OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2746, 26 February 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

(By “Hygeia

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children.

SUMMER DIARRHOEA

As this is the season during which the above disease is so rife, wo think it well to restate, briefly the main precautionary measures which should he taken.

Give the baby everything that is necessary for th e . maintenance of good health, namely:— (1) Pure, cool, free-flowing air night and day. Keep the baby out in tlie open air and sunshine, as much as possible, but protect him from direct draughts. (2) Good food. Breast-feeding if possible. Failing this properly adjusted humanised milk. (See Society’s book.) Keep milk cool and loosely covered in an outside safe. In very warm weather re-lieat any milk remaining after 12 hours to 155 deg Fah., cool rapidly, and] keeji cool. Never use patent foods, condensed milk, or cow’s milk and water.

(3) Good water. Use boiled water. If water is of doubtful purity, boil the water for bath also. (4) Feed perfectly regularly, waking baby if he is asleep when feeding time comes. See< article on “Regularity of Feeding,” published a fortnight ago.) (o) Regulate other habits —e.g., bowels, etc. (6) Clothe- suitably. Silk and wool next skin. Nothing tight. No binder after a fortnight. (7) Bathing—warm, cosy corner ; don’t dawdle. (8) Exercise. Kicking, etc., should be encouraged. (9) Weigli baby every week. (10) Cleanliness in everything. Bottles, nipples, milk vessels, etc., must be kept absolutely clean. Never use a long-tube feeder or a dummy. Soiled) napkins should be removed from room at once and placed in water. (11) Don’t wean baby in summer unless advised by a- doctor. (12) Proper rest and sleep. Baby should never sleep in bed with his mother, but in a separate cradle. INDIGESTION.

If there is any digestive disturbance, weaken the food for one or two meals. If baby is breast-fed, give some boiled water (either before or after feeding), and allow him to nurse for only half the usual time. If artificially fed, give one feeding of boiled water Or sugar of milk solution, and the following meal half the usual strength. This simple- withholding of food is often sufficient to set baby right. If there should be diarrhoea, give one dose of castor oil (a teaspoonful is the .usual quantity for a baby), and withhold all milk for a time, giving boiled ■water only for 12 hours "at least. The rationale of the above treatment is: (1) Til at you must get rid, as far as possible of microbes in the alimentary canal which* causes the- diarrh- . oea This is accomplished by the casto r oil. (2) That you must not supply food for the microbes wffiich remain, therefore you withhold milk —the food on which tho diarrhoea microbe flourish exceedingly. Therefore give only boiled water for 12 hours, or even longer, if necessary. In all cases of diarrhoea a doctor should be called in at once. Pending his arrival, give the castor oil and water only. . For tho benefit of dwellers in the country where no doctor is available, the following extracts from one of the January articles may bo repeated:

HOW TO COMBAT ACTUAL ATTACK

OF DIARRHGJA

Ensure prompt cleansing of the bowls by means of a dose of castor oil—say, from one* to two drachms, according to the age of the infant. The average requirement is an ordinary teaspoonful. Regime for babies suffering from acute indigestion or from diarrhoea and vomiting resulting from impropper feeding. (1) For 12 hours—Water boiled. (2) For 12 hours—Sugar of milk solution. ° (3) For 12 hours or more —Skim milk whey. (4) For 12 hours or more —Curdless milk with one-fifth of boiled humanised milk. (6) For 48 hours or more—Equal parts of curdless milk and boiled humanised milk. Gradually and cautiously work up to pure, humanised milk. The boiling of the humanised milk should be continued for a day or two after all evidence of a tendency to diarrhoea has ceased. CORRESPONDENCE.

“R.W.,” Purakanui, writes:—My wee girlj aged 2£ months, sleeps at night nine and sometimes ten hours without waking. Should I let her be so long, without a drink. I’ve always understood ‘they''should have food every four hours during the night, at that age. She is. breast-fed, perfectly healthy, and very fat. . My boy, aged* six years, grinds 4ns teeth very hard during sleep. Can you tell me the reason of that? He is healthv but is always ver<- thin. Please reply to these queries. REPLY.

(1) The article entitled “Regularity of Feeding,” which appeared a fortnight ago in this column, contains the answer to your first question. A baby of two months old ought to sleep nine hours at night, and should have no feeding from 9 or 10 p.m. until 6 a.in. If you carefully study the article referred to, I am sure you will be convinced of the reasonableness 1 of being regular. Make out a time-table, and stick to it absolutely. You mil find 1 this a great saving of time and worry, and baby will grow and flourish. Say you feed at 6 a.m., 9 a.m., 12 noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 or 40 p.m. (that is when you go to bed), that will' give you and your infant an. undisturbed night. Don t give her anything but your own milk until she is nine months, except a bone tx> gnaw at. This may be given At six months. After five months feed every four hours, Bay at 6 a.m., 10 a.m., a p.m., 6 p.m., and 10 p.m. When you wean, do it gradually, as advocated in the “Feeding and Care of the Baby,” replacing first one breastfeeding, then two, and so on, by P r °" perly-adjusted humanised milk. .1. non give some oat jelly, tough crusts, etc. Never give a baby rusks or biscuits. Not only are. they bad for a baby, but they vitiate his taste, and cause him to refuse the plain, simple food which is best for him. . - Attend carefully to nil. the essentials for health mentioned above. (2) “Grinding the teeth” is sometimes a sign that worms are present, so you

ought to watch carefully for them. The presence of worms points to an enfeebled state. _Whether worms are there or not, grinding the teeth at night generally indicates that the digestion is disturbed, and that the child is not so well as he ought to be. Make sure that your boy has all tho essentials for health. The main sources of ill-health in children are: —

(a) An imperfect realisation of the. meaning of fresh air all night long. Few people seem to jyrasp the fact that air is a real tiling—that it is to us what water is to a fish, and that we need clean air just as a fish needs clean water. To have clean air all night long there must be an actual current flowing across tho room. The fresh air should come in at a wide-open window (uncovered by a blind) and should go out at a chimney or other open window. You ought to get the- Society’s new book when it comes out, and there you will •see pictures of how to ventilate a room.

(b) Irregular meals and improper food. A boy would grow much better if he had three good meals a day and nothing between times. The kind of food is very important too. Usually far too much sugar is taken in the- form of janveakes, biscuits, sweet puddings sugar on porridge, and —most baneful of all —“sweets.” Too much sugar is a fertile courcc of the digestive trouble, therefore it is well to cut down the sup. plies of sweet stuff very considerably., You should also get your son to chew food. Don’t feed him on mushy foods. Dr. Henry Campbell regards “grinding of the teeth” at night as a . kind of protest and compensatory process, attempted by Nature, to make up for th e exercise which parents fail to provide for the teeth and jaws during the day time. , I take- for granted that your boy has plenty of out-door exercise during the day Most boys have.