THE CARE OF INFANTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19844, 17 July 1926, Page 9

THE CARE OF INFANTS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib —Some time ago there was reported from Wellington a case where a young babv was very badly bitten by a fat*. Ine mother and a friend heard the child s cries, hut the mother evidently believed m let ting the baby cry it out.” and it was only through her friend interfering after a considerable time that the infant was saved from further torture. This week (here is another case reported from the North Island when an infant died as the result of burns from a hot water bottle. In this case the poor mother was a patient in a hospital, and a nurse had put the child to bed. This baby, 100 was left ‘to cry it out.’ r l he nurse stated that she attached no imoortance to its cries, because It was a healthy baby. There seems to be a perfect crane for “letting the bahv cry it out now-a days, and I think these oases, to say nothing of those not heard of, should act as a warning to both mothers and nurses, and make them realise that there is much room lor modification in the present day system ol caring for infants. . Vrom whence docs this idea of letting the baby cry it out” originate? In his book “Feeding and Care of Infants, pir Truby King plainly states that ‘a crying child' should never be neglected. I can ouotc also from an extensive medical work, “A healthy baby, properly nursed should not crv. If it does it is plain that the nurse has been negligent in her duties." Our mothers are too ignorant and too passive where the welfare of theii infants is concerned. A good lusty cry. of not too long duration, may help to develop a child physically, but what about the little nervous system which is strained to its iitmosi, when incessant crying is con tinned? . , . T believe that hunger is one of the cruet onuses of very young infants crying. If the three-hourly feeding was general! •’ adopted by our maternity homes instead of four-hourlv feeding an improvement would result, provided the babies were not overfed ■ ach time. T think also, one suckling through the night has its advan taros to both mother a n H oh‘hl for the first month of a bnfcv’s hfe. If the baby was fed, say. at 2 o’clock a.in., it would sleep better" ami the mother would rest better. As we have had to go ba-k to the old mothers for many of enr so-called modern nations of child-rearing so we will have to return to the belief held by them thata baby should not crv too much. It is nonsensical to say that a young baby fed in the night, will develop insomti'a. It would bo just as reasonable to say that because a baby sleeps through the day it would develop that habit for the rest of its life, or that because it gets fed six or seven times a dnv a 5 an infant it will want six or seven meaU a clav all its life. A baby naturally adapts itself to the changes that take place as it grows Instead of depending upon a bahv to cry for its exercise just a« much benefit would be derived if its clothing was loosened, ami its little body gently massaged while it kicked and wriggled. I have heard it said hv a modern nurse that "the human mother has no instinct, as the other animals have, '.-ut that she niusl be taught how to care for her young." I wonder how ever Eve managed. —I am etc.. Eve’s Descendant. I