OUR BABIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 13 July 1925, Page 6

OUR BABIES

By llygeia.

Published under the auspices •>f the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women amt Children (.Plunket Society.) "It is wiser to put up a lem-e at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” PARIES’ COLDS Mothers’ sometimes write and till us that at the approach of summer time we al wavs warn them about, the risks. • ■auses, and prevention of summer dinrrliora, but that xve seldom warn them against the danger of the baby "catching cold. Though colds are always with us more or less, it- is in the cold, dull, wintry weather that they become more common and less easy to throw off. Should colds be ‘‘common”?

"COMMON” COLDS NATURE. CAUSATION, AND PREVENTION Common colds are generally regarded as mysterious, accidental, and more or less unavoidable visitations ol Providence. In reality they are nothing of ■die kind. 'They are no more mysterious nr inevitable Ilian constipation or dimrhoea. and they are precisely analogous to such fevers as pneumonia, pleurisy, measles, or typhoid fever.; Common colds are not. merely like fevers; they are actually fevers. 'They are always due to an invasion of I liebody by millions of microbes, which breed with ama/.iiig rapidity in the nose ain I upper air passages, and quickly poison tin- blood and a fleet more or le.-,s every tissue of the body, causing the victim to feel hot aiaTt cold hy turns', fevered, thirsty and sore, sick, dull, languid. and miserable. Hostile microbes are always liable to lie lurking about the mouth, nose, and throat, and if someone introduces a. specially virulent, strain of germ into a home it i.s apt to make a successful campaign against the whole household, if the family happens to live under conditions' which render the tissues' of their bodies feeble fighters in generfal and specially inefficient to combat this particular class of organism, l’n other words', if they happen to be people who habitually live in warm, stuffy rooms, tail to fortify their bodies daily by cold sponging or bathing, followed by rubbing and active exercise, and who do not avail themselves of the healthy, vitalising effects of open air and sunlight. 'The xvay to iioiurc proper hardiness and resistiveness in the easo of the baby is specially dealt witii in ‘‘Feeding and Care of Rally,” pages 1 and 2. 61, 82 to 85, 140 to'l4B, and 160.

The following extract is from page 82, and 1 leave those interested to read fur ihemselves the first of the passage, and to look up and study what is said on' ill oilier pages referred to. In this way they will prepare themselves to grasp fully the significant-. of what 1 shall have to sav next week, not. only as to babies' colds, but as to the whole subject of fortifying ourselves in a practical com-mon-sense way against the colds, sore throats, coughs, and influenza® which plav so insidious a part in undermining tho constitution and in keeping people, below the proper standard of health among all civilised communities.

EXERCISE FOB BABY

SENSORY AND MUSCULAR

Sensory exercise (which comes to us mainly through the skin )is most important. because it is what- “runs us." It is the main source of the -stimulation of all our bodily machinery, including oven the involuntary muscles. The essential vital organs (nerve centres, heart, lungs, digestive, and excretory organs, etc.) depend for their incitements to activity almost entirely on stimuli coming to them through the sensory nerves; hence one cannot overst at the advantage of pure, fresh, flowing air day and night, and of open-air outings, especially in sunshine. Keep the skin active. A large amount of exerci.se should be taken from a very early age, in the form of vigorous suckling, kicking, waving Iho arms, etc., and later on bv crawling. Every such activity should be encouraged. At least twice a, day tiie infant should have for 15 or 20 minutes the free, unhampered use of his limbs. CATARRHAL FEVERS COMMONLY CALLED COLDS. “Catarrhal Fevers, Commonly Called Colds” is the title of a- medical bonk of over 100 pages by Dr R. Prosper White, who sets out to show that “colds” while among the most serious of human ailments. are strictly avoidable, and are (■imply fevers, just as measles and typhoid are fevers, and that, like these making the body tit, strong, and resistive, and keeping our homes as free as possible from poisonous germs, which accumulate in stuffy rooms, etc. ITo be continued next- week.)