THE DIONNE QUINTUPLETS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22628, 20 July 1935, Page 22

THE DIONNE QUINTUPLETS

NOW ONE YEAR OLD BRIGHT, HEALTHY BABIES

It is now ovfer a year since the birth of quintuplets at Callendar, Canada, excited the interest of baby-lovers all the world over and also the professional interest of medical men in five continents, and, contrary to the general rule in such cases, all the , babies survive and are in every way wholesome, normal, lovely and lovable infants. They are claimed to be a gold-medal exhibit for child hygiene, with a greater chance to live and develop than the average little boy or girl. Their survival proves that babies handicapped at birth can live and grow strong if they are given intelligent, indefatigable attention. Of such multiple births —only 32, cases are recorded in medical history—there is no single instance until this one when all the babies lived for more than a few minutes or hours. Their lives were additionally prejudiced by the facts that *they were prematurely born and that their surroundings,at birth and for months thereafter were fraught with peril.

THE PROBLEM OF SURVIVAL Dr Allan Roy Dafoe, the country doctor who brought the Dionne daughters into the world, hardly dared hope that they would all remain in it, and when the editor of an American newspaper who had a fondness for babies offered to supply an incubator Dr Dafoe could only reply that it would help t.i give the infants a chance of living. No electricity was available at the house, and the incubator had to be heated by a connection with the kitchen stove. During the first hours the life of the nurse, a plucky girl only six mfinths out of training school, was no enviable one. There were no baby clothes in the house and no hot water bottles. During the first four .days she managed to obtain foui hours of sleep. The rest of the time she was working to keep life in the little morsels of humanity, keeping them warm and feeding them from a medicine dropper. After the first day special air treatment was rushed to the house from Toronto, and the next problem was the milk supply. Within a few days this need was also filled from Toronto, and, although at first the quintuplets required only a pint of milk per day, at the end of five months they were drinking a gallon. During those months the doctor and the nurses waged a neverending struggle to maintain proper standards of child hygiene in a house without proper sanitation and in a makeshift nursery which lacked even a door to separate it from the family living room. Then the Government appointed a board of guardians and built a special nursery-hospital—the Dafoe Hospital for the Dionne Quintuplets. AN IDEAL EXISTENCE In this hospital the babies have an ideal existence in their sunny cribs, each of which is supplied with fascinating toys. The babies are plump and vigorous and revel in their twice daily baths. Each one is already showing signs of individuality. Yvonne, who was at birth the feeblest, is now the largest and strongest physically. Annette is said to be the most beautiful. She is also the most venturesome and was the first to attempt to go wandering. Emilie is temperamental; when only six months old slie tried the trick of crying to attract attention, but after a few nights she found that this did her no good. Cecile is round-faced and loves to suck her thumb. Marie is the tiniest of the family, but, although her progress was slow at first, it is now greater proportionately than that of any of the others. PROVISION FOR THE FUTURE The large sum paid for photographic rights and all the gifts to the quintuplets are set aside in trust for them, the fund now amounting to over 150,000 dollars. These babies, it is pointed out, in one year earned more than the President of the United States just by staying alive. While the principal of the trust will be held intact, the income is being used not only for the quintuplets, but for the benefit of their father, mother

and older brothers and sisters. Dr Dafoe still carries on his work, and the whole programme of the babies’ existence has been warmly endorsed by child specialists. The babies will be the wards of his Majesty the King until they are 18.