OUR BABIES

Hutt News, Volume 9, Issue 26, 4 December 1935, Page 2

OUR BABIES

(By Hygeia) Tho following extract is taken from an article in the Women's Pictorial, written to Nurse McKay and we have taken the liberty of reprinting it:— TEACHING HIM GOOD HABITS "Nature never implants an instinct in a baby without a purpose connected with his well being and growth. The instinct therefore in itself is good and should be encouraged. To allow baby to use an instinct for a purpose quite unconnected with its raison d'etre is to allow it to develop abnormally. "This is just what happens when baby's instinct to suck deeply planted in him so that he may be able to get nourishment from his mother's breasts, is practised apart from the question of nourishment altogether. What happens when baby sucks at tho breast? At least two thing's. He receives a reward of food, and he starts the salivary glands functioning in order to deal with this food. Now if baby sucks on a dummy or even on his own wee thumb he is still hoping against hope to get a reward. Saliva is constantly manufactured and then swallowed, so that the poor stomach is hardly ever given a moment's peace. This, in itself, is a very fruitful cause of digestive difficulties.

"When baby sucks on the breast lio takes more than just the nipple in his mouth and he brings jaws and lips in'to play as well as tongue. This is excellent exercise, which does more than any other single factor to make room for well spaced teeth. When sucking on a thumb or dummy, however, only the tongue is used and this is constantly pressed on the roof of the mouth. In this way the palate becomes raised and the jaws narrowed so that mouthbreathing often results, while the teeth come through in a crowded condition and do not interlock well with the the rinders of the lower jaw.

"Some mothers give baby a dummy because they feel that 'the poor little mite must be bored with nothing to ,do.' In this way they centrc baby's interest in life in his own person and appetite instead of giving him a chanco to reach out to the outer world, and take an interest in what is around iiini apart from his own ego.

"Another reason for avoiding tlio dummy is the question of cleanliness. I travelled in the tube the other day with a baby of three months who woro its dummy proudly like a badge pinned to its coat. In the crowded train the said dummy, damp already with snliva, brushed against all manner of coats. It was, ot course, to be taken through dusty streets and into gcrmladen compartments and ono would have been interested to have had a microscope examination of its stato at the end.

"Dare we take risks like this with the unaccustomcd little system? Just to dip a dummy in boiling water will not clean it! Germs can dig themselves in so strongly that lie will be bound to carry the cleansing process a step further and draw every particle of impurity into his system,"

"Don't use a 'dummy' or comforter. It is utterly unnecessary and is always prejudiced to health. A 'dummy' deforms jaws and teeth and palate, and causes saliva to dribble all the time, thus interfering with digestion. Further, it is a leading cause of adenoids.'