OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 71

OUR BABIES.

Hygeia.

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Published under ths auspices af the fteyal New Zealand Society for the Health tf Wamen and Children (Piunket Society). “It Is wiser to put up a fence at tha top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC. DUNEDIN BRANCH. nurses’ services freb. Nurses O’Shea (telephone 23*13), Richards Darling, and Ewart (telephone 116), ana Mathieson (telephone 3020 i Society's Rooms: Jamieson’s Buildings, /6 Lower Stuart street (telephone 116), and 315 King Edward street. South Dunedin (telephone 3020) Office houm, daily from 2 to 4 p.m. (except Saturday and Sunday): also 125 Highgate. Roslyn—Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. ; and at KelseyYaralla Kindergarten, Tuesday and Friday, from 2 to 4 p.m. Out-stations: Baptist Church, Gordon road, Mosgiel, Tuesdaj afternoons from 2 to 4 p.m.; Municipal Buildings, Port Chalmers, Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 4 o’clock Secretary, Miss G. Hoddinott, Jamiesons Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 116). Karitane-Harris Baby Hospital Anderson’s Bay (telephone 1935). Matron, Miss Buissoh. Demonstrations given on request every Wednesday afternoon from 2.30 to Nurses and Karitane Baby Nurses. Visiting hours: 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesday, Friday* and Sunday. NASAL HYGIENE. The following is adopted from the first part of a lecture given by Dr Octavia Lev;in in a post-graduate course School Nurses in London, delivered during December-January, 1925-26. It has been sent to us by Miss J. B. A* Paterson, who accompanied and assisted Dr Truby King on a lecturing tour throughout the Dominion in 1922. and later spent a year in South Africa at the request of various Child Welfare authorities, describing and establishing the Plnnket system there. Air. “Air is the one thing that is the same for us as for every other living creature. Nothing can take its place. \et man, who might be expected to know better, is the only creature who does not know how to deal with it properly, how to make the best of it, liow to work with Nature so as to get from it the breath of life—the only creature who, defying Nature, lets it become too often the breath of disease, and sometimes of death. Let Us Follow the Example of the Lower Animals. “3Ye may learn, if we will, from the lower animals. We may learn even from the vegetable kingdom. We know that plants wilt in shut-up rooms, and we never, never see an animal breathing with its mouth open If only we would take these lessons to heart to have the freshest of air, and to make a practice of breathing through the nose -we should not see so many pale faces, spoil- features, hollow chests, aud worried expressions. Ignorance No Excuse—Nature a Patient Teacher. ‘•Lawyers tell us that ‘ignorance is no excuse’—‘ Ignorantia non exeusat.’ If we don’t know, we pay the penalty. In just the same way as under the hand of man, so Nature sees to it that we pay the penalty under her hand if we don’t learn her ways and listen to what she says. She has no ear for us when we say, ‘We didn’t know—nobody told us.’ We all do rightly when we inhale through the organ Nature intended us to use—namely, the nose, not the mouth. Where the Trouble Broins. “The trouble largely lies in the fact that the human infant is helpless for so long that, unless it is watched skilfully and carefully, it is liable to drift into mouth-breathing because its tiny nostrils become blocked so readily. Most of us know what it is to have a study nose, if only for n few passing moments. You can experience this feeling for yourself by pressing the nostrils very lightly together so that no air goes through

them. You will then have to keep the mouth opeu in order to let air into the lungs. The head 60on feels heavy, as if it would burst. You yawn and keep swallowing; bubbles explode noisily in the head, and you soon feel exhausted. You become peevish and irritable, and generally unpleasant. If you were to try to eat a dry biscuit 3011 would be apt to choke. ‘‘lmagine what it must be like to be permanently in this state. That is, moreover, but the beginning of the troubles. As it becomes chronic the mind gets depressed, the senses dulled. It has been computed THAT FIVE-SIXTHS OF 'ALL CASES OF DEAFNESS COME FROM NASAL AND POST-NASAL TROUBLE AND MOUTII-BREATHING. You will notice, too, that most children who wear spectacles have some nasal obstruction. Taste and smell are often impaired and often lost. Headaches are common, and mental concentration is well nigh impossible. “If it comes on early in life the child is difficult to rear. It is apt to choke when feeding, sleep is disturbed, and bad dreams and night terrors are common. At school there is very little progress. The child is the despair of the teacher These children have no standard but their own. Having no knowledge or memory of the joy' of perfect health and free breathing, they accept their present state as inevitable. Those in charge don’t notice that there is anything seriously wrong, and their excuse is ‘ The child did not complain.’ “Browning says ‘Nor soul helps flesh more than flesh helps soul.’ We would do well to keep this fact in mind. An eminent educationist of to-day says ‘ Make the children healthy and then tackle their minds.’ I would rather say, “Keep them healthy,’ for most children are sound when they are born. If you cannot do so, then find out what is wrong. You will find it very often in wrong breathing.” (To be Continued Next Week.)