OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3833, 30 August 1927, Page 68

OUR BABIES.

By

Hygeia.

Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for.ths Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society).

“It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." -

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC.. DUNEDIN BRANCH.

NURSES' SERVICES FREE. Nurses O’Shea (telephone 23-348), Isbister (telephone 10-866), Thomson, Scott, and Ewart (telephone 10-216), and Mathieson (telephone 23-020). Society’s Rooms: Jamieson’s Buildings, 6 Lower Stuart street (telephone 10-216), Office hours, daily from 2 to 4 p.m. (except Saturday and Sunday) and 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 315 King Edward street, South Dunedin, 2 to 4 p.m. daily (except Saturday and Sunday), and 10 a.m to noon on Fridays; also 125 Highgate. Roslyn—Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m.; and at Kelsey-Yaralla Kindergarten Mondav and Friday from 2 to 4 p.m.; and at 99 Musselburgh Rise, Wednesdays, 2 to 4 p.m. Out-stations: Baptist Church. Gordon road, Mosgiel, Tuesday afternoons from 3 to 4 o’clock; Municipal Buildings, Port Chalmers, Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 4 o’clock.

Secretary, Miss G. Hoddinott, Jamie son’s Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 10-216). Karitane-Harris Baby Hospital, Anderson’s Bay (telephone 22-985). Matron, Miss Fitz-Gibbon. Demonstrations given on request every Wednesday afternoon from 2.30 by Plunket Nurses and Karitane Baby Nurses. Visiting hours: 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

“THE STORY OF THE TEETH.”

A PLUNKET NURSES TALK TO MOTHERS. — (Continued.)

Now. having shown you the ideal way in which a baby’s teeth are made and how they grow, let us look for a moment at the reverse side of the picture, and see the effects of a wrong start in life. Imagine the mother who leads a lazy or wholly pleasure seeking life, who eats rich foods without enough of the essential vitamins, who perhaps takes a certain amount of alcohol and smokes to excess, who keeps late hours in stuffy rooms or places of entertainment —her blood is not pure, her baby is not going to have all the rich, pure blood which is needed by the tiny cell workers who are laying down the structures of his body, including the teeth. Poor materials mean poor structures, liable to damage and the inroads of disease.

Imagine this same baby fed as carelessly after as before birth, not taught to chew and bite and gnaw, but fed on soft and pappy food—what is the commonest result? The soft and pappy food, clinging round the teeth, ferments, and the acids formed surely find out the weak places in the enamel, which was built of poor materials, and they cat in and destroy it. Soon a little black speck appears on the whiteness of the tooth, and decay is far advanced. It burrows in and attacks the ivory under the enamel, and then finally the root and nerve. Then pain begins, and out comes the tooth at the dentist's. Perhaps the mother says, “ Oh, it doesn’t matter! It's only a first tooth.” But it most emphatically does matter. The tooth under the decayed one which has been extracted comes through crookedly and out of line with the other teeth. But worse than this, the tooth directly above or below the gap left by the extraction is useless —it has no surface on which to grind food, it's proper work. The same thing happens to a certain extent when a decayed tooth remains in the gum—it is 'tender and sore—the child avoids biting on that side.—and so, in one way or another, the grinding power is impaired or lost. Then, too, one decayed tooth often sets up decay in the next one, and so the mischief spreads. Nowadays, too, we realise that it is not only the pain and discomfort of the moment, but the after effects of bad teeth which matter. The doctors know that many diseases are caused or made worse by unhealthy mouths, and one of the very first things a doctor asks is, “ What are the teeth like? " Safeguarding the Teeth.

Now let us see what we must do to safeguard and preserve the teeth. The very first thing to do is to EDUCATE people; so I hope that if you have learnt anything to-day you will pass it on to other people for the sake of the children. Much is being done by the School Dental Service, and children are being taught at school how important it is to have clean mouths. But very much mischief has been done before school days come, and mothers should watch the little teeth of the toddler with eagle eyes for signs of the small dark specks of decay, and see that these are attended to by a dentist at once. It is utterly wrong to think the first teeth are not worth stopping.

The first permanent teeth come through at the back before any of the first teeth are shed. These “ six-year molars ” are very important, and every care should be taken to preserve them, for the loss of one of these teeth spoils the whole jaw. for the future, leading as it does to irregularities, overlapping, and loss of grinding power. Unfortunately these teeth are often mistaken for temporary teeth, and carelessly extracted. There is no excuse for neglected mouths now. For those who cannot afford a private dentist there are School and Hospital. Dental Clinics. The best thing is to take the children regularly to the dentist for inspection and overhaul; this always pays by preventing bad holes and future mischief.

The Question of Food. The last point we will consider is the food children should have to preserve the

strong white teeth their health}' mothers have given them. First of all comes a bone at six months old, and from nine months old hard, oven-dried crusts —not sweetened bought rusks; they are thoroughly bad. From 18 mouths onwards the food should be of a varied and sensible kind. As far as the teeth are concerned, everything depends on chewing hard, and keeping the teeth clean. The ancient Maoris had very strong, regular, and perfect teeth, because they ate natural foods, and even chewed a certain very tough kind of fern root. The Indians in North America clean their teeth by chewing a kind of tough, silky flax.

Then look at the cats and dogs. They gnaw and rend at bones, often biting the smaller ones into little pieces. The teeth of all the animals in their natural state are living object-lessons to human beings. But when the}' are kept in captivity their teeth decay as ours do if they are not given their natural food. You remember the story of the lion in the London Zoo who moped and refused his food, and looked the picture of misery. At last the keeper" found the trouble was in the mouth, where a tooth was sore and decayed. This was all due to the unnatural mode of living and feeding. — We Must Follow Nature.

Children, like puppies, must have food which needs chewing, and if you start soon enough to teach them they will love the bones and crusts and -ask for more. Oatcake should be given, and well-baked brown bread instead of white; toast (crisp right through) and twice-baked bread; plenty of vegetables and fruit, cooked and raw; lettuce and celery and cress. The child may have most ordinary, plain, wholesome foods, but at every meal there should be something hard or tough, and the drink should be taken at the end.

2'Zie worst kinds of food are the soft, pappy, starchy, or sugary things—puddings, cakes, sweets, and biscuits; they cling round the teeth, and cause the acid which eats into the enamel to be formed. The Apple Rule.

The very best thing to do is to make an invariable rule of giving a little piece of apple at the end of every meal. This cleans the teeth better than any toothbrush, though that is necessary, too. Cleaning the Teeth.

Every child should have its own toothbrush, and learn how to clean' his teeth by brushing up and down, not just across their surfaces.

To sum up this little story of the teeth, let us condense it into tlie following points: —

Remember the mother's blood makes the baby’s first teeth, which begin to grow seven months before birth. Remember breast feeding gives baby the best materials for building his second teeth. Remember t.o give children some hard food at every meal, and to end the day, not with a sweet, but with a piece of apple, well chewed.

To end with, may I quote a few lines from Sir Truby King's book “ Feeding a'/fl .kare of Baby”? Sir Truby says: “This care of the teeth is not'only a dental question, it is not only a medical question, it is not only a national question, but it is probably the most important of all questions affecti the physical well-being of humanity throughout the length and breadth of the civilised world.”

For many further details of great interest and importance we refer our readers to the pamphlet by Sir Truby King, “The Story ..of the Teeth, and How to Save Them.' This can be obtained at all 1 Junket Rooms or at most booksellers.