OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2443, 6 March 1909, Page 12 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia.) Published under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children . CORRESPONDENCE. THRUSH. . “Stitch in Time,” writing from the hack country, asks what she is to do to prevent lior baby getting thrush. She says:—“My baby is quite healthy so far. For the lust five weeks she has been doing well on humanised milk, hut I am very anxious for fear she should catch thrush. Our neighbour’s baby is quite dangerously id with it. An old nurse who was with mo after my confinement mentioned then that the disease was catching, and told me that the best preventive was to wipe the baby’s mouth out with a rag dipped in borax and water every morning and evening. I did not do this until last week, when 1 got alarmed on seeing bow ill my friend’s baby had become; but have done it since. Is thrush easily carried from one baby to another, and what is the best means-of-preventing the disease or treating it when it has come ?” PRESERVING THE TEETH. Several letters have been received asking how best to preserve the teeth. REPLY. The essentials for the prevention of thrush and for the preservation of teeth are identical —namely, the maintenance <o-f good general health and vigor. When speaking of thrush the old nurse was quite right up to a" certain point. Microbes are present in the white patches of thrush, and these can bo 1 conveyed from one baby to another. These microbes are associated with 'the disease in the same way that tubercle germs are associated with consumption, or the germs of caries with bad teeth; hut it should be remembered in general that harmful germs cannot establish themselves and flourish in a healthy person. To prevent the growth in the mouth of colonies of the germs of thrush, or colonies of the germs of dental caries, tho main thing is to keep the baby in vigorous health. In the case of thrush this is practically all that is needed. THE TEETH. In regard to preserving the teeth the maintenance of good health is also by long odds the main issue, especially in early life, and, indeed, is all that we can do until the teeth are through the gums; but when a fair number of teeth have emerged the mouth should be. brushed and rinsed regularly morning and evening, even in tho case of perfectly healthy babies, because under modern conditions few children use their tongue sufficiently to ensure tho removal of food debris and microbes. As Dr Pickerill, tho head of tho Dental School at the Otago University, says, “tho first and universal purpose of the tongue is not as ail organ of speech, but as a masticatory organ and tooth-brush.” The more vigorously a baby can be induced to use its jaws, tongue, and teeth, tho_ less will be tlio risk of dental caries, but it is a wise precaution in every case to gently clean the teeth with a soft brush and rinse tho mouth morning and evening. If this bo done, and if sweets be avoided, especially between meals, and above all at bedtime, there will be little risk of tho teeth failing to hold out. If tha first teeth decay early there is a poor chance for the second sot, though oven then much can bo done by proper attention to minimise the ovil.

Should tho Baby’s Mouth bo Wiped Out Daily as a Routine Measure Beforo the Teeth are Out?

Certainly not! This is a point about which there need bo no doubt whatever in spite of the contrary advice often given. There is no more need for meddlesome interference with the mouth of a suckling than there is for meddlesome interference with the lower bowel. One might imagine that the bowel might’be better for a daily purifying by means of an enema, but it is strange that it should have occurred, to anyone that tho pure mouth of a healthy baby needs cleansing from without, seeing that it is naturally irrigated many times a day by what Dr Pickerill calls the best mouth wash—viz., the saliva; Nothing in medical writings is stranger than tho following typical advice given in an otherwise sensiblo book addressed to mothers and nurses:—

Au infant’s mouth should be cleansed before and after nursing, be it from breast °r.JottlO;. A small piece of absorbent cotton •wot with boric acid solution (a teaspoonful of.powdered i boneto a pint, of water) should ho •around the nurse’s little linger tip, the finger is then inserted into the baby’s mouth anl the whole inside of the cavity ,gently wiped out. Al- ; ter the baby has reached the age ol six months the mouth need not be cleansed more than once a dajv _ rri-iio ic absurd! It has been con clusively demonstrated, in hospital ami In private, that the washing outjt the mouths of healthy babies is only unnecessary and useless, but -that it is a most fruitful source of fleers and infections. A ;long .article J a leading physician m New Wl, pointing out the risks of the practice appeared in the Lance a vear ago. 11ns was based on writer’s very extensive experience as a specialist m the diseases of child ren, and it is supported by the; latest Continental authority, f rom quote the following:—“lt. has been found from general experience that the cleansing of the bates mouth by wiping produces superficial.injuries 01 si?pi membrane, rvhmh lead to local infections and may serious constitutional 'troubles. Our correspondent Stitch m lime will understand from the foregoing that the daily introduction of a rag and finger into a healthy baby s moutn is much more likely to give-rise ta thrush than to prevent it, and that it may give rise to other worse forms of disease. If the baby next door has thrush there is all the more reason for not risking the direct conveyance of infection from the one baby to the other. ‘However, if a healthy baby does become infected with thrush at a damaged spot it would probably fail to continue growing, and m any case can be easily cured by the follow in 0 simple line of treatment m addition bo scrupulous attention to fresh an, proper feeding, regularity of habits, HOW SHOULD THE MOUTH BE CLEANSED WHEN THERE IS THRUSH? Wash carefully after every feeding or nursing with a solution made by adding a dramch of boraeic acid and half an ounce of glycerine to a quarter of a. pint of boiling water. Use a tiny swab made by twisting a bit of pure absorbent cotton wool (vlncn may be got from a chemist) round the tip of a wooden toothpick or other slender piece of clean wood, unh this swab cleanse the folds between the gums and lips and cheeks. “The finger of the nurse, often employed, is too large' and liable to injure the delicate mucous membrane.” —(Professoi Holt). NATURE AND CAUSES OF THRUSH. (Dr Crozer Griffith.) Thrush is a disease of the mouth far commonest in bottle-fed or sickly children in the early weeks of life. (Small whitish patches, sometimes crowded thickly together, form over the lining of the mouth, and especially on the tongue, cheeks, and hard palate. They greatly resemble curdled milk, but differ in that they can be removed only by tlie use of considerable force. A lack of perfect cleanliness about the mouth and the bottles and rubber nipples pud the use of bottles with long rubber tybes. are active factors in producing the disease. It is very commonly associated with some disturbance of digestion, and it is distinctly contagious. The symptoms are an indisposition to nurse pn account of the pam produced, often combined with colic and some diarrhoea and vomiting. SUMMARY TREATMENT OF THRUSH. Strict attention to hygiene, especially perfect care and cleanliness in every detail of food and feeding. Long tube feeders and dummy must- be got ,rid of. Don’t give cane-sugar, condensed milk, patent food, biscuit, or (sweets. Borax and honey will not do for swabbing the mouth, because honey feeds the microbes. Gently swab out the mouth with a solution of boraeic acid as directed above. Pay strict attention to hygiene in the way of fresh air day and night, outings, perfect regularity of feeding and habits, etc. ~