OUR BABIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14465, 6 March 1909, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

iir Htgkia. Published under the auspices of tho Society for the Promotion or the Health of Women and Children. CORRESPONDENCE. THKUSIi. "Stitch in Time," writing from the hack country, asks what she is to do to prevent her baby getting thiush. She says:— ".My baby is (pnto healthy so fur. She was breast-fed for four months. I'or the last five weeks she has heen doing well on humanised milk, but 1 am very anxious for fear she should catch thrush. Our neighhour's baby is quite dangerously ill with ii. An old nurse who was with me after my confinement mentioned then that tho disease was catching, and told me that the best preventive was to wipe the baby's nrtmth out, with a rag dipped in borax and water every morning and evening. I did not do this uii'il hist week, vhon I got darincd on seeing how ill my friend's baby had become ; hut have done it since. Is thrush easily carried from one baby to another, and what is the best means of preventing tho disease or treating it when it has come';" PRESERVING THE TEETH. Several letters have been received asking how best to preserve the teeth. REPLY. , The essentials for the pkevkntion OF lHliusit and for the preservation or TEKTf*. are identical—na-mely, the maintenance of good general health and vigour. When speaking of thrush the old nuvtw was quite right up to a. certain point. Microbes are present in the white patches of thrush, and these can be conveyed from ono baby to another. These microbes are associated with-the discaso in the same way that tubercle gcims are associated with consumption, or the germs of caries with bad teeth; but it should be remembered in general that harmful germs cannot estnb. Jish themselves and flourish in a healthy person. To prevent the growth in the mouth of colonics of the germs of thrush, or colonics of the germs of dental caries the main thing is to keep tiio baby in vigorous health. In the case of thrush tinis practically all that is needed. THE TEETH. In regard to preserving' the teetlt th 3 maintenance of good health is also by long odds the main issue, especially in early life, and, indeed, is all that we can do untii the teeth are through the gums; but when a fair number of tcoth have emerged the mouth should be brushed and rinsed legularly morning and evening, even in tho case of perlectiy healthy babies, because under modern conditions few children use their tongue sufiicKiifly to ensure tho removal of r ooci debris and microbes. As Dr Piokerill, the head of tho Dental School -it the Ottiiro University, says, "the first and universal purpose of the tongue is not as an organ of speech, but as a masticatory organ and tooth-brush." Tho more vigorously a baby can he induced to U6e its jaws, tongue, and teeth, tho less will be the risk of dental caries, but it is a wiso precaution in every case to gently clean the teeth with a, soft brush and rinse tho mouth morning and evening. If this bo done, and if sweots be avoided, especially between meals, and above, all at bedtime there will be little risk of the toeth failing l» hold out. If the first, k-oth decay early there is a poor chance for the second set though even then much can bo done by ptoper attention to minimise the evil. Should the Baby's Mouth be Wiped Out Daily as a Kouti.st, Measure Becow tub Tebth abk Out? Certainly not! This is s. point about which there need be no doubt whatever in spite of the contrary advice often given. There- is no move need for meddlesome interference with the mouth of a suckling ihan there is for meddlesome interference wiih the lower bowel. One might imagine that the bowel might be better for a daily purifying by means of an enema, but it :i strange that it should have occurred to anyone that the pure mouth of a healthy baby needs cleansing from without, seeing | that it is naturally' irrigated many times ; a day by what Dr Piokerill calls the best month wash—viz., the saliva. Nothing in

.More Planet, Jr., agricultural and garden implements are in use in tho world than any other three maies put toseiier.—Nimmo id Blair.

medical writings k stranger than the fol-: lowing-typical advice given in an otherwise sensible hook addressed to mothers and nu recti : — An infant's month elioiild be cleansed ' before anil after every nursing, be it from breast or liotile. A email piece of absorbent rotten wet with boric licit] solution (a leaspoonful of powdered borio to a pint of water) should bo wound arcttng tlie nurse's little fingertip; the finger is then inserted into the baby's mouth and 'the whole inside of the cavity gently wiped out. After the baby has'reached the ago of six months the mouth need not lie cleansed more than onto a. day. This is absurd! Jt Jias been conclusively demonstrated, in hospital am! in private that tit© washing our of the mouths of healthy babies is not only unnecessary and lifeless, hut that it is a most fruitful source of ulcers and infections. A long article by a leading physician in New York, pointing out the risks of the practice, appeared in the Lancet less than a. year ago. This was based on the writer's very extensive experience as a specialist in the diseases of children, and it is eupijoricd by (he .latest Continental authority, from which I quoto the following: —"It has been found from general experience that the cleansing of the baby's mouth by wiping produces superficial injuries of ibe mucous membrane, which lead to local infections and may result in eerious constitutional troubles." Our correspondent ''Stitch in Time" will understand from the foregoing • that the daily introduction of a rag and finger into a healthy baby's mouth is much more likely to give rise to thrush than to prevent, it, and that it may give rise to other worse forms of disease. If the baby next door has; thrush there is all tho more reason for not risking lite direct conveyance of infection from the one baby to the other. However, if a, healthy baby does become infected with thrush at a damaged spot it would probably fail to continue growing, and in any case, can be easily cured by the following dimple line of treatment, in addition to scrupulous attention to fresh air, proper feeding, regularity of habits, etc. How Siioiji.n tiih Mouth nu Cleansed 1 Whek Them* is Thrush? AVash carefully after every feeding or nursing with a solution made by adding a drachm of boracic acid and half an ounce of glycerine to a quarter of a pint of boiling water. Use a liny swab made by twisting a bit of pure absorbent, cottonwool , (which may bo got from a chemist) round the tip of a. wooden toothpick or other slender piece of dean wood. With this 6wab cleanse Ihe folds between the gums < and lips and cheeks. "The finger of the nurec, often employed, is too large and liable to injure the delicate mucous mem-1 brane."—(Professor Holt). !

Natche and Causes of Thrush. (Dr Crozor Griffith.) Thrush is a disease of the moulli far commonest in boitlc-fed or sickly children in the curly weeks of life. Small whitish Hiitqlicts, sometimes crowded thickly together, form over the lining of the mouth, and especially on the tongue, checks, and lurd palaie. They grea-tly rcseinljlc curdled milk, but "differ in that (hoy can be removed only by the use of considerable force. A lack of perfect cltttnlinccs about the mouth and the bottles and rubber nipples and the me of bottles willi long rubber tidies, are active factors in producing the disease. It is very commonly associated with tome disturbance of digestion, and it is distinctly contagious. The symptoms are an indisposition to nureo on account of the pain produced, often combined with colic and some diarrlioia and vomiting. Summary of Treatment of Thrush. Strict attention to hygiene, especially perfect care and cleanliness in every detail of food and feeding. Long tube feeders and dummy must bo got rid of. Don't ■ give cane-sugar, condensed milk, patent food, biscuit, or sweets. Borax and honey wil not do for swabbing the mouth, .bo-1 causo honey feeds ■ the microbes. Gently '

■ swab out the mouth with & solution ol boracic acid as directed above. Pay strict attention to hygiene in the way of fresh air day and night, outings, perfect regularity of feeding and haliies, etc.