OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3655, 1 April 1924, Page 64

OUR BABIES.

Hygela.

Bt

Published under the autplcee el the Royal New Zealand Society tor the Health at Women and Children. “it le wiser te put .up a fence at tha tap si a precipice than te maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC., DUNEDIN BRANCH. NTIE3EB' SERVICES FREE. Nurses Scott, Darling, Ellis (telephone 116), and Mathieson (telephone 3020). 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 2 to 4 p.m. (except Saturday and Sunday); also 125 Highgate, Roslyn, Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. Out-tations; Baptist Church, Gordon road, Mosgiel, Tuesday afternoons from 2 to 4 p.m.; Municipal Buildings, Port Chalmers, Wednesday' afternoons from 2 to 4 p.m. Secretary, Miss G. Hoddinott, Jamieson’s Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 116). Karitune-Harris Baby Hospital, Anderson's Bay (telephone i 985). Matron, Miss Buisson. Demonstrations every Wednesday afternoon Horn 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.

COMMON COLDS. Last week we published a short article on “ Common Colds,” taken from the Weekly Scotsman, which issues a column every week by “ A Well-known Physician.” While all that was said was true and very well put. there were a few points in the article which seemed to us to require emphasising. and some which might be misleading without special guidance. WARDING OFF COLDS. The writer of the article quoted last week failed to emphasise sufficiently strongly that by far the most important means of inducing immunity and warding off colds are: (1) A sufficiency of daily active exercise for the body. (2) Sufficient outing and exposure of the skin to the stimulating and bracing effects of moving air and alternating atmospheric heal and cold. (3) The surest of all preventives—viz., THE MORNING COLD TUB. The people most liable to coughs, colds, and catarrhs of all kinds (including c-atasMi*. of the stomach and indigestion) .-are the Americans of the United States, and they owe this unenviable pre-eminence mainlv to coddling themselves in over-heated rooms, muffling up excessively when ttnrv venture out of doors in the cold weather, and never walking if they can get into a car. One'of the most capable American physicians has referred to the cold bath and rational daily stimulation of the skin bv outing and exercise as the one effective means of curing all tendencies to catarrhal affections—ineluclmg common colds and influenza. He is undoubtedly right, and his views are confirmed by the general consensus of American medical opinion; but the difficulty is to get their patients to alter their habits and lead more normal and rational lives. Naturally the “picture palace ” lias greatly aggravated the tendency to catarrh in all countries. . THE SNEEZING STAGE. The writer of the article quoted last week says: “By the time the sneezing stage has been reached the trouble is usually well advanced. The germs have ’ registered,’ and there is little to do but wait as patiently as one can for the attack to exhaust itself.” I feel bound to comment on this statement. One of the best English nose and throat, specialists says : If you will make a practice of deep breathing you may undergo prolonged exposure, say, while sitting in an open motor after working in a hot room, without) “catching cold.” . . . The) “common cold” of exposure may be prevented, and even cut short in its initial stages, by deep breathing, and, better still, by violent exercise, such as

running. Many middle-aged people who formerly complained of repeated nasal catarrh have been cured by adopting some routine form of gymnastic exercise. Children of sedentary habits, and particularly those who are allowed to spend part of their day in over-heated, illventilated rooms, and othe# parts of the day. loafing about the streets without

sufficient clothing, are the special victims of chronic nasal catarrh and adenoids. The essential preventive of these widespread forms of disease is good domestic hygiene, coupled with incentives to ample muscular exercise [and stimulation cf the surface of the body.] SET THE INTERNAL FIRES GOING.

My reason for dwelling upon the above points is to give what appears due emphasis to matters not. stated quite forcibly enough in the Scotsman article, and to prevent people assuming a cold to be inevitable on account of merely sneezing and feeling the common, chilly premonitions of a threatened attack. The best thing to do at this stage is to put on a good overcoat, and take active exercise until the body feels thoroughly warm, then to go straight into a bed made comfortable with a hot bottle if the weather is at all cold. By thus setting the internal fires of the body actively at work we have a fair chance of throwing off the attack altogether, and, in any case, we place the body in a far better position to face the consequences of a successful attack on the part of the microbes.