that the weakest cannot live without It.

.This change of attitude brings u? ; .nto sympathy with that rugged Western plainsman who, when on a visit. r<> the East, slung his hammock at nigiit •n the open. When /emorsEroted with on the ground that his <'yr> f-ti.rr had previously slept in the very room :v,ofiv>rp{| +a him he aus"'**'*' I '' **°*h

smile, "Ah, but my father was s strong man! " Pure Air All in Ali;.for Babies.

If the reconstructive value of frcsli air iu weakened and diseased bodies < is so great, its constructive effect upon the developing," constitution of tlie child during the period of most rapid growth can hardly be over-estimated. By means of tins stimulation alone is

eaeh '-ell enabled to reach its maximum of effectiveness, and thus to contribute its' full share in the physiological cooperative economy of the human body. The building processes involved in the structural development of tiie child require vigour vigour of cell-action. The extreme failure of those preceses is patently manifested in delayed teething, retarded development of the strength required for walking, and the onset of mal-nutritioual troubles, such as rickets and scurvy. The lesser degrees of failure are habitually overlooked in almost every family and accepted as v natural" weslu.ess To prevent such failure, or to meet it if prevention is already impossible a regime similar to that, that adopted in the treatment of consumption should be judiciously instituted. If the one essential of bodily warmth is judiciously ensured the timid moilier may rest assured of the folly of her fears. Her poisoned and suffocated hot-house plant child will blossom into rugged vigor under the life-giving stimulus of pure air. After a three hours' sloop in an outside window box in zero weather, a six months' baby properly protected will come in with glowing cheeks and a body radiating warmth. (N.B.—The reader must not. forget that Or. and Mrs. Fritz are speaking of their personal experience of babies ! in the United States, where the winter cold is infinitely more severe than in New Zealand. Seeing that American babies flourish in pure cold air, we may be sure ours would be safe and flourish also. As a matter of fact and experience, we know they do, whether at the Ivaritane Hospital in Otago or in me mother's home when pure cold air has free play. | -1 j ;