OUR BABIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 75, 9 January 1928, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

(By “HYGEIA ”) Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

SUNLIGHT. Outing and exposure to sunshine is as necessary for the proper growth, development and health of human beings throughout infancy and childhood as it is for the young of the rest of the animal kingdom. Fortunately in New Zealand we have abundance of sunshine, but, in sipte of this, few babies get as much as is good for them. From the end of the first..month onwards the baby should' be habituated to a gradual--1 ly increasing pfay of the direct rays of tlie sun on the skin, starting with momentary exposure of hands and forearms, feet and legs, and extending in due course to the upper arms and thighs, and including later on more or less of the surf ace. of the body. When a normal baby is about a week old he may be taken out into the sunshine for a short time if the weather is mild and genial. His eyes can be shaded from the glare by turning him on his side in his cot and shading liis head, without putting any covering near his face. The leather hood of an ordinary perambulator affords a very unhealthy shelter for the baby. Sun Baths. When the temperature of the day is not under about 60 degrees Fahrenheit a healthy baby who has been nroperly reared should have become accustomed toward the end of the second month to having his arms and legs and part of the adjacent skin-surface of his body bared to the sun for, say, five or ten minutes before the 10 a.m. feeding, and in the course of another week or two before the_ 2 p.m. feeding also. The mother should hold the baby on her knee, if possible, so that while he is being sunrayed she can give him stimulation and passive exercise by stroking his legs and arms gently but firmly, starting at the hands and feet and working systematically toward the trunk, so as to drive the blood in the right direction and thus promote increased activity of the circulation. As the baby grows older his legs and arms may be bared to the sunshine for, say, ten minutes or a quarter of an hour before his 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. feedings. Even longer exposure may prove beneficial on specially favourable days. If the weather is warm a healthy baby in his second month may have his morning bath on the open verandah where the sunshine can play on his body. Later, when he can crawl and run about, exposure of the whole body in the open sunlight for from 10 to 15 minutes or more may be allowable.

Beach Play. If baby lives by the seaside, the mother may safely let him run about on the beac-h for a time on a warm summer’s day with little, if any, covering for the body—provided, of course, that he has been reared sensibly and not coddled and Spoiled. Babies habituated to daily exposure of the skin to open air and sunshine do not catch cold easily and do net feel the changes of weather —they become practically “wea-ther-proof” and almost disease-proof. Such children are <a, joy to themselves and to everyone connected with them; they radiate happiness, as the sun radiates light, heat, and health. Their circulation will be good, and their feet and hands will glow with warmth even on cold days. Of course, if a baby has not been habituated to exposure to sunshine, the mother must proceed very cautiously, accustopiing him gradually, little by little, to fuller exposure of the skin surface A Bsd to Himself. To ensure pure air day -and night the baby must, have a bed to himself. “A baby must never sleep in' bed with Ins mother.” Only a few weeks ago there was a case of death through “overlying” in the North Island. The Coroner at the inquest condemned this foolish and utterly unjustifiable practice, which is still quite common among careless, self indulgent mothers. “If the cot is kept in the room in which the parents or. other persons sleep, it should he placed on the side of the room opposite to where the other bed or beds stand, and there should be a current of pure outside air flowing across the room between the cot and the bed, so that the baby may not rebreiath© the air which the other occupants of the room have used up and poisoned.”

Sunlight Essential. Parents and nurses should be brought to realise that, during the last five or ten years, a series of highly important and very striking investigations have proved conclusively that deficiency of exposure of the skin surface to direct sunlight is one of the leading causes of delicacy, debility, and disease. The first practical discoveries were mainly in the direction of proving that children suffering from various forms of tuberculosis could he cured and made strong and healthy by gradually habituating them to spend some hours every day in the open air, clad with nothing but a loin cloth—-the other factors of healthy living (suitable food, adequate exercise, rest, and sleep) being also provided.