OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3277, 3 January 1917, Page 52

OUR BABIES.

By Hyova

Published under Ihc auspices ci tho Royai New Zpnlaid Society tor Hie Hcaltl' ol Women nn<) Children.

"It Is wiser to put up a ienr-e :'.t the top of a precipice Llian to r na intaln rw amljulanco :it the bottom."

WHY BABIES DIE. At this season of the year there is on;? thing which anyone interested in the welfare of babies, .should insist on over and over again, and that is the need for etornjw care and watchfulness on the part of the mother or nurse to prevent the baby being given even a single meal of risky of tainted milk. .Some women save themselves Llie trouble of thinking, or taking care, by indiscriminately boiling the milk every morning mill evening; but they fail to remise that by so doing they injur.' the nutritive qualities of the baby's food mid render the child more liable to catch disease, besides erdovving it with Ices stamina to hold out after disease' has gained a foothold than would be the ease with a child fed for the n ost part on unboiled milk. Milk which lias been boiled, condensed, or dried tends to cause constipation, and it must be borne in mind that coNS'nrATION IS FIRST COUSIN' TO DIARBHCEA. A constipated child is liable at any moment to go to tho opposite extreme and to acquire readily intractable diarrhoea. The resorting to superheated milk should be limited to the times, occasions, and local circumstances which more or Jess neeessitato its use. Thus, in certain localities, where the milk supply is doubtful, especially during very sultry, trying weather, the use of superheated milk (whether boiled, condensed, or dried), properly modified and prepared to suit the baby, may be a wise precaution. But if the milk supply tie good, why should the mother subject the Baby a milk to the prejudicial effects of superheating every day in the week, when, perhaps, there are not a dozen days in the hottest month of the year which render this precaution desirable? The true housewife and mother watches the weather, and notes any sharp rise _or fall in the temperature, even though Ivr baby is breast-fed and there is no milk to prepare. She : s attentive to changes m the weather, because she has to see that the child is neither underdid nor overclad day or night; and she has to note the direction of the wind so as to guard against undue draughts. But if the baby is receiving cow's milk, the incentive to paying reasonable attention to the weather is infinitely greater than in the case of a nurseling at the breast. However many deaths, and however much in;ury to children, resulting in life long unfitness, may bo traced to bad dairies and the carelessness of dairymen and milkboys, mother should realise that at least as much harm is often done the baby's food in tho house, through ignorance and lack of proper care and attention to the safeguarding of milk after it has been delivered. Tile best and purest of milk may be rendered quite unfit for use in a few hours, especially in warm weather, through the householder failing to take simple, necessary precautions. FILTH AT THE SOURCE. However, I am far from wanting to understate the dire results to children arising from carelessness on the farm or on the road to market. Indeed, it is impossible for parents to be too particular as to the source from which they derive their milk, whether for a baby or for tho rest of the family. If anything can sheet homo the unspeakable possibilities of filth in this connection, and make people inspect for themselves (wherever possible) the surroundings of the dairy from which they derive their milk supply, the following extract from Henry Lawcon's "Day on a Selection " may bo relied on as an incentive. A BAD COLONIAL DAIRY.

" The rising Australian generation is represented by a thin, lanky youth of about 15. He is 'milking. The cowyard is next the house, and is mostly ankle-deep in slush. The boy drives a dusty, discouragedlooking cow into the bail, and pins her head there; then ho gets tackle on to her right hind leg, hauls it back, and makes it fast to the fence. There are 11 cows, but not one of them can be milked out of the bail, chiefly because their teats are sore. Ihe selector does not know what makes the teats sore, but he lias an unquestioning faith in a certain ointment, recommended to him by a man who knows less about cows than he does himself, which ho causes to be applied at irregular intervals, leaving the mode of application to the discretion of his son. Meanwhile the teats, remain sore. "Having made the cow fast, the youngster cautiously takes hold of the least sore teat, yanks it suddenly, and dodges the cow's hock. When he gets enough milk to dip his dirty hands in, he moistens the teats and things go on more smoothly. Now and then ho relieves the monotony of his occupation by squirting at the eye of a calf which is dozing in the adjacent pen. Other times he milks into his mouth. Every time the cow kicks, a burr or a grass seed or a bit of something else falls into the milk, and the boy drowns these things with a well-directed stream—on the principle that what's out of sight is out of mind. "Sometimes the boy sticks his head into the cow's side, hangs on by a feat, and dozes, while the bucket. mechanically gripped between his knees, sinks lower and lower till it rests on the ground. Likely as not he'll doze on until his mother's shrill voice startles him with an inquiry as to whether ho intends to get that mi'king done to-day; other times he is roused by the plunging of the row. or knocked over by a calf which has broken through a defective panel in the pen. In the latter case the youth gets, tackle on to the calf, detaches its head from the font with the heel of his loot, and makes it fast somewhere. Sometimes the cow breaks or loosens the legrope, and gets her leg into the bucket, and then the youth olintrs desperately to the pail, and hopes she'll get her hoof out again without spilling the milk. Sometimes she does; more often she doesn't —it depends on the strength of the boy and the pail and on the of the former. Anyway, the boy will lamb the cow down with a iagged yard shovel, let her out, and bail up another."