CARE OF INFANTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 293, 11 December 1925, Page 10

CARE OF INFANTS.

SPLENDID PLUNKET SYSTEM.

feAVINQ INVALUABLE LIVES

PROPOSED PEDRIATIC CHAIE^,

£By FRANCIS YEW.).

'An overwhelmingly large section of the medical profession and other people who are keenly interested in and gympathetic to the Plunket scheme of childmursing will be deeply disappointed with the decision of the Otago University authorities against the proposal to establish a Chair of Pedriatics, or infant welfare, to give the term its wider application. As pointed out by the deputation which waited on the chancellor, vice-chancellor and dean of the Medical School, the establishment of such chairs has been recommended by the Geneva Health Conference, and we lave Sir Truby lung's assurance that they have been established for seme years in American universities. Therefore, Plunket advocates, and, in fact, any who have the welfare of infante at heart, will not agree with the opinion expressed by Sir Lindo Ferguson that ihe deputation was "asking too much."

A Magnificent Success. Judged by results of which all now know—results which have brought officers to investigate it from countries on the other side of the globe—the riunket system of infant care has been a magnificent success, and, it may be, is as yet only on the first flight of stairs, so to speak. As with most innovations for the public weal, it had its share of critics. Its success has mostly silenced the critics, though there are. and will ever be. those who would dissect with adverse comment the appointments of Paradise, if such unbelievers could gain admittance there. Three years ago the Plunket scheme was pooh-poohed by the medical profession, even in a city so advanced in medical science as Melbourne. Only a few weeks ago Sir Truby King was given the heartiest of welcomes to the Victorian capital ana earnestly besought to explain his scheme in" detail. So does success silence opposition.

The Plunket scheme is not a fixed and rigid thing from which no departure may be made in any detail. One of its excellencies is that, though framed on definite lines, it is essentially elastic, and may be modified or amplified to suit individual cases. And part of the system lies in the training of nurses who will know how to apply it to particular conditions, to so train them that, aided fay their inherent maternal instincts, they will become able to readily recognise the variations in constitution, the physiological idiosyneracies and the changing phases of their little charges, and meet each different condition as the need demands. It is the woman who is the natural nurse for the child. Physicians, however clever at treating infantile ailments, cannot spend all their time observing. They prescribe and direct upon the report of the trained child-nurse, and it is here that their science comes in.

Nurse and Doctor. The most competent doctor, if he be honest with himself, will admit that unless he devotes all his time to infant patients he cannot call himself-a-pedria-tician, or specialist in infant diseases, and that he must rely almost 7 en£irely on the nurse when directing his treatment. "I could not call myself a specialist in this line unless I was in an infants' hospital and did nothing but infantile work all the time," admitted one physician. "Very few men can have that experience. Therefore, how necessary it is for us to have a sufficient number of nurses trained especially to the care of babies. It is on them that we. must rely in our work of caring for the new generation."

Many people have the idea that the Plunket system consists of a cradle and Ji bottle of humanised milk. It is far more elaborate. It was built up by Dr. Truby King from the best essentials of the most promising schemes of infant feeding and nursing in practice in the several countries of the world that paid particular attention to child welfare. Its evolution involved immense thought and the application of the knowledge and skill acquired by years of study and intense research. And its standing, central, and one irremovable principle is that it proceeds along the line of Nature, for humanised milk and other such subartificial aids are only secondary. The first rule is that infants, wherever and to whatever extent possible, must be fed on the breast,, and it is only where this is ■ not possible that recourse is made to other methods of feeding.

. , The Mother Stands First. . Foremost essential >to the infant is the mother, and the mother is as closely studied as her offspring. Where her milk, is insufficient, lacking in quality, or affected by some toxic or other harmful influence, she is dieted or treated to bring about that flow and perfection which is the natural bounty of the healthy parent to the infant. When this desideratum is not fully possible, humanised milk is used, which is cow's milk so treated as to resemble as nearly as possible in its physiological contents .the milk of the human.mother. The food of the infant is its very life. The ignorance of this principle—that varying foods cause varying effects, that mothers' milk may sometimes be poison, and some artificial foods even more so in many cases—has in the past sent into countless graves infants whose loss to the world may not. be made good in centuries—rand what amount of inarticulate genius, how many Listers, Shakespeares, Dantes, \Edison3, Marconis, Nightingales -—who knows ? •

Worthy of All Aid. It was to still further forward the good work already done for the preservation of infant life that the Plunket scheme was evolved, and its wonderful results, which have attracted world-wide attention, entitle it to foremost place in the list of the splendid things done for the betterment of humanity. Jn an age of low and declining birth-rate —a decline which unfortunately does not appear to have reached its limit—infant liio is infinitely more precioue to a world ' m\su ater com P le xities and a world more £m». «. of '* human str eng.th and intelli- «£& Wa * the case in * Pa"* of - niC V * am . lllee and limited opportunist if «° nt inuance of this good t0 men should be • T "% KhiE ?Z f the fo °tßt e ps of Sir ' r J «i teHkS W ° rk ia hand „,*? the »y»tem! a\ft aie india Pensable 111 t* ir a t tht tJ«\ Pedria- «•«• light a thing 3& ty ppsi