OUR BABIES

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12905, 4 July 1936, Page 10

OUR BABIES

(By “Hvgeia.”) Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women arid Children YPlunket Society). “It is wiser to put,up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” TEETHING The Pint)ket nurses are constantly finding that this k a -subject about which "parents are -apt to make, grave mistakes. All sorts of upsets, including acute or even fatal illnesses, are put down to teething it they happen to occur any time after the baby has turned six months of age.' This is a most erroneous and dangerous belief, and has led to many tragedies. We would warn mothers very seriously against attributing any sort of Hines* to teething and allowing the trouble to go on unchecked on that account. “IT'S JUST TITS' TEETH.” One has hoard this remark too often regarding a child who, for instance, has been going down hill with c-on r tinned diarrhoea or bronchitis or car trouble. Babies may, and do, die of pneumonia or other diseases just because medical advice is not obtained in time, the parents buoying themselves. up with a false sense of security, .believing the trouble to he due only to. teething. We have met mothers who are reluctant to allow any treatment for diarrhoea, fearing that if the diarrhoea was cured the teething trouble would break out in some other form. One of the greatest modern authorities on children’s diseases .says in discussing the subject of teething: “Teething used to be regarded as. a frequent cause of serious and fatal disease. This is a dangerous belief because there is usually associated with it the idea that as teething is a natural process the diseases accompanying it are to he tolerated and not cheeked as they would he under other circumstances. Consequently we have often met-with; children exhausted with diarrhoea, which has been allowed to go on untreated for weeks, because it Was held to he ‘only the teeth.’ The diagnosis of teething as a cause oh any illness will always he a popular one. because it casts no blame on the parents as exposure to cold, improper feeding, and rickets are apt to do.” It would be'difficult to put the matte. - more soundly or mare briefly than in th's quotation. We would not suggest that teething will never upset a baby, but the :occasions when teething is really to blame for serious illness are exceedingly rare.

A NATURAL PROCESS Teething is a natural process, and in a normal, healthy child its usually produces httle or no general effect; certainly fully hall, the number of healthy babies show no symptoms oi any kind. At the same time even, in normal healthy babies, teething is sometimes accompanied by more or less distress, both locally (in the gums) and generally, and it- may cccasionlly produce a tendency to digestive upset or liability to disease not present at other times. TIIE SIGNS OF TEETHING The symptoms of a slight nervous irritation which arc commonly seen, even :n normal babies are usually as follows :—Home slight disturbance of sleep, restlessness at night and freifuhiess by clay, some loss of appetite, increase in quantity of saliva, some tenderness of the gums, and a constant tendency for the child to put the. fingers in the month. The weightoften remains stationary for a week or two.. Overfeeding or forcing rood against, the inclination of the child may excite a mild attack of indigestion and diarrhoea. -Symptoms nctually dug to teething, and more, severe than these are rare in healthy children, but occasionally • the. gums Ur© very sore or tlm temperature, may mo above normal for a few days .with a complete loss of appetite. A cold in the head or a cough i s more easiiy contractcd than usual, and may. he very persistent. Babies with a tendency to eczema often become worse or have a definite outbreak - of the rash when each tooth or group ot teeth is coming through. Occasionally there may be convulsions before the tooth conics' through ; but oncemust always remember that teething though it may predispose the child to illness, is not the. cause of the; illness. If the baby is obviously ill at teething time got medical advice and proper treatment at once. The cause* must be found and treated 'just as promptly as at . any. other time. Delay may be dangerous. , . Net week we will continue this article with .some - suggest-ons as to what to. do for teething. .