OUR BABIES

Otago Witness, Issue 3016, 3 January 1912, Page 70

OUR BABIES

Bx Htgsia

Published under the Auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. “ It is wiser to put up a knee at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom ” THE CURSE OF SUMMER. As many of my readers may not have seen tho following article, and as those who have already road it will surely profit by carefully studying the accompanying diagram, I make no apology for repeating the “Our Babies” article published last year. SUMMER DIARRHCEA. Diseases and death- play liavoc with babies and calves ©specially 'in summer. WHY? Why should diarrhoea single cut those two and leave th-e rest of nurslings more or less exempt from this special curse of summer ? In warm weather tho young of hores, pigs, dogs, cats, ami the rest are almost uniformly healthy, while calves in all directions are victims to “scouring, and few- babies escape the same scourge under the name of “summer diarrhoea.” WHY DOES NATURE SINGLE OUT CALVES AND BABIES? Calves arc sacrificed because man takes cow’s milk for himself. The baby is sacrificed because the mother's breast is denied to it also, and improper food, contaminated with germs, is substituted for tho pure, perfect, blood-warm, living stream direct from the proper source. The important practical question which we have to face at the present moment is this; — ARE ILL-HEALTH AND DIARRHIEA INEVITABLE DURING SUMMER TIME FOR CALVES AND BABIES WHO CANNOT BE BREAST-FED?

Certainly not ! In. both cai.es tho trouble arises not from tho mere fact of artificial feeding-, but because proper caro is not exorcised to eocuro suitable food and to prevent fermentation. For Babies, humanised milk supplies by far the nearest approach to the mother’s milk, and if kept cool and given according to the directions contained in tho instructions issued by the Society, there would be little risk of disease. Even with breast-feeding a baby may suffer from summer diarrhoea, but immediate suitable treatment of such infants, or of those who have been judiciously fed by artificial means, soon brings about" recovery in the great majority of oases. Among babies who have been improperly fed, on the other hand, the risk of death from an attack of diarrhoea is very great indeed, and lasting debility is eften loft where the baby does not actually succumb. Tho following chart shows the enormous summer increase in the Paris death rate from diarrhoea among babies under a year old. . A rise in the death rate among infants similar to the above occurs in Now Zealand during warm weather, varying with the locality and the heat of tho particular summer. Knowing the cause, the disease is one of the most easily preventable, and

DEATH TOLL OF DIARRHOEA. j The above diagram shows, the death toll among babies in Paris during a single 1 year. The height to which each column ascends represents the number of deaths for the corresponding week. The weeks, starting at the New Year, are shown in succession by the figures from 1 to 52 along upper margin. The corresponding seasons are indicated below. The figures

the mother who allows her baby to succumb during the next few months should feel, in nine cases out of fen, that she has only herself to blame. It is not Nature or Providence that inflicts the curse of summer diarrhoea, but the mother herself. That this is literally and absolutely true will be realised by anyone consulting the Paris diagram, which shows that at midwinter only some 20 babies per week died from diarrhoea, while in midsummer the deaths rose to 258 per week —over 1000 dying in six weeks when the weather was warmest. Among breast-fed babies the death rate for the same period averaged only 20 per week. However, even these deaths were mainly the result of ignorance and carclesness (especially careless feeding of mother and child, the use of the long-tubo' feeder, lack of fresh air and exercise, irregular habits, failure to keep the breasts and the clothing covering them clean, and use of dummy or comforter for the baby). During the same throe or four fatal summer months scarcely a death from diarrhoea occurred among the babies whom mothers were availing themselves of rational advice tendered at the four creches then established in Paris on modern scientific lines. About half of these more fortunate babies wore suckled, and the rest wore bottle-fed with milk supplied at the special “Babies’ Milk Depot." In the provinces a similar result has been achieved. Thus Dr Dufour, the pioneer in Normandy of the rational car© of babies, including the use of humanised milk, shows that while the death rate among infants averaged 55 for the four principal towns, the death rat' among babies whose mothers attended the depots and got proper advice and food was less than 3 per cent. —in other words, only onetwentieth of the mortality which took place among the bahie 3 whose mothers persisted in going their own way in spite of warnnings and advice. SUMMER IS ON US.

It is hoped, now we are reaching the critical summer period for babies, that mothers in our midst will avail themselves of the printed advice issued by the Society; and also make use of the practical instructions which are given every Wednesday afternoon, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Karitane Baby Hospital, Anderson’s Bay, or that they will communicate with the Plunkat Nurse. The service® of the- Plunket Nurse are always available for any mother who desires advice or help. Telephone No. 1136.

It should be realised that if a baby cannot be breast-feel it should receive pro-perly-graded anrl prepared humanised milk from the start. In Dunedin, in cases where the mother’s milk fails, humanised milk properly graded for the 1 .by is delivered at any home. Telephone x2Bl. Nothing can be more senseless and absurd than tlie way in which women subject their babies to wrong feeding until they become ill, and then frantically turn to some other method. If they treated their offspring properly during the most risky period of life —namely, the first few months,—the rest would usually be plain sailing, and they would save the baby from an infinity of harm and escape unending trouble and regrets for themselves.

to Inc left show the number of deaths from infantile diarrhoea occurring in Paris during each week. The height above the bottom line attained by the. black columns shows the deaths from diarrhoea among Ixntle-fed babies, and the height of the white columns show's the deaths among the breast-fed. It will be noticed that in midwinter the black deaths are only some 20 nor week, while in midsummer they rise to 238 per week-