OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2949, 21 September 1910, Page 68

OUR BABIES.

By Htgeia

Published under the auspices o! th'? Society for the Health of Women and Children.

" It is wiser to put up a fence at tho top of a preoipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

BABY'S WEIGHT. A correspondent from the Catlins di* trict writes as follows:

Thank you very much for sending the sections c'f the book. They were a great help to me. I am sending for the book "Feeding and Care of the Baby," as I see it is published now. My wee girl is 13 months old, a.nd is doing so nicely. She still gets some Humanised Mdk. Should a baby 101 bat birth weigh 301 b at 12 months?

My baby was 101 b at birth, and she only weighed 231 bat 12 months. Should •he" be heavier than 231 b? ishe has kept improving every month, and is as healthy a baby as one would wish to see. Her food always agreei? with her. She has plenty of outdoor exercise, an-d has her regular times for meals, sleep, etc. In the "Our Babies" Column it says a baby is supposed to treble its birth weight at the end of a year. Thirty pounds seems a big weight for a baby 12 months old. Wishing the Society every success,— I am, etc.. REPLY. When a baby is said to weigh so much over the average at birth one is inclined to wonder whether the weighing was quite accurate —whether allowance had been made for clothes. Frequently the nurse merely guesses at the weight, without actually weighing, and the another relies on what really has .no value at all. I have found women very far astray in thenestimate as to the baby's weight, and they generally err on the side of overstating it. The average weight of a baby girl one year old is 20£lb. Twenty-three pounds was an excellent weight for your little girl, even though she had' been a few pounds heavier than the average at birth. The rule about a child trebling its -weight at a year old is merely a statement of the average. It gives the mother some idea as to what she should expect. In general it applies most closely in the case where a baby •weighs about 71b at birth ; but even then a deviation of a pound or so either way would not be considered wrong, provided that the baby was obviously wellnourished, bright, active, vigorous, healthy, and contented. The normal development of the child i.n all its organs and activities is a more important consideration than weight alone —though, of course, date increase in weight should .be maintained.

WEIGHT NOT THE SOLE CRITERION.

Mothers are sometimes inclined to centie ■ attention on weight alone, and to assume | that if a child- is heavy it is sure to be ! all 'right, whereas in truth many heavy 1 babies are most unhealthy owing to their ; having been fed largely om starches, patent ' foods, condensed milk, etc., —and due also i to their being overfed and getting insuffi- , cient outing and exercise. Under such con- . ditions babies often fatten unduly for a : time, and if weight were the only criterion ! they might be regarded as above the I average; indeed, they are often so re- | garded, as proved by the fact that they i take prizes at baby shows when exhibited ■■ in competition with perfectly normal, sound, firm, healthy infants. However, rapid growth founded on a wrong basis isj rarely maintained for many years, the tendency (being to fall off owing to imperfect development of bones, muscles, teeth, digestive organs, etc. TEST OF FITNESS.

One of the most striking tests of the "fitness" of a baby and the righftiess 01* wrongness of the way he has been reared is what takes place in the presence of disease; "he throws off the germs as an ocean liner throws the spray off her bows," and if he does get sick, the disease does not overmaster him—he generally picks up quickly amd thoroughly. The reverse is true all round of the soft fat baby with imperfect stamina. Ho tends to catch disease, when ill he is liable to be very ill, he often succumbs, and if he r-ecovers the tendency is to slow convalescence, and very often the evidence of permanent injury to the system remains behind in the form of damaged' nose and throat, deafness, kidnev disease, etc. The mother should read carefully pane 53 of the Society's book, where the matter is fullv explained and illustrated by the relative appearances presented by sections across young pigs which have been properly and improperly fed—both being the same size, but the one largely made up of sound bone and muscles, while in the other soft, fatty tissue predominates. THE SOCIETY'S NEW BOOK. The "Feeding and Care of the Baby" is now obtainable from the Plunket nursed and from the leading booksellers throughout the Dominion, Price Is, or posted Is 3d. We would again remind ouir readers that we must constantly refer them to the book. The following introductory paragraph explains this: TO PARENTS AND NURSES. This text-book for mothers will be supplemented and kept abreast of the ! times by "Our Babies" Column. The weekly articles should be out out, pasted into a sorapbook, and indexed for future reference, as they will not be republished. If the mother is in doubt as to the. ' carrying out in practice,, or as to the meaning and intention of anything contained in any of the Society's publications, she should tappjly to the Jooal Phinket nurse or write to "Hygeia." Parents are advised 1 to make themselves thoroughly conversant with the content* of the book. This they can do quite easily if they take a single section at a time and discuss it with one another. , Only con fusion would result from trying to sake in hastily, at one sitting, what should be mastered deliberately. Tha I

mother who has once familiarised herself with the «ontente of f&e book will have no trouble in finding any passage she may want afterwards by meains of the full index on the last page.