SEA BATHING (II)

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 295, 16 February 1945, Page 15

SEA BATHING (II)

(Written for "The Listener" by DR.

H.

B.

TURBOTT

' Director of School

Hygiene, Health Department).

HE summer season is with us, and from my last article you will have learned something of this great tonic-sea water, air and sunshine. Now, you have only a short annual holiday, and most people go all out from the very first day with long and frequent sea dips. It is better to start gradually. Too much at the beginning. will make you tired and headachy. From the mid-morn-ing, say 10 a.m. up to 5 p.m., is the best time for sea-bathing. If you have a big picnic lunch do not go into the water too soon afterwards. And while we are still on the subject of. timing of a swim, there is no special virtue in the, early morning bathe on an empty stomach — the before breakfast swim that so many sea-side holiday makers think they must take as part of the holiday. Only strong people or those acclimatised to an early morning dip by long practice get benefit from this.

You have heard the saying that there is less chance of "catching cold" after a sea bath than after a fresh-water swim. There is some truth in this. Some salt _is deposited on the skin as you leave the water, and this cuts down the evaporation from the skin after the swim, and the salt also stimulates the nerve endings in the skin. The result is less chance of "catching cold" following sea bathing. But this does not mean that you can let the children be shivering about the beach! No child should be allowed to stay in the water too long. At the first sign of blueness of lips or of hands and feet, or of coldness or shivering, send the child off to dress. You can get pleurisies and pneumonias through carelessness in oversight of children at the beach. I like to see the children playing about the beaches for proper periods in dry swimming togs or sunsuits, and prefer the practice of sunbathing first, swimming last, followed by immediate dressing after the swim. There is less risk of trouble with weak chested children .and those liable to take colds easily. Part of the value of the sea bath is the sun bath that goes with it. But that game you see unsupervised children playingrunning down into the sea, bathing,’ running up into the hot sand and drying off by sunbathing, and continuing this for hours on end-is not a recommended practice. Alternating sea baths and sun baths is not good. Do not let the children stay in the hot sun on the beach in their bathing togs a whole morning or afternoon. You can have too much of even such a good thing as sunlight. This year, do go sea swimming as often as you can if you cannot go holidaying by the seaside. Remember, a bath of water is good, a bath of air is better, but a bath of sunshine is best, and sea bathing gives you all three at once,