OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3385, 29 January 1919, Page 52

OUR BABIES.

By Hygeia

Published under tne auspices tf ihe Royal New Zealand Society for the Health ot Women and Children.

"It Is wiser to put up a tencc at the top ol a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at tie bottom."

THE COLD BATH

For the last few weeks I have been dealing with the advantages of a daily cold bath, followed by active exercise, for healthy intants who have passed the age of 18 months or two years. My special reason for devoting so much space to this subject just now is the fact that the summer season is the best of all tunes for instituting the cold bath, whether one is dealing with normal children, whom one wants to maintain in good healtn and render still more vigorous, robust, and resistive to disease, or whether one has the charge of a delicate ailing child, whose system lacks the tone and stamina necessary for the proper nutrition and growth of the body, necessary also as a basis for the high spirits and radiant joy of perfect childhood. At this stage I am prepared to hear the mother of the Victorian era (the typical mother of the last century, whose mistaken ideas have done so much to impose on the race cur latter-day curse of indifference as to maternity and inability to fulfil its cails) —I am prepared to hear this mother of many irrational prejudices exclaim with uplifted hands: "Cold bath for delicate babies! Is it not bad enough to suggest such hard usage for the strong? Are we> not to bo allowed to shield tenderly and protect our infants when they are sick? What new outrage' is this?" I leave the answer to Dr Emmett Holt, professor of diseases of children at Columbia University. Professor Holt is universally recognised as possibly the highest authority of the day on his subject. He says, under the heading "The Cold Sponge or Shower Bath" :

The Cold Sponge or Shower Bath. This should be given in the morning

before breakfast, and in a warm room. The child should stand in a foot-tub containing warm water enough to cover the feet, then a large sponge holding about a pint of water at a temperature of from 40deg to 60deg Fahr. should be squeezed tkree or four times over the chest,' shoulders, and spine of the child, the skin being rubbed meanwhile. The bath should not last more than half a minute. It should be followed by a brisk rubbing until a thorough reaction is established. This is very useful at all ages, but a .particularly valuable tonic in delicate children. It may be used in those only 18 months old. Not the least of the beneficial results is the full expansion of the lungs from the strong cry which the bath usually excites. In young infants a cold plunge may be substituted. This should be merely a single dip of the entire body in water at a temperature, of 50deg to oOd'eg 'Fahr. In order that benericial effects shall follow the cold sponging, a good reaction must be established. If children lack sufficient vitality to secure this, and if they remain pale, pinched, and blue for some time after the bath, it must be discontinued altogether, or water of a higher temperature used. —(From "Diseases of Infancy and Childhood," by Dr L. Emmett Holt, Page 57.) WHAT OTHER NATIONS ARE SAYING 1 AND DOING.

The above is the typical point of view of those whose opinion carries most weight in the United States to-day; but I am prepared to find some mothers not willing to rely on American testimony alone, and inclined to trust rather to the more conservative physioians of the Old World. In this _ connection, prejudice against our cousins across the Atlantic is entirely misplaced, because during- the last quarter of a century they have given infinitely more minute and painstaking attention to solving the difficult problem "how best to rear and educate our children" than any other branch of the human race. In spite of great strides in scientific and material progress, the_ Old World as a whole has lagged sadly behind in dealing with the recognised and acknowledged tendenoy to racial de generation which has dogged the footsteps of our advancing civilisation, and is summed up by tho "Eugenists" to-day in the phrase "Eugenics or Extinction." However, of late years the Old World Las been gradually v eking up herd and there to the need for paying some attention to things other than wealth, political economy, material progress, the advance of science in general, and the raturc and needs of plants and the lower animals. The health, fitness, and happiness of man himself ere beginning to be realised as also worth more than a mere passing thought. Men and women of hard common sense find themselves to-day echoing and paraphrasing the thoughts of Ruskin and repeating with more or less conviction that the wealth of nations lies in the people themselves —in life itself,—not in mere hoardings, and accumulations, whether of things material or of tho endless "information and so-called "knowledge" of the schools. THE LEAD IN GERMANY.

■ In Germany practical scientific observations and researches dealing w<th the fundamental needs of child life, undertaken during til© last 10 years, have done much to make up for the apathy and neglect of the past. German physicians have long been preeminent in everything concerning bathing. They have spared no pains in order to r.rrive at reliable, finite conclusions regarding the effects of water applied under varying conditions as to temperature and duration of exposure, etc. As the outcome of all this patient research, we are left in no manner of doubt concerning the enormous all-round benefits derivable from the morning " oold tub," followed by a brisk rub down and active exercise. It was the Germans who first of all clearly formulated and enunciated the conditions under which' the greatest benefit might be derived from cold bathing They showed conclusively that in general, within reasonable limits, the odder the water the more Invigorating was the effeob on the whole system, pro-

vided that the immersion or affusion was of short duration—only momentary at first, and even this stage arrived at by a suitable gradual lowering day by day of the temperature of the water used. Granted these precautions (along with rapid undressing, I vigirous rybbing down and quick dressing, i followed by active exercise where possible, and, where not possible, by the use of a sufficiency of suitable warm wrappings to ensure prompt, comfortablo reaction) — granted these things, it has been found that "hardening" by cold bathing is the most powerful and beneficial agency for assuring physical and mental vigour' when the nursling stage of infancy is passed, and well on into old age. FIRST LINE OF DEFENCE. Along with proper feeding, fresh air, and exercise, cold bathing has proved to be the most efficient of all'barriers against delicacy of constitution and the tendency to catoh cold or fall a prey to consumption and other invaders of the system. Further, it is found that the growth and development of the body are promoted, not stunted (as some had supposed would be the case), by the use of measures comprehensively embraced under the term "hardening"—judiciously carried out. These conclusions* I may say, are in entire accord with numerous practical experiences that have como under my own personal observation in connection with the work of the Society for the Health of Women and Children during the last 12 years. HEALTH OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. A meeting of the Central Council of the Society for the Health of Women and Children was held in the Plunket rooms on Wednesday, 22nd inst., Mrs Truby King presiding. Mrs Oarr (president) was granted leave of absence for several months. Mrs J. A. Johnstone kindly consented to act in her stead. The following appointments were made: Pahiatua (new centre), Nurse Gladys M'Lean; Marton (new centre), Nurse A. A. Farlane; Napier, Nurse Liliie Miller (second Plunket nurse); Taihape, Nurse M'Bride; Wanganui, Nurse Eva Adams (second Plunket nurse); Dunedin, Nurse Scott. I Recommendations were made for approaching vacancies in Gisborne and Petone. Owing to altered arrangements on acI count of the influenza epidemic, the date j of the Dominion Baby Day was postponed ' indefinitely. ! It was recommended that the general ! conference of tho society be held in Wellington at the end of October or the beginning of November next, when it is hoped that Dr Truby King will have returned to the dominion. In the meantime it was decided to ask branches to rsend in remits for discussion.

It was reported that two newspapers in Victoria had undertaken to publish the "Our Babies" column by "Hygeia." Copies of the articles are being sent to Australia every weeik.