Mothers Urged To Use Play Pens

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31195, 20 October 1966, Page 2

Mothers Urged To Use Play Pens

Mothers of young children were urged to use play pens, in an effort to reduce accidents in the home, by the charge sister of the Christchurch Plunket Society (Miss B. Helliwell) at the annual meeting.

The society’s nurses were finding it difficult to make even the best of parents aware of home dangers. "We, with other organisations, have been plugging away for yeans and have made no impact,” said Miss Helliwell. “Statistics show that the accident rate in the one-to-five years group is appallingly high and the number of burns and scalds in the one-to-two years groups is terrifying,” she added. “There should be no such thing as burnt and scalded children.” Mothers needed to get the old fashioned playpen. A lot said they did not want to restrict their children. But if a child was put in one early enough he got used to it and developed normally. The mother could go about her chores knowing that her child was safe. Miss Helliwell also urged mothers to keep asking for flame-resistant clothes for children and warned that care should be taken when buying toys. Many caught fire easily. ’ The matron of the Kaiitane Hospital (Miss N. Fisher) said that too many young mothers lacked adequate preparation in the care of their babies. “There is an unfortunate

tendency for mothers to leave the maternity homes earlier these days. It is hard to get mothers to come to the hospital for mothercraft training,” she said.

This lack of preparation often led to problems later on. Mothers became psychologically disturbed and found their babies too much to cope with.