OUR BABIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14245, 20 June 1908, Page 14

OUR BABIES.

*> Br HrCKiA. < It is wiser to put up a. fence it ! the lop of a precipice than lo main- , tain an ambulance at the bottom. OVER-FEEDINCI, INDIGESTION, ' CONSTIPATION. ' "Another Perplexed Mother" writes:— i "In an answer given in last week's ' column to 'Perplexed Mother' (who had < written you about her baby, which she was ' nursing and which was troubled with put- ' ting up of Tood and constipation) you ad- ' vised lessening the frequency of feeding and ' possibly the quantity allowed at each feed- , ing, but you did not, go further into the question of constipation.: My own baby, j who is also suckled, has much the same symptoms, and he has certainly improved ' in tho few days during which f have tried ' tf« giving of less iood. But there is still ! some constipation, and 1 want to know \ whether the trouble has most likely been duo to overfeeding alone or whether I I ought, to bo giving attention to other points \ as well. You say: 'If overfeeding is continued, more or less serious indigestion is ' sure to aviso sooner or later.' Do jou mean' that in a case where a baby has j been habifualy overfed, both the indigestion and constipation will tend to cease when the food is reduced to tho propor ! quantity?" % REPLY. Certainly that will be the tendency, but it must be borne in mind that, in every form of derangement of health, special attention should be paid to hygiene—in other words, to those tilings which are essential at all times for (maintaining life ami health at their very best—yiz. :— HYGIENIC ESSENTIALS. (1) Pojie Ajh, Suitable Food. When not in the open air thero should be a; current of pure air passing through the rooms day and night—the sleeper being kept out of actual draught. (2) Regulakht of Dailt Habits. Feeding, motions of bowels, etc., bathing, outing, exercising, resting, waking, sleeping etc. (3) Sufficient Dailt Exebcise of Muscles and Stimulation of Skin, etc. By open, air exercise and exposure to wind, sunshine, etc. (4) Suitable Clothing. This must; be light, loose, warm, porous, and must on no account cause any restriction of free movement of body or limbs. In the case of the baby beware of binder and of big, bunchy napkins. Have nothing irritating next the skin. A mixture of silk and wool is best, and is not really expensive, because this material does not shrink. (5) Cleanliness. SICK MOTHER-SICK BABY. In the case of an infant at the breast it is obvious that the health of the mother .is essential for the health of her offspring, and whenever the baby is unwell in anyway the mother should at once ask herself: "Am I as well as I should be? Can my own condition bo upsetting the baby?" This rule docs not apply only to constipationit applies all round. The following quotation from Professor Chapin, a leading aullfority on tho Diseases of Children, show 6 clearly how a life-long train of ill-hoalth may be set up in the child by maternal constipation:—"ln the case of constipation in the nursing infant the' mother is herself frequently constipated, and treatment must first bo directed to her, as when she is properly regulated tho infant may need no further attention. ... A constipated infant should bo constantly obsorved and treated until the condition i 6 relieved, as host of the chronic cases is later life have theik beginning in EAiur llfe. , No structure of tho body ia more amenable to habit than the bowel; hence the importance of starting right." CONSTIPATION A GRAVE EVIL. Few mothers, realise the full significance to their offspring of the constipation from which they themselves suffer. Many mothers pay little attention to the matter, and few do anything more than relieve the symptom by the use of laxatives: they may adjust their food also, but it does not occur to them that their results from lack of fresh air passing through the house day and night, lack of outdoor exercise and lack of stimulation of the skin by wind and cold water. Tho mother may relieve herself to 6omo extent by laxatives, but by this means alone she cannot hope to do justice to a growing baby, either before or after its birth. The poisoning of tho blood, lassitude and sluggishness of the whole, system, which express themselves so far as the mother is concerned in constipation, Headache, and a feeling of general unfitness are represented in the baby by 6tunted growth and enfeebled health. Before birth the baby's blood is the mother's blood, and if the • blood is so abnormal as to poison the mother's brain-cells and cause depression, headache, and neuralgia, we cannot wonder that it exercises such a baneful influence over the developing nervous system of her child. Neuralgia has been aptly described as "the prayer of tho nerves for healthy blood"—in nine cases out of ten excessive mental depression and melancholia come under tho same definition. Worry, anxiety, or grief may undermine tho digestion and bodily health, and thus indirectly give rise to morbid depression, but until the bodily health has given way and the brain-cells are bailed in poisoned blood, insane depression rarely —almost never—takes place. Women entertain all kinds of absurd fancies and, superstitions about the effect on their offspring of mental or emotional impressions during pregnancy, but there is not one in a hundred who lias any adequate conception . of the dutv and transcendent importance of maintaining radiant bodily health, and tho joy that goes with it, for tho sake ■of . the baby. TRAINING THE BABY. The subject of training the infant in regularity of tlie bowels, and the simplo measures which may be adopted by tho nurse or mother to prevent or overcomo constipation, arc sufficiently dealt with in the Sheet of Instructions on the "Care of the Baby" issued by the society. This will be forwarded by the lion, secretary, Mrs Keith Ramsay, Royal terrace, Duncdin, on receipt of 2d in stamps. Where constipation continues in spite of tlie establishment of healthy hygjenic conditions, and a fair trial of what is recommended in the Sheet, the mother should not fail to coll in a doctor, because persistent constipation must always be regarded as. an ailment needing serious attention. WHAT IS THE NORMAL? "By constipation is meant a condition in which tho movements of tho bowels do not tako place as often as is normal for the individual," and in which the motions are too firm. It is a symptom and a warning telling us of more or less general sluggishness and iuaetivity of the whole system — jtot a mere affection of tlie intestines only, to be dealt with by giving medicine with a view to causing the bowels to act more freely. Purgatives may lead to tempoTory relief, but they leave tlie sluggishness and debility of the organism as a whole, which gives rise to the constipation, almost unaffected, and in the long run tend to aggravate rather than ouve thc.malady The mother should 'bear in mind that bottlefed babies, are almost always constipated during the first'month of life, owing to their being uuabJo 'to tolerate a full supply of fat in the form in which it exists in die milk of the cow. The fat of human milk is a kind of oil. Bottle-fed babies need special attention to the bowels until they Jiavo been trained to digest a sufficiency of fat, but tho mother must not expect that there will be of necessity more tlian one motion a day at first. If the Ixiby receives due attention, proper frequency of action, should be attained 1 at tho end of about a month. "Constipation is a relative term, as what would 1» normal in one individual would bo abnormal in another. During tho first year of life two or three daily discharges may be considered a normal average, in the second year two discharges, ami in tho third and fourth years one discharge is the normal number."