OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2921, 9 March 1910, Page 66

OUR BABIES.

Bt Htgeia.

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.'' g HANDLING THE BABY. Natural Mothering and Moderate Handling Beneficial. Babies who are allowed to lie passively in cots and who do not get sufficient mothering tend to be pale, torpid, iiabby, and inert, and they oifcen develop rickets or waste away with marasmus. This has been a common fate of babies boarded in institutions or licensed homes, and physicians have remarked how much rarer ara such diseases wnere the baoy, taough placed under otherwise parallel condition*;, gets a good, deal of handling through the presence of older children. The stimulation afforded by simple natural handling s beneficial and necessary, but much harm is don© by excessive and meddlesome interierence and stimulation. Injudicious or Excessive Handling or Stimulation Highlx Injurious. Where there are many callers, a first baby is apt to lead the life of an infant prodigy in a sideshow, decked out for exhibition half its time, and always at hand tor special performances tefore special visitors. The putting-up-of-food or "regurgitation ' by babies soon after feedings ; a generally attributed to the nature or quantity of the milk or the manner of feeding, but in reality there may be little or nothing wrong' with the food or with the times or system of feeding. Mother and nurse often bring on regurgitation by handling a newly-fed baby carelessly (fondling, rocking, jogging, or. patting him) instead of' gently putting him into his cradle. It is true that if an infant is subject to colic, he may benefit by being sat up for a few minutes just after feeding to enable the wind to come away, bat he should not be jogged or patted after a meal. Indeed, habitual patting on the back,* done at any time of day, is highly injurious. Many women thoughtlessly and almost mechanically pat a baby to soothe him whenever he is uncomfortable or fretful, and in this way they may insidiously bring on serious indigestion, accompanied by inability to keep down t» sufficiency of food. Considering -how readily seasickness, train-sickness, or swing-sickness is induced in adults by infinitely less disturbing movements, one cannot wonder that infants often become profoundly upset by injudicious handling. If a woman's whole aim were to induce vomiting, she could not set about it more 6cientihcally than when, picking up her baby, and deftly balancing it face downwards with the belly and chest supported on her open palm, sue proceeds to rapidly pat the back with the other hand, thus subjecting the stomach to a series of direct concussions and squeezings while the head dangles face downwards over her wrist.

Apart altogether from the manifest absurdity of the particular practice referred to, ©very woman should realise that any form of jolting, swinging, rocking, or concussion may induce giddiness in babies just as it would in adults, and thus indirectly upset the stomach, through the nervous system. Eabies have been sent to the Karitane Hospital suffering from emaciation, vomiting, and grave nervous debility, attributable almost solely to this one factor. The same mother has been known to encounter similar difficulty in rearing child after child, and has arrived at the conclusion that her progeny had some grave inborn tendency to vomit, until the contrary was proved by removing the latest arrival to the charge of a quiet, sensible, trained baby nurse. TREATING BABIES AS PLAYTHINGS. The following quotations from leading authorities may be of some avail in preventing young mothers from treating tneir babies as mere interesting playthings, or allowing others to do so. This does not mean tnat babies are not to be allowed to play or to be judiciously played with. Play is a natural, joyous, overflowing expression of child life and activity, and as such should be encouraged, but the earliest play should be mainly with its first playmace—itself—its own feet.

N.B.—Never play with and excite a baby just before bedtime. Nervousness.

What are the principal causes of excessive nervousness in infants and young childreuT and what can be done to prevent this? . " The most important cause is the delicate structure of the brain at this time, and its rapid growth. It grows as much during the first year as during all the resc of life. Tnis requires quiet and peaceful surroundings. Infants who ave naturally nervous should be left much alone, should see but few people, should be played with very little, and should never be quieted with soothing syrups or the "comforter" (the latter, of course, applies to all children). What harm is done by playing with very young babies '!. They are made nervous and irritable, sleep badly, and suffer from indigestion and in many other ways. Professor Holt, Of Columbia University, Chief Physician Babies' Hospital, New York. Rocking of infants should be dis-

couraged. This subject should not bo dismissed without reference to a practice that is as pernicious as it is common —viz., the custom of regarding the . baby as a plaything, an animated- wj for the entertainment of the family, as well as of a large circle- of admiring friends. Children are fond of babies, and never tire of stimulating their funny performances. The same is unfortunately true of parents and friends. From a purely economic point of view, such amusement is exceedingly expensive, and the mortality is constantly increased for the amusement of the elders. Nervous and mental wrecks too frequently owe the origin of their disorders to want of repose in early infancy, due to injudicious stimulation. In thie connection let it be understood that all evidences of mental precocity, called "Smartness/'

should be regarded as danger signals, and call for repression rather than encouragement.

Professor Cotton, University of Chicago

Parents should never lose eight of the fact that infinite harm is done by ignoring the delicate and highly-sensitive nervous organisation of infancy; that theirs is the most sacred trust and privilege in the world —to mould the body and shapa the destiny of a new human being intended for a century of health and happiness here and eternity hereafter. Half the irritability and lack of moral control which spoil adult life originate in the first year of existence. The seeds of feebleness and instability sown in infancy bear bitter fruit afterwards. For the ordinary family ill-health and instability mean unemployableness; unemployableness means morbid thought and feeling; and morbid thought and feeling mean loafing, vice, and crime.