OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3489, 25 January 1921, Page 58

OUR BABIES.

By

Hygeia.

Published under the auspices of the Roys! New Zealand Society for {he 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.” HEAT AS IT AFFECTS BABIES. I * dealing with the important subject of hot weather in relation to the health of balnea 1 cannot do better than quote the following from the Society’s book “Feeding and Care of Baby,” pages 84 and 72-73 given under the headings “Warmth” and “Prams and Hoods” : WARMTH. It must always be kept in mind that a baby’s skill-surface is three or four times ■as extensive in proportion to its size as that of an adult; therefore when an infant is exposed to cool air he must always be warmly enough clad to prevent excessive escape of heat. Small dumplings cool quicker that big puddings. On the other hand, mothers tend to overclothe their babies in warm weather, thus making them delicate and over-sensitive to cold. The genera! tendency is to muffle up and overclothe infants rather than to underclothe them. Tile gravest and the commonest mistake in the clothing of babies is careless sudden changing from one style of garment to another (e.g.. arms and' legs clad one day and exposed the next) ; changing from homely flannel fo embroidered cotton finery for exhibition purposes; taking a baby out of a warm, stuffy cot indoors and wheeling him about in a push-cart with bare arms and uncovered dangling legs These are extreme cases, but there aro few mothers who do not give their

babies colds by serious, though less obvious, mistakes in the same direction. I'UAM.d AND HOODS. One oi the most pitiable'and exasperates sights oi modern babyhood is tne spectacle oi an untortunate mlant sweltering and sweating uuuer an American leather pram hood. Here, surely is human ignorance at its worst a glorious sunny clay, intended to give lite and strength to all young creatures, perverted by the mother into an agency oi debility and sickness for her offspring! ordinary unventilated leather pram hood is most injurious, as there is no current of pure air passing over the baby’s head It is especially harmful in warm weather, when the baby’s breath stagnutes around the mouth and nose, so that it breathes its own breath over and over fS al n. lire enteeblmg eifect is increased by tne fact that the hot air causes sweating and general limpness of the whole i body. io make matters worse, the mother or nurse often throws a light wrap over the iront of the hood to partly cut off the light, f ins common practice converts the canopy into a veritable Biaek Hole of Calcutta. _'ihe woman who does not hesitate to allow a tender infant to swelter thus m a tiny, dark, close, foul tent, with the sun pouring down on it, would quickly faint herself if similarly treated. By the use of a proper ventilating canopy, such as that devised by Lady Plunket (now extensively used throughout Aew Zealand), all tins is obviated. A baby oat in the midst of a green field under a close leather pram hood on a warm sunny day may be actually far worse off for air and healthy stimulation than if indoors in an ordinary room -Everyone knows how bad it is for a baby to be kept indoors, but few realise that it may be even worse off under a leather pram hood in the open air and sunlight! f-he ideal sunshade is a tree, shrub, or hedge, such as animals instinctively seek on bright days. Next best is a verandah or wall, preferably greenish, and on no account glaring white; failing these, and ior use when being wheeled about, there should be a small canopy or blind or an umbrella-like shade sufficing to keen off the wind and the direct rays of the sun from particular directions, but not causing heating up of air and stagnation around the baby’s head. If there is a closefitting hood it should be inade of wickerwork, which stops draught, but allows tree passage of air. The best colour for a pram-shade is green inside and white outside. Simple white linen is too glaring. Some years ago we made a series of precise observations in order to find out exactly how much higher a thermometer would _ register under the ordinary dark blackish green American leather pram hood, midway between the baby’s head and the canopy, compared with the temperature of the outside air. We found that, on «. mild, pleasant day with an atmospherio temperature of 60deg Fahr., the temperature under the canopy, exposed to the direct rays of the sun, would be from 75deg to 80deg. Not only would there be 15deg to 20deg • excess of heat under the hood, but the heat would be of the worst kind—the sweltering, oppressive heat of air saturated with evaporation from the perspiring head of the child mixed with its stagnating breath. Dr Barrett, of Melbourne, pointed out in a lecture which he delivered some years ago in Dunedin that when the thermometer registers over lOOdeg in Melbourne on a dry clay the air may not be at all oppressive, while a temperature of SOdeg or 90deg at Singapore would be relatively unbearable owing to the excess of moisture. WHAT DR SCHERESCHEWSKY SAYS Some years ago Dr Schereschewsky, of Washington, an important member of the U.S. Public Health Service, contributed ' a striking article on “Heat” and “Infant Mortality” to the Annual Transactions of the American Association for the Studyend Prevention of Infant Mortality—a body which embraces in its membership almost all the leading medical and lay authorities on the welfare of mother and child in the United States. Dr Schereschewsky says : HEAT AND INFANT MORTALITY. By far the most conspicuous phenomenon in connection with the mortality of infants is the well-known increase in” the number of their deaths which takes place in the summer months. . . . Hot summers produce an abnormally high infant death-rate, and cool summers the reverse. Forty years ago, almost no doubt existed, in America at least, as to the direct effect of heat on the baby itself, as +he essential cause of increased Infant Mortality in summer. However, Dr Schereschewsky goes on to show that the building up of knowledge during the last 40 years regarding the rapid growth of bacteria in warm fluids, and the relationship of microbes to disease, caused the medical profession almost to lose sight of the harmful direct effects of heat on the baby until the matter was again drawn attention to recently. There has been accumulating in the last few years, especially in Germany, evidence which clearly shows that due attention must be paid to safeguarding the baby from the injurious direct effects of heat, on hot days, as already indicated. Dr Sehereschewskv says:—“Wo must now ask ourselves if summer heat is not, after all, bv its direct action on the baby, the determinant of a large part of the summer mortality of infants.” The effect of heat on babies will be dealt ■with further in next week’s issue.