NUMBERS FOR BABIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1937, Page 11

NUMBERS FOR BABIES.

DELEGATE'S SUGGESTION. FEARS OF A FATHER. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. A remit from Invercargill, introduced by Mrs. R. M. Strang, that the clothcs of babies at Karitane homes be numbered or that some other means, such at an identification disc, lie used in order that it should be quite impossible for the identity of a baby to be mistaken, was lost at to-day's annual conference of the Plunket Society, but its discussion caused some amu ement.

"Little babies to young girls are something like little lambs; they are all alike," said Mrs. Strang. She suggested that to prevent mixing babies in Karitane homes a system of numbering cotA or clothes or rings on babies' arms should be introduced. She told of the fears of a mix-up of a man who had recently become a father. One or two new nurses might come on duty or a new sister and there could easily be a mix-up of babies if they were too busy. If they were always busy they might not be able to recognise the babies.

Miss Fitzgibbon, nursing adviser to the society, said that every baby in the homes was treated as an individual, but it also had a number. Its name and dumber were put on its cot. Its clothes were not marked. "Every baby is allotted to a Karitane nurse," she said, "and she is a mother to it. I am quite sure babies could never be mixed up. I don't think it is possible for a mixup to happen." In the case of quadruplets, twins or triplets they would be given a disc to identify them. A nurse in charge of a baby or babies took an especial interest in them. Replying to a question, Miss Fitzgibbon said that generally speaking one nurse was in charge of one baby.