OUR BABIES

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 184, 5 August 1920, Page 6

OUR BABIES

By Hygeia. Published nnder the ausDices of the .Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to ,put a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at 'the bottom."

EATIKG MRT.

Th« following iatteir on the above subject was received recently:— I am taking the liberty of writing you snd asking for .your advice about baby. She is a year And nine months eld, and ' has been brought up on the Plunket system from birth—my wife has followed the system out thoroughly. Baby will persist in eating dirt, «nd nothing seems .to stop her. We have beaten her and shut her up, but it doss not stop her. She eat« well and looks splendid. I happened to s.e© the Plunket nurs3, and she advised mo to write tq you.

COMMENT

In such a casv; it is quite useless Ao beat -a -child or shut her up. The proper treatment is not punishment, but to do everything to maintain the child's bodily health at the highest pitch, and to prevent her obtaining any dirt. "VVe^have said that the child must bo prevented from eating dirt. The parents .may naturally say, "We have cUvno everything in our power in that direction already. What would yoru suggest?" HABIT FORMATION EASILY DIRECTED AND CONTROLLED IF TACKLED EARLY. Our answer must be. based on -this broad universal principle. If one absolutely prevents the gratification of even a normal, healthy, instinctive, dominant "feeding habit," such as that of "suckling"—a habit which lias been built into the very nature and being of all mammals for hundreds of thousands of ye/ws —the tendency to suck dies out in a. surprisingly short time. Thus, if a calf is taken away from its mother at birth and placed ,in an encl<*»ure by itself, with no object which it can suck, ancl if the calf is taught to drink out of a bucket, it will soon learn to .do this quite well, and will kliow no desire to suck. If, on the other hand, the calf is placed'alongside other calves frcitn the start, it will suck their ears and otkar parts in the most persistent way, i ">d lr.ny die eventually from, an accumuhui'm of hair in ths stomach.

This -s anJc-rnis to the perverted habit of eating dirt. In the case of calves which are to be reared artificially, all that is needed is either to keep them separate in suitable pens for a week or two at the start, or else to muzzle them, on the sarao principle as one \\oukl muzzle a dog to prevent it biting people. But if the habit of sucking other calves has been formed it may take several weeks of muzzling or complete sepairaition from its fellows to cure the bad habit.

EARLY AND ABSOLUTE PREVENTION OF ABNORMAL HABITS.

If a baby who eats dirt is kept under ceaseless and unremitting prcventi/e care by devoted parents, with or without a nurse to< help them, it is generally possible to cause the abnormal habit to dio out in the ooijrse of a few weeks, more or le.*». But the- same object may be obtained, with infinitely less trouble, by devising a simple, but effective1 muzzle, covered with fine .wire gauze —say si;r meshes to the inch, or even finer il necessary. The, framework could be" made of light wicker, and should cover tho whole head. It could be supported on a soft, padded, splayed hoop to rest comfortably on thp baseof the neck. This kind of mask would be more easily made, kept in position, and put on and taken oft than a more face-mask. The extent of tho wire gauze covering would not exceed what was needed to prevent the child getting its fingers to the mouth.

It may be objected that such an appliance would be unsightly,, but it would not be nearly so unsightly and cumbersome as a, soldier's gas mask, or a diver's helmet, or many other contrivances which human beings have to adopt and put up with from time tr> time.

What nrcds to bo impressed on pa routs whoso children have driitcd i'ntn had habits is that somehow, by hook or by crook, the abnormal prxviiccs liiusi bo got rid of', abi-ohrfcplv uk! (•<.[ l i ! )!..'vi:<.lv.' belo.w tho habits i.ii.v.' l.iHir.r.u- su ih-inl;y cst'itblisJied its ■<> be- .iltuiist ivscrudicabfe. A:; cir/ of a normal child,

allowed to form an extremely wrong and unnatural "feeding " habit," which tho parents were quite unable to overcome, but which was cured in a short time by proper oa.ro and attention, the following remarkable case may he cited.

BABY WHO WAS NEVER FED

WHEN AWAKE.

A baby, nearly a year old, was brought to the Baby Hospital ax Earl's Court, London, which is run on New Zealand lines. The mother wanted to get- her baby to- take .some soh'd food, but this she found impossible, because the child had been bottle-fed from birth solely during slcep.j .instead of being given' her food when awake. In other words, the mother had availed herself of the infant's power of taking food in a state ioif unconsciousness, just as a nurse avails herself of tho power of an rmconsciQiis potient to swallow food if it is placed m the mouth.

When any atte.npt was made to feed this baby when awake, either by bottle or by spoon, she resisted all efforts- to get her to suck, chew, or swallow. She had not learned eithc>r to drink or to eajt, and she fought strenuously against all attempts to induce her to do so. Yet, in the courss of only ]0 days of firm, con►sisttnt treatment by trained nurses this child wa,s brought to take meals in a normal way and actually to enjoy them. .

When writing to our correspondent we enclosed, several articles "on tHe subject of dirt-e.iting which were pupblished" in this column some years ago. As most of our recently trained Plunket nurses., «s well as many now readers, have- probably not teen these old articles, we shall' reprint them dn tlio next few weeks, just as they appeared over four years ago.