OUR BABIES

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 248, 19 October 1915, Page 3

OUR BABIES

By Hygeia,

Published under the auspices of the Society for tho Health of Women and Children.

"It is wiser to* put up a fenoo at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at tho bottom."

FOOD REFORMS FOR SCHOOLS

In last week's article we pointed out-how unfortunate it was that. children attending Kindergartens should actually be led and trained to form wrong habits by being given food between the normal meal-times ns a part of the ordinary routine of these institutions. We regret that similar practices obtain in boardingschools for older children. Customs of this kind were excusable and indeed only natural" vphen . the processes and requirements of digestion were unknown. Now, however, that physiological investigations have proved conclusively that clear intervals of trom four to five hours between meals afford the best conditions for tW thorough digestion and assimilation of food, there is not a particle of 'justification left for allowing milk or "pieces1' between meals. I can imagine that, at this stage, some of my readers will be exclaiming to themselves:

Is it fair that we should be exacting in our rules of life and hygienic discipline 'with, regard to children, seeing that we indulge in morning and afternoon tea .ourselves, and feel as if we could hardly get along without them —that we need some pick-me-up to sustain ?nd reanimate us, and feel much better +or it?

The fact that we, over-civilised and enervated adults, have been . gradually accustoming; ourselves to more and 'more ■indulgences of this kind, aincl that many of us feel that we can hardly get along without early morning teat 'mid-morning: tea, and ■afternoon tea, in addition to our ordinary meals, and that when idling on board'ship we actually get in a seventh refection, is no argument in favor of such practices for tlie young —quite the bjfcher. way. Most of us recognise ■ that these habits are mere artificial indulgences;" winch interfere with our meak. and tend to give us indigestion and "nerves." However, we do get some quid pro quo for our; 'impaired health in the form t>f social enjoyment with our fellows,( just as tho Japanese used to with their eondless- tea ceremonials). But surely the shallowest of us should be able to see that these habits, originating among pedent'.iry townsfolk ns a, fillip for their jaded nerves, arc the last things to encourage in children

Here, again, I anticipate the school teacher intervening:

But yon are quite wrong in your 'assumption that Aye give the children stimulants between meals. All that we give is simple, nutritious, easily,digestible food,

which wo hold to be necessary, or at least desirable for building up their rapidly-growing tissues and sustaining their fli^gging energies. An interval of four or five hours is surely too long to leave a growing child"without fresh supplies. The proof that we axe right is seen in the fact that, without giving any "stimulants," we sec the child brighten up as i:he mere result of givjng :i glass of milk and a. biscuit. Tho obvious conclusion is that the food was needed, and that the taking of it supplies the increased activity just as a. timely shovelful of coal sets the fire burning

brighter. This was the old assumption; but there could not be a. greater fallacy. It takes hours to digest, food and get it absorbed into the blood, packed away into the tissues and ready to bo burnt by the oxygen in our ; blood. Much of'what we take in to-day may not be burnt for weeks or months hence. Food supplies are .stoied .way for future use according to the needs of the economy.

ALPINE OLIMBE.US

A.person who has not learned the barest rudiments of the very, modern science of physiology would gain much by a ten minutes' talk with an Alpine climber. Ask tho pioneers who first ascended and . traversed Mount Cocrk what.they _ took in the way of food' during their continuous trudging day and night over ice and snow ior 36 hours. 'They ate practically nothing. A few. raisins, a little sugar, possibly- a biscuit or two— that was all. They knew by experience better than to waste the energies of their digestive and circulatory organs in doing the hard Work of dissolving, preparing, absorbing, and assinulating food. They knew they had ample stores already laid by in their tissues and. merely waiting for use.. ■ Contrast this position with that ofe the mother who thinks her child needs "sustaining" with a glass o+ milk and a biscuit before he can bo allowed to go out for a run before breakfast, or the .schoolmistress who imagines that her girls need Komerthing to keep them going between their B o'clock breakfast and their 1 o'clock dinner. Again} I oaai imagine the teacher persistently coming back to the pointthat whatever one may say, the fooddoes somehow enter into ( their composition and nourish them, because within five minutes of the taking of it. tho child is obviously brightened up and benefited.

TEMPORARY STIMULATION

They might as well advocate that a child "should be • taught to suck its thumb, and contend that it must get some nourishment out of its thmuh, because the- sucking of it is capable of causing a. certain amount of exhilaration. ' '

. I am quite serious oil this point. Sir Thomas Lauder Brunton, in his book on "The Disorders of Digestion," says:--The mere act of mastication not only supplies a stimulus to the sensory nerves in the mouth, it leads to an hun-eased supply of blood to the nerve centres. . . . the pulse b«K3omes more rapid. The extent to which this ocoura will hardly be credited by anyone who has not tried the experiment. In my own case I find that sipping halt n- wineglassful of water will raise my pulse from 76 to considerably over 100. So that, in fact, a glass of cold water, slowly sipped, will .stimulate- the heart as much as, or more than, a glass of brandy swallowed at a draught.

The stimulant effect of sucking is soon learned by. children, and we see them console themselves, o.nd raise their spirits, by sucking- their thumb when they are depressed by

being children, or by any childish misfortune; in. fact, under conditions similar to those under which children of an older growth might keep their . sipirits' up by pouring spirits down. Is anyone going to contend seriously that the fact of our having sucth. powers of temporarily stimulating the nervous system and the circulation justifies oiir using these means out of their proper time and place? Any doctor could tfiib ur. that one of tlys most fruitful sources of dyspepsia in adults is the fact that they have ir::dv the unfortunate discovery that they "an temporarily pull themselves together and do away with feelings of discomfort, sinking, and fain mess "by taking a little something"— whether that something be fluid or solid, milk or brandy. The difficulty is to break, these vicious habits once they have been formed. Many a person tries in vain to "unwind the accursed chain," as Do Quineey so picturesquely put it in his "Confessions of an Opium' Eater."

NATIONAL FOOD REFORM

1 take it as a hopeful sign that the London Times last year devoted a leading article to dealing with a conference held in London under the auspices of the National Food Reform Association, the subject under con r f-.ideiiiit.ion being "The Honlth arid Food of Boys and Girls at Boarding and Day Schools." Tho Times said>: The conference is evidence of the attention that is now being paid to a. subject too long neglected. . We may hope that a considerable stop has b«en taken towards the development of 'su rational syste'u of school diet to which all schools

will, by degrees, approximate in priictice. It was conclusively shown at the conference that increased attention to this matter leads to a higher

standard of ' health and greater physical and mental fitness. The concluding three of a dozen •important points were ns follows: — 10. Alwtain from eating when not hungry, and from "stodging" between meals. Edison, the famous inventor, warns us againso "stoking our engines with too much coal." 11. In particular, sweets, chocolate, or biscuits and milk, or food of •any kind, should not be eaten between meals or before going to bed. 12. Tho "grub-shop" and the "tuck-box" arc two of the greatest enemies to all-round fitness.

Several schools represented at tli>> conference, allow neither, while the 40 senior boys at ono house themselves almost, unanimously voted the abolition of the "tuck-box."

DR PICKER-ILL'S WARNING

In New Zoivlii.Jul wv> li:ivo had ;i. «pociiil warning from our Professor oi' Donlistry, !)r IMfkerill which it woui'.l be inexcusable not to tak:> ],c*' ( ) of. I.)r Pickofill atiri-mf'es Hie rxic-s o! dvcav of U;e le<>t)i in New Ze-;hi.ncl, coinp'u'ed with the O'd C'o-uitrv. mninlv to cliilcli-o'.i ln'inu" indiiliiecl with chocolates and biscuits between meals.