OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3115, 26 November 1913, Page 61

OUR BABIES.

Br Hygeia.

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.”

BATHING, EXERCISE, REST. The -word “bathing” is so closely associated with the idea of washing or cleansing that few people have any clear realisation that the process would still be essential for perfect growth and development, an<| for ensuring sound, robust health, if it were not needed at all for cleanliness, reality the bodily mechanism cannot b« run and built up properly without bathing, using the term to denote alteration* or heat, cold, etc., acting on the surface of the body. The merest smattering of physiology teaches us that none of our organs work by simple automatism —that they do not work simply from within as a clock works during the time for which it has been : wound up, but that they have to be sub- J jeeted directly or indirectly to varying ; stimulations transmitted from without by I means of impulses arriving at the nerve centres all day long through the million* of living telegraph wires called nerves. These messages reach the vital telegraph offices not only through special nerves, such as those of seeing and hearing, but in j infinitely greater number through what are called nerves of common sensation, the nerves which go to every speck of skin, and ( are intended to be kept at work conducting i impulses thence to the centres as long as i life lasts, as long as the body continues to i live, as long as the various organs need j to be kept at work in duo accord at, their appointed tasks —the heart muscle pumping, the chest heaving, the muscles of the blood tubes, air tubes, and food passages regulating delivery, the glands secreting digestive and other thuds and excreting and getting rid of waste products, the brain feeling and thinking. To keep this hive of strenuous energy going “whole,'’ going in “wholth” (or, as we have chosen to alter the word, in “health”), the drivers and regulators must be called upon to do their appointed tasks. If they an allowed to to habitually idle while the body is being built, the building will be imperfectly done, and vitality will be feeble. Hence the importance of a healthy, bodily environment during the growing period—important, indeed, throughout life, but trebly important in babyhood and'youth. SLEEP. The part which stimulation oi the nerve* plays in keeping the viial organs going may bo realised by reflecting how we pave the way to sleep by cutting off outsid* stimuli-how the healthy, li.ing being approaches ns near as may be to rest and death It docs not suffice to inertlv withdraw light and sound. Sleep will ntil usually come unless we reduce the stimuli acting .on the skin and muscles by letting the body lie comfortably slack and inert on some soft substance, which will leave nothing to he supported by voluntary mu*-' cular effort, and will prevent appreeiabi* irritative pressure at any part. Under* such conditions, if the body be also covered so as to maintain a kind of passive warmth, stimulated neither by undue heat nor cold, a normal person cannot keep awake at the end of an active day. Sleep is necessary I for rest, recuperation, and growth. The more rapid the growth the more sleep the organism needs. Before birth all is sleep; a newly-born babe should sleep nine-tenth* of the time, at six months sleep is reduced to about two-thirds of the time; at 60 yeans six hours may suffice. SENSORY STIMULATION. But it must not be inferred because a six-months’ old baby sleeps for 'l6 hours out of the 24 that therefore there is no need for stimulating its activities during tho waking period. Quito the contrary is the case. If the sensory nerves (nerves that convey impressions of light, sound, touch, variations of heat and cold, etc.) and tbs muscles are not kept active every function must suffer more or loss —sleep itself, digestion, development, etc. —but most, of all the baby will tend to lack spirit, cheerfulness, activity, and intelligence. The one thing not to do is to keep a baby coddled In a nursery, warmed, as commonly recommended, to a temperature of 70de,g to 75dcg Fa hr. A very premature infant may need at the etart an artificial atmosphere warmed on tho principle of a chicken incubator, but. a healthy baby, when a few days old, may bo put out into the pure open air in a sheltered corner of a sunny verandah’, care being taken to protect it from strong light or draughts. The nursery for a normal baby is better kept below rather than above 60deg. In fact, an ordinary cool room with an open fire to prevent dampness, and to secure ventilation rather than any marked warmth, is the best condition for a healthy infant, provided that it is properly elad and covered, and shielded from direct draught An air-bath of varying temperature, to which the exposed parts of the skin should be daily subjected, promotes the action of all tho organs, and is the best means of obviating the risks of “catching cold.” Indeed, “catching cold” is the natural result of coddling, a'ternating with careless exposure to draughts. But the habitual exposure of limited skin areas, hands, face, etc., is not enough. More widespread stimulation is needed, and this is afforded to a sufficient degree at first during the changing of clothes, bathing, drying, etc. It should be noted that a warm atmosphere is always desirable when an infant is being bathed, and special care should bo taken to prevent draught. This can bo effected by means of a screen, if a eosy position before the fire cannot bo secured otherwise