OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3619, 24 July 1923, Page 57

OUR BABIES.

By

Hygeia.

Published under the auspices el the fioyal New Zealand Society for the Health ef Women and Children. “It Is wiser to put up a fence at the top ot a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” PLUNKET NURSES, ETO., DUNEDIN BRANCH. nurses’ services free. Nurses M‘Lean (telephone 9268), Mathieaon (telephone 3020), Scott, and Ellis. Society’s Rooms: Jamieson’s Buildings. 76 Lower Stuart street (telephone 116), and 315 King Edward street, South Dunedin (telephone 3020). Office hours, daily from to A p.m. (except Saturday and Sunday); also Lindon Oddfellows’ Hall, Roslyn, Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. Outslations: Baptist Church, Gordon road, Mo.sgiei, Tuesday afternoons from 2 to 4 p.m.; Municipal Buildings, Port Chalmers, Wednesday afternoons lrom 2 to 4 p.m. Secretary, Kiss G. Hoddinott, Jamieson’s Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 116). Karitane-Tlarris Baby Hospital, Anderson’s Bay (telephone 1985). Matron, Mias Buisson. Demonstrations every Wednesday afternoon from 2.30 to 3.30. Training, Institution for Plunket Nurses and Karitane Baby Nurses. Visiting hours, 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. The following is the first portion of one of the leaflets iust issued by the Society. If any mother, reading the leaflets, is in doubt on any point she should apply to the nearest Plunket Nurse or write to ’Hygeia” or the Matrons of Karitane Baby Hospitals. GUIDE TO THE ARTIFICIAL FEEDING OF BABIES. After Nine Months. Read “Feeding and Care of Baby,” Pages 38-39 and 44-52. Important Points to Remember. Remember that at this .stage food tastes and habits are formed which may last a lifetime. 1. Teach baby to drink out of a cur at any time between 9 and 12 months (if this has not already been done, and provided he has cut two teeth), and discontinue bottle feeding. Give the drinks from a cup, first at one feed (say the 10 a.m.), then at two feeds in the day, and so on —thus discontinuing bottle feeding gradually. 2. Keep absolutely to regular meal times. Give nothing whatever but water and fruit juice between meals. 3. As BABY TAKES MORE SOLID AND varied food he needs less milk mixture, but do not let him go without a drink at each mc-al. About two pints of milk mixture are necessary at nine months, one pint and a-half at a year, and rather over a. pint at 18 months. 4. It is not wise to give milk undiluted to A child. Always add onethird to one-quarter as much water. 5. Introduce all new foods one at a TIME AND A LITELE AT A TIME. Never make sudden changes. It is better to go too slowly than too quickly. 6. Teach baby to eat each new food that is cood for him. Do not let him start the bad habit of refusing food because he does not like it. If persevered with, babies like almost anything that is good for them. They will not want the things which are bad for them if they have never tasted them. Do not let them get the taste for cake or sweets. 7. Active exercise for teeth, jaws, and salivary glands is absolutely necessary. . Baby must be taught to chew, not to bolt his food, and, as time goes on, to take more and more of his food in hard form. Remember that toast or crusts, with butter or dripping and a drink of milk, are just as nourishing and better for teeth and digestion than a basin of bread-and-milk. 8. Add no extra sugar to baby’s food. It is bad for the teeth and the digestion, and baby gets ample starchy or sugary material in better forms in his cereal foods.# 9. Cook all foods thoroughly and serve appetisingly. Add a litre salt in cooking. 10. Children should not be continuously urged to eat if they are disinclined to do so. Under no ordinary circumstances should a child be forced to eat. 11. If there is any important article of a simple diet, such as milk, meat, cereals, or vegetables, which a child habitually refuses, this .should always be given first at the meal, and all other food withheld until this is eaten. 12. Always give the most substantial meal in the middle of the day. Never give a young child a meal of meat and vegetables before he goes to bed at night. BETWEEN NINE AND TWELVE MONTHS. Teach baby to chew bis food; give dry crusts, or oven-dried bread, about 10 minutes before meals, not between feeds; give water and fruit-juice only, between feeds. NINE TO TEN MONTHS. Milk Mixture for 24 Hours.—Humanised milk 350 z, decreasing to 30oz; whole cow’s milk soz, increasing to lOoz. (See “Feeding and Care of Baby,” page 38.) 10 A.M. Ffed. —Give jolly of barley, oatmeal, or wheatmeal. Begin with one tablespoonful and increase slowly to four, with two to six teaspoons of milk on it, not mixed into it. Teach baby the “feel” of solid food. Add no sugar, but just a pinch of salt in cooking. Follow this spoon-feed by the usual Boz drink of milk mixture. Later, when more cereal is taken, give only 6oz or 7oz of the. milk. (To be continued next week.) HEALTH OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. The ordinary monthly meeting of the committee of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children was held in the Plunket office on

