OUR BABIES

Grey River Argus, 1 December 1938, Page 11

OUR BABIES

[By

Hygeia.]

Published under the auspices ,of the RoyaF New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” THREE POPULAR ERRORS ABOUT BABIES. I—That baby requires a binder in the early days of life to support the muscles of back and abdomen.

. Nothing could be further from the truth. ‘ To grow strong and perform their work, the muscles require freedom from ’ any restriction whatever.. Just think for a moment on whathappens to an arm or leg that is bandaged because of some injury; the, muscles quickly lose tone, /become! flabby and more or. less useless,. and need to be carefully trained again to do the work they did previous to thej injury. The same applies to the: muscles of baby’s back and abdomen; they must have free play to exercise sufficiently to give them the necessary strength to support the back and abdominal organs. The object of using a binder for the first week or so of a baby’s life is simply to hold a small dressing on the cord and navel until the former separates and the navel is healed. This usually takes about a week, after which the binder, can be dispensed with entirely. For this purpose, a muslin binder made of two thicknesses of material about five inches wide and twenty-seven inches long is best. The muslin binder has decided advantages over the flannel one that is still commonly used in that it is soft and will not irritate baby’s skin as wool does; also it is a more suitable material for laundering purposes. 2—That infantile ailments are a necessary evil, and might as well be allowed to happen as soon as possible to get them over. This is an ignorant and dangerous fallacy so far as baby is concerned. The healthy child who has been breast fed in infancy has a natural protection from and a resistance to infection up to a certain point, and, providing reasonable care is taken in protecting him from strong sources of infection, he may escape so-called “necessary” evils altogether. Any ailment, however slight it may be, means a temporary check to the, child’s progress. The following ex-' tract is taken from Sir Truby King’s book, “The Story of the Teeth.” I “During illness of any kind all work in the direction of building and repair is imperfectly done. Hence it is that nails are marked with a groove after , fever—the bottom of each groove consisting of the portion of the nail which was formed during illness. For the time being all the nails are thus locally trimmed, but this matters little since nails are con-’ stantly growing and being cut off.' Not so with the enamel of the teeth. 1 Enamel is formed in infancy and in childhood, and if there are thin, soft, or badly-formed portions due to at-; tacks of diarrhoea, etc., during the time when the enamel is in the course of formation, the teeth will tend to decay wherever there has been an inadequate deposit of the necessary protective covering. . | “A check sustained in early life always leaves a permanent impress on the organism, whether plant or animal. Farm crops which have been blighted in the seedling stage may flourish afterwards and give a good yield, but not so as if the plants had gone straight ahead. Trees which have Jjeen transplanted or diseased in infancy, though they may grow re- 1 markably well afterwards, do not at-J tain the ultimate stature or perfection of trees wTTose progress has been sub- 1

jected to no such temporary interrup tion.”

3—That baby chews his hands because he is hungry. This may be a symptom of hunger, but as often as not it is also a symptom of indigestion. Baby chews his hands because he has discomfort and is wanting relief. In both these instances the cause can be found by inquiry into baby’s present and previous condition, and the amount and quality of his food. The baby who is overfed will be cross and restless and chew his hands in an apparently ravenous fashion, a habit which is detrimental to health and to the formation of the jaws. In a healthy infant the instinct to suck or chew is a very strong one, and from the moment of birth, the newborn infant finds his hands . very quickly in this respect. Nature has implanted this instinct in the infant for the preservation of life, but instincts may become perverted and develop into bad habits if they are not controlled and trained to fulfil their rightful purpose.