OUR BABIES

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 30 May 1925, Page 17

OUR BABIES

(By Hygeia.)

(Published under the auspices of the Hoy a.! New Zealand Society for the Health, of Women and Children (Plunket Society). WHY NOT? Mothers and nurses are always ask:ng wiiv we object to so and so being done. '“Do you think a- little* thing like that would really make any difference? —do you think it ready does any harm?” they shy. The question occurs over and over again with a- hundred variations, all based on the idea that seeming trifles are not worth considering, if what is being done suits the mother and doesn’t seem to he actually hurting the bn. by • THE DUMMY.

Mother: Why are all your people .so down on the dummy? Baby. seems to like it, mv doctor doesn’t object to it, and many people say it does no. harm —why not give the baby and the dummy the benefit of the doubt?’ Hygeia: Why not take to a dummy vourself? Many girls and grown-ups take to chewing-gum, and can’t do without, it; why not try the dummy also? For a time you will get the same kind of satisfaction that a. baby does. You will be so occupied with sucking and swallowing .saliva that you won’t feel the need to talk or the inclination to cry —you will be ignobly content and vacuous, like a cow placidIv chewing her cud. The more one thinks about it the more one wonders why mothers have restricted the dummy habit to their babies!

Points in Favour of the Dummy for Mothers, Compared with the Dummy’for Babies —

(1) The mother’s mouth, jaws, teeth, palate, nose and chin are formed for good or ill. and therefore they cannot be* altered in-.shape and made weak and ugly by the presence of the dummy. We all know that the prolonged pressure of the dummy makes the baby’s front teeth project forward, thus causing the mouth to l ook ugly and not to close properly. We know that the soft, pliable palate or roof of the mouth, which should be .shaped and moulded broad and flat by the tongue during infancy, becomes narrowed and thrust upwards by* the dummy in such a way as to obstruct the nose, and we have been told 1 that these deformities cause mouth-breaking, adenoids, and all sorts of other troubles. If the dummy habit were delayed until later childhood, or until maturity, all these evils would be avoided. Everything is to he gained by delaying this alluring and fascinating vice until adult life. It would come quite naturally when we allow ourselves such indulgences as strong tea and coffee, alcoholic drinks and tobacco. (2) The mother who restricts the use of the dummy to herself has the enormous advantage of being pi’otected by her refined sensibilities and her knowledge that dirt and microbes are not nice things. No woman would dream of picking up a dirty, gritty from the floor, and commence sucking it herself in a crowded railway carriage ; but the baby—well, we all know we have all had our sensibilities shocked in that way! Our readers will be interested in the following verses, which were sent to the Matron of the Mothercraft Training Centre (run on New Zealand lines), now at Cromwell House, Highgate, London :

To Matron, with Many Thanks from “A Repentant Mother.” There was a trio fair to see —

A mother young, a baby wee. But what, alas! completes the three? A Dummy!

The baby waxed so fat and strong, Her voice she lifted loud and long; Her mother gave (to right the wrong) — A Dummy 1

At nighjb the cherub went to sleep Without the slightest little we’ep; The mother’s thankfulness was deep— For Dummies!

But there on “Baby’s Page” one day She bend what Matron had to say : And all she saw was, “Throw away That Dmnrnv.”

To take advice her heart did yearn; She set hex- lips both stiff and stern; Upon Health’s altar she did burn— The Dummy!

Tlie next two days—l’ll draw a veil! Behold a motnor tired and pale. Whose weary face a tale could tell. — O Dummy!

But now the deed is really done, And, thanks to Matron, battle’s won The baby’s pood and full of fun— No Dummy! \ • * B. W.