OUR BABIES. (By Hygeia.)

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 76, 26 September 1908, Page 3

OUR BABIES. (By Hygeia.)

It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom. SKIN" DISEASE AND WEAK/ CHEST. "Anxious Mother" writes: — "I shall be glad of advice regarding my baby. She is a healthy little girl, six months old, and entirely breasfc-fed. . . . An outbreak has come on her head. It commenced with one or two slight pimples about the crown of the head, and is spreading in the form of a large scab, not running at all, but rather dry and irritable. I have been keeping it clean and moistening with pure olive oil. There v are no signs of teeth yet, except that she puts everything into her mouth and bites hard, and her bibs are constantly wet. lam a healthy mother, with plenty of milk, and baby's bowels are regular, and the head does not seem to upset her in any way except that she is all the time wanting to scratch it. I shall be so glad if you will advise me how to treat it. I am wondering if it is caused through teething. . . (, "For some time before his death my misband was delicate, and I am very anxious to prevent my baby from having her father's trouble — a weak chest, — so I have rubbed her back and chest with pure olive oil every morning after her bath since she was two weeks old, as a preventive, as I thought; but I have been strongly advised to discontinue it for the reason that if she took a severe cold the rubbing with oil would have no effect. I argue that prevention is better than cure; and will not the rubbing with oil prevent her from taking cold on the chest? She has never had a bad cold yet. I shal) be glad if you will also advise me on this subject." REPLY. The precise nature of the skin disease from which the baby is sullering is a matter for the doctor to determine, if one is in any way available. The commonest affection of the kind described is eczema, but whatever may be the specific , nature of the malady the general measures whitfh will conduce to recovery are practically the same — viz., stiict attention to the essentials for healtii as previously described. ECZEMA. Breathing and living in impure air predispose to infantile eczema, but generally the leading factor is impaired digestion, due to errors in the quantity or quality of the food given and lack of exercise. _ Over-feeding is the commonest predisposing cause, and frequently there is constipation. Eczema of the head is more often seen in fat, healthy-looking, over-fed babiejs, whether suckled, or not, than it is in those who are thin, delicate, and under-fed, though it is common among the latter also. Teething predisposes to eczema, but, acting alone, will not cause it. The same ma^ be said of hereditary tendency, and, for the most part, of irritants acting directly on the skin. Local irritants specially liable to determine an attack of eczema and to prevent the skin heading are over-clofching, too much washing or washing with hard* water, imperfect drying of the skin, the use of strong irritating soaps or irritating flannel underclothing, and excessive exposure of the face to direct sunlight or excessive exposure to wind— especially if the baby when indoors is kept in warm stuffy rooms. Scratching or chafing of the skin is especially liable to retard recovery. If the baby is suckled the mother^ health is of prime importance. RUBBING THE CHEST WITH OIL. ,As for habitually rubbing .the skin with' oil in order to strengthen the chest, more harm than good will result the breathing organs. Temporary rubbing with oil may be beneficial during an actual attack or catarrh of the ches£ with a view to counter flushing and counter irritation, but if this is continused habitually the normal relationship and adjustment of the functions and nutrition of the skin to the condition of the underlying internal organs may be interfered with. In a certain sense the less we "meddlo" with a child in health the better. ,Tlie mother f eels quite confident that she can "do no harm." and will strengthen the chest (meaning thereby the lungs) by habitual friction with oil, usually camphorated, because at some time or other her doctor has order ed this treatment for some child when it had a cold in the chest. She does not realise that he ordered the rubbing because he knew that the lungs were inflamed and engorged with blood, and because he wanted to relieve the temporary congestion by diverting 'some of the internal excess of blood to the overlying skin. For the time being this was perfectly right and rational, but when the mother uses the same treatment^ to a baby who has little or nothing the matter, simply because she fears lie may inherit a tendency to weakness of the lungs, she is acting quite irrationally. Instead of strengthening the lungs, the tendency would be rather in the opposite direction. The practice of -habitually rubbing the baby's chest with camphorated oil as a precautionary measure is a very common one. A mother, writing on this subject some weeks ago, remarked: — "The drawback I find to rubbing the skin with camphorated oil is that it makes her skin very red and roughlooking." Parents do not realise that this continual flushing of the skin is attained only by robbing other organs of their due supply of blood and nutriment — especially the immediately underlying lungs, which will consequently be more or less starved and weakened, while the skin becomes thickened and is rendered coarser and less responsive to natural changes of temperature. RESPONSIVE SKIN A SAFEGUARD. Sensitiveness and responsiveness of t&e skin in this respect is not a danger, but is_ actually Nature's safeguard for the interaaj organs — the very means by which she would prevent undue loss of internal warmth. Nothing is more wasteful of the stored energy of the organism, or more debilitating, than the flushing of the skin with blood when nature herself would do her best to prevent the escape of heat by cutting off the supply to the surface and keeping the warm blood in the interior of the body — "cool outside and warm inside." Dr. Nansen realised, 'this principle J when contrary to all precedent he sought the North Pole without whisky. He knew that men liked to feel their skin* flushed with blood at the very time when Nature would husband Uieir warmth and keep the internal organs well nourished ; he knew that alcohol would do this for them by throwing out of action the muscles which regulate the flow of blood to the surface. The health and vigour of the explorers throughout the expedition more than bore oui the most, suuguinefinticipations of their leader. DANGERS OF CODDLING, Mothers who are afraid to allow their babies fresh, pure air day and night because it is cool, and who keep their babies overclad and muffled up, or use what they call "chest protectors," should understand once for all that every such I measures tends to bring about an indo- [ lent, debilitated, irresponsive condition

of the muscles of the skin and bloodvessels. The result ii that when called upon to maintain proper internal warmth against a sudden change in temperature due, say, to kicking off the bed-clothes, a wet napkin, or exposure to draught, the nerves and muscles prove irresponsive, too much heat it dissipated, and a host of microbes, always on the alert enter on a successful campaign against the depressed and devitalised cells of the infant. In other words, the baby "gets a chill" or "catches cold" in the head, chest, or bowels, or wherever its defences may prove to be weakest.