OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2622, 2 October 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia.) j CARE OF BABY’S TEETH. .The care of the teeth is of extreme importance, and the following rules should be carefully attended to :- 1. Do everything to maintain good health. —Essentials- for Health.— (a) Air.—Abundance of pure, cool, outside air flowing fresh and free day and night. Remember that ventilate ' ion means a current across a room, : which cannot be got by means of a mere open window. Keep baby out of direct draught. (b) Water.—Must be boiled. Bathing water should be boiled also if of doubtful purity. (c) Food. —Suitable food, with proper intervals, and nothing between the regular feedings. Best food—liealthy mother’s milk. Best substitute —humanised milk. Baby should need no other food whatever for first nine months. Beware of patent foods, condensed milks, and “pieces.” (d) Clothing.—Must be non-irritat-ing, iion-C<?nstructive light, but sufficiently warm. M , (e) Bathing.—Cosy corner. Bath and dress very quickly—no dawdling. (f) Muscular Exercise and Sensory / Stimultaion. —A large amount of exercise should be taken from a very early age in the form of active sucking, kicking, waving the arms, etc., and later on, by crawling. Airing of skin, bathing, and plenty of sunlight outing are essential. (g) Warmth.—Warmed air and Kurroiiminute "li-e essentials for prematures, and necessary at first for those who have been coddled. Babies, like adults, benefit enormously by being kept in pure, cold air if properly clad. (h) Rest and Sleep. These depend mainly on the above. Remember to turn the baby in his cot, and remove wet napkins, cold bottles, etc. (i) Regularity of All Habits. (j) Cleanliness. If the above “Essentials for Health” received proper attention, there would be very little sickness indeed among babies. The mother should clearly realise that every illness a baby suffers from entails more or less damage for life —particularly damage to the teeth, which are being actively formed throughout childhood, but never „o actively as during the first 12 months. If anyone has a serious illness, a furrow across the nai! can lie readily seen and felt, owing to the fact that the nail grown during- illness i s poor and thin. The same principle applies with regard to the enamel of teeth formed during illness. The thin portion of nail does little harm, but a thin portion of tooth enamel will lead to premature decay of the tooth. 2. Give baby a bone from six months onwards. At first he wi’.l merely bite or munch it. but even this serves to promote the development and growth of jaws and teeth, and to promote the eruption of the latter. After nine months, give a crust, rusks, toast, etc. Teach him to chew properly, and don’t let him bolt any of his food, whether solid or liquid. 3. In the second year and onwards a fair proportion of the food should be dry, hard, or tough—e.g., crust of bread, toast, rusks, etc., and later — when the child has been trained to masticate properly—oat-cake, raw ripe apple, and even nuts may be given. The exercise involved develops the jaws and teeth; thus tendencies to decay, overcrowding and irregularity of the teeth arc prevented. 4. Cakes, sweets, biscuits, and chocolates should be given very sparingly, and they should never be given bedtim®. % 5. Tlie teeth should he carefully brushed every night and morning, at first with warm water, and later with a good dentifrice. 6. Tlfe first or temporary teeth, as well a s the permanent ones, should be cleansed, and carefully watched for any signs of decay. In any case the child should be taken to the dentist periodically if possible (N.B. —If the first teeth decay early, theretes a very poor chance for the second

ones.) CAUSATION OF DEFECTIVE MASTICATION. We have now to inquire into the various causes of inefficient mastication. Softness of Food.—-By far the most important of these lies in the nature of the food taken. The food of to-day is for the most part soft and pappy, of a kind,,that is, which does not compel thorough mastication. This feature is especially noticeable in the case of children’s diet. At the seventh or eighth month all kinds of artificial soft foods, in liquid or semi-liquid form, arc poured into the child’s stomach; later lie is fed on such viands as mashed potatoes and gravy, rusks soaked in milk, milk-puddings, bread dipped in baconfat, pounded mutton, thin, bread-and-butter, and the like; and we are glibly told that this is the kind of diet best suited to the young of man from the time of weaning to the end of the second year. The same pernicious methods are followed subsequently. “Perhaps the great majority of children, afther they have got their complete set of temporary teeth, have,” writes Dr Sim Wallace, “a dietary such as the following : —Breakfast: Bread-and-milk porridge, milk, tea, coffee, or cocoa, bread-and-butter, jam, cakes. Supper: Bread or biscuit and milk.” Now, food of this kind does not invite mastication, and in consequence finds its way all too readily into the stomach. Small wonder that the child nourished on such pappy food acquires the habit of bolting, and learns to reject hard, coarse foods in favor of the softer kinds. Everything nowadays must be tender, pultaceous, or “short.” Given a choice between a food compelling little or no mastication and one necessitating prolonged mastication —as between, say, fresh Vienna bread and an Aberneathy biscuit—and in nineteen cases out of twenty the one which gives the least trouble in eating will be chosen. To .such absurd lengths is this harmful predilection carried that even bread-crust is avoided by many; witness the fashion of eating bread-and-butter with a minimum of crust. And when we trace the diet of the modern fron\ childhood upwards it is the same story: the food tends to remain soft and pappy to the end.

• Let anyone run through' lvis daily dietary, ana lie will realise how very little work his masticatory apparatus is called upon to perform. It will read something lilco the following:—Breakfast: Porridge and milk, eggs, bacon, bread and marmalade. Lunch: Kish, tender meat, boiled vegetables, .some “sweet,” and cheese. Tea: Bread, butter, cake. Dinner : Much the same im lunch. What opportunity, I would ask, does such a hill of fare afford for l.lio adequate exercise of the jaws and teeth and for the proper functional activity of the sali"7