OUR BABIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 10 January 1940, Page 6

OUR BABIES

(BY HYGEIA) SUN BATHING FOR CHILDREN Published under tne auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.’ SKIN SENSITIVENESS It is difficult to give definite directions as to the extent of surface to expose or the best time allowance. These will vary not only with the age and general health and strength of the particular child, but also with the sensitiveness of his skin to the direct action of the sun’s rays. Taking two normal healthy babies who (up to, say, three months of age) have been reared side by side on precisely the same lines, it might be found that in the course of a month the one would benefit by duly graduated exposure of the limbs and part of the body up to five or ten minutes twice a day, while in the case of the other baby undue reddening and irritation would have ** indicated that only a half or even a quarter of this rate of progress could be tolerated. The safest and best procedure in this, as in other matters affecting the baby, is to go cautiously and to err on the side of advancing too slowly rather than risk going too quickly. When a normal baby is about a week old he may be taken out into the sunshine for a short time if the weather is mild and genial. His eyes can be shaded from the glare by turning him on his side in his cot and shading his head without putting any covering over his face. The leather hood of an ordinary perambulator affords a very unhealthy shelter for the baby, yet many infants live in a leather-lined perambulator during the greater part of the first year. When the temperature of the day is not under about 60deg Fahr. a healthy , baby who has been properly reared should have become accustomed , towards the end of the second month ’ to having his arms and legs and part of the adjacent skin surface of his body bare to the sun, say, for five to . ten minutes before the 10 a.m. feeding also. The mother should hold the baby on her knee if possible, so that ’ while he is being sunrayed she can give him stimulation and passive exercise by stroking his legs and arms gently but firmly, starting at the hands and feet and working iystematically towards the trunk, thus promoting increased activity of the circulation, r As the baby grows older his legs and arms may be bared to the sunshine . for, say, 10 minutes or a quarter of an hour before his 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. feedings. Even longer exposure may prove beneficial on specially favourable days. If the weather is warm a healthy baby in his second month may have his morning bath on the open veranda, where the sunshine can play on his , body. Later, when he can crawl and run about exposure of the whole body in the open sunlight for from 10 to 15 minutes may be allowable. BEACH PLAY If baby lives by the seaside, the mother may safely let him run about on the beach for a time on a warm summer’s day with little, if any, covering for his body, provided, of course, that he has been reared sensibly and not coddled. Babies habituated to daily exposure of the skin to open air and sunshine do not catch cold easily and do not feel changes of weather. They become practically “weather-proof” and almost diseaseproof. Such children are a joy to themselves and to everyone connected with them; they radiate happiness as the sun radiates light, heat, and health. Their circulation will be good, and their hands and feet will glow with warmth even on cold days. Of course, if a baby has not been habituated to exposure to sunshine, the mother must proceed very cautiously, accustoming him gradually, little by little, to fuller exposure of the skin surface. SUNLIGHT ESSENTIAL We know now that during the last five or ten years a series of highly important and very striking investigations have proved conclusively that deficiency of exposure of the skin surface to direct sunlight is one of the leading causes of delicacy, debility, and disease. The first practical discoveries were mainly in the direction of proving that children suffering from tuberculosis could be cured and made strong and healthy by gradually habituating them to spend some hours every day in the open air clad with nothing but a loindoth, the other factors of healthy living (suitable food, adequate exercise, rest and sleep) being also provided. Seeing what wonders direct sunlight can do for young children in general, it is becoming more and more apparent that we have, all of us, been too sparing of sunlight for babies. Practice is proving that they benefit as much as the older children of the family from more exposure of the skin to direct solar radiation. WARNING While it is highly I eneficial to the normal baby to be gradually habituated to the moderate exposure of the arms and legs, and later to more or less exposure of part at least of the body to the sunlight, parents ought to realise that, like other beneficial agencies, the sun’s rays are liable to do far more harm than good if any attempt is made to proceed too quickly, especially if sunbaths are begun in hot weather. In this, as in other matters affecting the baby, the golden rule is to advance slowly and watch results. In some babies the tendency of “solarisation,” as in the case of some older children, is to cause irritation and freckling instead of the rich, ruddy brown which may be regarded as the normal and healthy reaction we aim at inducing. In all cases it is safest and best to expose the limbs and outlying parts of the body first, and the trunk itself later, and for a short period only.

Bear in mind that the “golden mean” is always best. It is possible to have too much of a good thi- t. even sunlight. Dr Saleeby says: “The so-called sun cure sounds simple and fool-proof. It is nothing of the sort. Great care should be exercised, beginning with only a few minutes and increasing very gradually.”