OUR BABIES

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 3 January 1931, Page 14

OUR BABIES

[By Hygeia.]

Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society).

THE HOLIDAYS

Many families,little and big, must now be preparing for their annual migration to seaside or country, or to stay ivith relatives and friends, and perhaps many mothers are looking forward to long train journeys with a good deal of dread. To these we offer the following hints on travelling with children :

FOOD

For the Baby

Of course, the simplest of all the problems is the breast-fed baby; in tact, it is not a problem at all in this connection—all he needs is his mother and rational management. The bottle-fed baby presents more difficulties. His 24 hours’ supply of humanised milk should be freshly made as late as possible before starting on the journey. It is wisest, when travelling to bring it to the boil and then keep it about that temperature for 10 minutes. It is extremely difficult to keep milk cold enough to be safe for baby when travelling in hot weather, and the dangerous rate of growth of germs in lukewarm milk or imperfectly washed bottles and teats .should never be forgotten. With proper care and precautions, a thermos flask may be used. If the milk can be cooled well below COdeg Falir. with ice or very cold water, it may be put into the clean, scalded COLD flask .at that temperature, and will keep quite safe if properly corked. Another method is to pack the bottles of cold milk in a box of clean sawdust.

The alternative method of keeping the baby’s milk when travelling is to keep it hot. Germs do not grow ancl multiply in milk which is kept well above 130 deg Fhr. Thoroughly wash and scald the flask, and pour into it the boiled humanised milk when just a little below boiling point. Keep the flask well corked, and when pouring out sufficient milk for each feed do so as quickly as possible, and recork immediately, to prevent the milk in the flask falling appreciably in temperature. Naturally, if the milk cools to anywhere near blood heat the flask becomes a positive menace. The milk poured out for baby’s feed can quickly be cooled to the right temperature, and by this method he can have his bottle whenever due, without regard to stations where hot water may be obtained.

It is a good thing to take an ordinary bottle of boiled water also, as baby is" very likely to be thirsty, and it is useful for finally rinsing out bottle and teat. A jug of hot water obtained at a refreshment room serves to heat water for drinking and to give the various utensils in use a good scalding out. Bottles and teats, etc. : It is a good plan to have two or more bottles and teats, so that if it is difficult to wash them properly en route fresh ones can be used. A handy way to carry them is in a small tin box, such as certain brands of tea or fancy biscuits are packed in. "Wrap the bottles and teats in a piece of clean, boiled butter muslin, and pack and keep them in the tin. A spoon and any other small utensil may keep them company. A measure marked in ounces or small jug is necessary to transfer milk from flask to feeding bottle. This also must be kept clean and covered. N.B. —Never keep any milk which has been left in the feeding bottle. If baby does not finish ins feed, throw away what is left, ancl pour fresh from the flask for the next feed. Nothing is more dangerous than milk which has been lying in the bottle from one feeding time to the next. If the journey will take more than 24 hours, and it is therefore necessary to obtain a fresh supply of humanised milk en route, consult the Plunket Nurse in the town in which you live. She will write ahead to the nurse in the place where you will break your journey, giving her the recipe for baby’s food, and arranging a suitable time and place for you to get the made-up humanised milk for the next 24 hours. For this a small charge is made to cover the cost of the materials. Thus in travelling, say, from Dunedin to Auckland, a l'resb supply of milk may be obtained in Christchurch or Wellington, by special arrangement beforehand.

POOR FOR THE: BIGGER CHILDREN.

Undoubtedly the little runabouts are the most difficult to cater for, but a little forethought will save much worry and trouble. Remember that a day on somewhat short rations will do no harm at all, whereas a day of unsuitable food —food from restaurants, and odds and ends of cake and sweets—may do untold harm. Pack in a tin with rusks or twicebaked bread and oatcake, ready buttered if liked, and folded slices of brown bread and butter. Some sandwiches of cress or lettuce, adn scrambled eggs make variety and add to the nourishment of the meal, and a few dates and raisins, separately or in wiches, are excellent. With a drink of milk and a raw .apple to ‘’top off with,” a perfectly nourishing, satisfying. and digestible meal is provided for any youngster—one, moreover, which will while away a considerable amount of time and furnish amusement as an entertaining novelty. So much for the subject of food. Probably every mother will have her own suggestions to add to the foregoing, which, however, have been found thoroughly workable in actual practice.

CLOTHING AND WRAPS, ETC.

Railway carriages are draughty places and yet are hard to ventilate and apt to he stuffy. A good deal ot ingenuity and tact are necessary to make the best of the conditions. It is risky to let children get overheated. Try to adjust their clothes to suit the time of the day and the temperature, and take them out for a run on the platform if possible wherever there is a sufficiently long stop

Needless to -say, a plentiful supply of napkins is a necessity. A mackintosh bag is the ideal way to keep wet nappies when travelling, but if this is not procurable it is a good plan to make tight little parcels of them in several thicknesses of old newspaper. (By the way, a bundle of newspapers will come in very handy in more ways than one). A light rug and cushion are necessities when travelling with small children, and with these and a spare seat the matter of a daytime sleep are simplified.

SLEEP

It is all-important to assure some sleep for the little ones if over-fatigue and fretfulness are to be avoided. This may be difficult if the train is crowded. but sometimes a bed may be improvised by placing a wide board between a seat and the one immediately in front of it. Pushed up against the outer waTI of the carriage, and with a cushion and rug upon it, this makes quite «i comfortable enough bed for the toddler —one which is perfectly safe if the board is well wedged and a suitcase is propped upon the outer side to prevent a tumble.

THE "USEFUL DRESS BASKET

A dress-basket is perfectly invaluable when travelling with a young baby, making as it dies a comfortable bed and a receptacle for all the baby’s clothes. We have travelled with babies by train and boat —healthy, normal babies and tiny weaklings and have found that they need not be nursed at all, except at feeding times, but will sleep and lie awake quite contented, rather enjoying the constant movement. The result is the minimum of fatigue for mother and babyvery different from the utter exhauston of both when the baby lias been nursed all day, restless and irritable because of the* complete reversal of his ordinary routine.

Tiny babies may be ‘‘packed” in the dress-basket before starting. The improvised cradle can easily be carried short distances bv one person, and the baby is kept uniformly warm and protected from wind and draughts. Next to the dress-basket, probably the carryall, which conveniently accommodates all the knobby and awkward last articles.

CONVENIENCES

On the through express the ladies’ compartments help to lighten the difficulties of travelling for the mother with children, providing as they do more privacy and larger, better-kept lavatory and wash-basin arrangements. However, it is never safe to allow children to use any lavatory in the ordinary way when travelling. An excellent plan is to make a circular pad or several thicknesses of paper wide enough to completely cover the ordinary seat; mark tlie top side of the pad. This will make things safe, and folded in half aud itself wrapped in paper, it will pack quite easily. Otherwise an ordinary little ennamel chamber may be taken. Some pieces of old linen, damp and dry, will come in most handy, and save hankies and towels.

TE A I NS I OK NESS

Very occasionally children are habitually train and car sick, when the onlv thing to do is to give very light food before starting and to manage some means of allowing the child to lie down. . In conclusion, one might remark that the mother who lias trained her children in obedience, regularity, and good habits generally, will reap her just reward when holiday travelling comes round. The long day will pass without unbearable exhauston on anybody’s part —parents, children or fel-low-travellers.

But, alas! for the all-too-eommon experience of tlie “fellow-traveller "ho observes little families on the move scrambling over everything, consuming au apparently endless supply of cakes and sweets, grubby and tired, ignoring all parental attempts at control, and presently fretful and crying from slieei exhauston and comfort.