Friday morning; present—Mesdames Jo» M‘George (in the ciiair), Callaway, Cunninghame, John Watson, Garth Gailaway, O. W. Rattray, Isaacs, O’Neil!, Arthur Barnett, and T. K. Sidey. The hon. treasurer's financial statement for the month was presented and accounts were passed for payment. The hon. treasurer reported that the receipts for the month included a donation of £25 from Mr P. R. Sargood, to be used for general expenses or to bo added to the endowment fund, as the executive desired. Mrs J. M. Ritchie wrote signifying her intention of making a further donation of £4OO to the endowment fund for the upkeep of the Karitane-Harris Hospital. Mrs Leslie Cleghorn was unanimously elected a member of the committee of the Dunedin branch. Messrs Simpson and Hart, Weatherstones, wrote promising the society a donation of daffodil blooms for sale in the streets in the springtime. Appreciative reference was made at the meeting to the recent munificent gifts made to the Auckland branch of the society of the sum of £SOOO by the Hon. A. M. Myers towards the establishment of a Karitane Hospital in that city, and of the beautiful home and grounds at Mount Albert, presented by Mr A. C. Caughey for this purpose. The following letter was received by the president of the Central Council from Mr Caughey:—“l have to thank you for your letter conveying to Mrs Caughey and myself an expression of the Central Council’s appreciation of the gift of our home at Mount Albert for the purpose of a Karitane Hospital. We are, indeed, thankful that we have been in a position to help mothers and children in this way, and it is gratifying to know that our gift, as well as that of Mr Myers’s appears to have greatly stimulated public interest in the work of the society. You and your co-workers will be interested to know that the Mayor of Auckland has called a public meeting for next Tuesday to inaugurate a campaign for funds to complete the establishment of a Karitane Hospital and to finance the society’s district work.” Tlie matron of the Karitane-Harris Hospital reported for the month ended June 30:—Number of patients admitted for treatment: Mothers 5, babies 16 —21. Number of patients discharged: Mothers 6, babies 15—21. Number of patients in hospital on June. 30: Mothers 1, babies 16—17. Largest number in hospital on any one day: Mothers 2, babies 16 —18. Of the 16 babies admitted, one mother and baby came from Palmerston, one mother and twins from Dunedin, one mother and baby from Middlemareh, one baby from Lumsden, one baby from Merton, two babies from Middlemareh, one baby from Temuka, one premature baby from Green Island, and the remaining six babies from Dunedin. The two premature babies are making very satisfactory progress and are gaining weight. Nursing Staff. —There are 14 Plunket nurses in training. Nurses Milne and Burrows commenced a course of Plunket (raining during the month. There are 11 Karitane' nurses in training. Karitane Nurse Bliss commenced training during the month. Gifts were received during the month from Mesdames O'Grady, Theomin, Johnstone, Miss Joachim, and the Glendining Home. The Plunket nurses for north and central districts and South Dunedin and Anderson’s Bay districts submitted detailed reports of the work for the month. The following visits were paid to outstations: —Mosgiel 4, Abbotsford 5, Green Island 5, Burnside 5, Port Chalmers 4, St. Leonards 1 Ravensbourne 4. Tho Plunket nurses reported (bat owing to the cold and wet weather and so much sickness the attendance at the rooms has been affected. There has been a great deal of sickness among the babies. Gastritis, bronchial colds, croup, and a mild form of influenza were prevalent. There were also several cases of whooping cough.