OUR BABIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21772, 11 October 1932, Page 2

OUR BABIES

By HTOiu.

Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the > Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). "It is wiser to put up a fence ot the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom ." SUNLIGHT How eagerly we look forward to the arrival of spring and the additional warmth of the sun when it shines. We are now enjoying the extra half hour of sunlight which the Daylight Saving BUI gives us. The gospel of fresh air and sunlight is rapidly extending all *the world over—men, women and children spending every moment of leisure hours out of doors. The outings may take some form of sport or walking exercise. Hiking is fast becoming more and more popular and holidays are spent in camps and caravans.

All healthy children love to be out of doors, and while sunlight Is always beneficial it is best in spring and summer. Keep the children out of doors in the long days that sunshine may be stored ir the skin to keep them fit during the short days. Four hundred years before the birth of Christ Hypocratos, the father of medicine, made his patients bathe in the pure air and sunlight. During the last quarter of the past century doctors all over the world have been reverting to these principles and advocating more fresh air and sunlight. The eminent authority, Dr C. W. Saleeby, says that “ Sunlight is the source of all life.” He emphasises the fact that the discoveries about sunlight are quite distinct from those which we have already learnt about fresh air, though the two naturally go together. SUNLIGHT THE BEST ANTISEPTIC. In describing sunlight as the best antiseptic, Dr Saleeby says:—“ We are gradually learning more and more about the beneficial influence of sunlight in relation to health. Sunlight as an antiseptic is the cheapest, safest, most natural and most widely applicable in the world. The germs of tuberculosis, haVe been found to survive after two years in the dark, while pure sunlight of ordinary intensity andimmed by coal smoke kills those germs in from seven to ten minutes." We learn from him also that wherever pure sunlight falls it kills our deadliest enemies, be it on carpets, pavements, children’s playgrounds or sand heaps. So protective are its antiseptic qualities that there is little fear of contracting any infection in the open air when the sun shines. Most of our infectious diseases are diseases of indoors and of the shade. It has been proved by exact experiment that sunlight raises the antiseptic power of the blood by its action on the white blood cells.. We know of no chemical antiseptic that has this power. NECESSITY FOR SUNLIGHT.

It is to the invisible rays of sunlight, the ultra violet rays, that the healthgiving power is due. These rays do not penetrate ordinary window glass nor our clothing, even when the clothes are made from very thin or very porous materials. Nor will they pass through a screen of coal smoke so frequently to be found in industrial areas. To such an extent are the sun’s rays thus cut off that they lose from one-third to onehalf of their value. SUNLIGHT AND RICKETS.

Rickets is a very grave, but easily avoidable disease of early childhood. It is essentially a disease of infants, characterised by impaired nutrition of the whole body and alterations in the growing bones. No tissue or part escapes —the whole suffers and the damaging effects are lifelong. The external signs of this disease arc not seen till after six months of age, and the softening of growing bones is indicated by the shrunken chest, the socalled pigeon chest apd the bowed or “ bandy ” legs. The disease, described as a chronic disease of nutrition, can be prevented and cured- by sunlight just as it is cured by cod liver oil. In the human body there is a substance called crgesterol and when the body is exposed to the sunlight the ultra violet rays by their chemical action convert some of this substance into vitamin D. To compensate for lack of sunlight/ cod liver oil, which is rich in vitamin D, should be added to the diet of growing children.