OUR BABIES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 11415, 19 December 1917, Page 7

OUR BABIES.

BY HYGEIA. Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice th n to maintain an ambulance at the bottom. ’ DIETETICS, EXERCISE, AND DECAY OF THE TEETH. On Wednesday afternoon. October 31st, at the Burns H-dl, Dunedin, there was a very large attendance of girls from the secondary schools to he ir Professor Boys-Smith, and in the evening Dr. Sydney Allen and Mr Armstrong, president of the Dunedin Branch of the Dental association, gave addresses ‘to a very large >udience. All three lectures •were illustrated with lantern slides. The following summary is adapted from on©'of the-newspaper reports; DOMESTIC SCIENCE AND A HEALTHY RACE. Professor Boys-Smith took as her subject “The Importance of Domestic Science in its Practical Bearing on the Rearing of a Strong and Healthy Race, ” and her interesting remarks covered the wide field of dietetics —cookery and hygiene. Under the last heading she laid down some excellent rules of health, all probably known to most people iu'a.vague way, but too often unobserved. For example, that babies >md yom;g children should not be over-stimulated, made to “look at things,’’ or say words before they were ready to do so, all a of which mule them grow up nervous and excitable, and might do even a gro t"deal more harm than that. In the matter of sleep, she said that children under six yo-rs should have at least 13 hours’ sleep each night. Children from eight to 10 years need 10 hours’ sleep, and girls of 14 and required the same amount. She spoke with emphasis, too, on right and wrong postures, particularly condemning “those miserable little peramhuLtor chairs which do so much harm to the wonderfully tender backs and spines of very young, growing children.”

EXERCISES FOR WOMEN. Dr. ‘ lien’s talk is a little difficult to reproduce consisting as it did of demonstrations from diagrams and lantern slides. But a few important points can be indicated. He said that the displacement of the abdominal organs w s quite uncommon among men, but only too common among women. The organs in question wore kept in position by a protection or curve which ho would call the lumber shelf (the curve of the small of the hack). When this curve was healthly developed it took off perhaps two-thirds of the deal-weight of the organs resting upon it. In regard to the difference betvveen man and woman, none was more marked than the relative strength of the anterior abdominal wall. The woman’s tended to bo weaker th n man s. In the jase of a weak anterior abdominal wall, the lumber shell tended to become vertical, in which case the colon slipped from the shell and dragged into the pelvis, causing the right kidney to drop with it. This state, known ss floating kidney, was very common in women, and a 1 geuer 1 displacement of the viscers produced hideous deformities, which surgeons met every day. It whs, therefore, highly important that women should keep their abdoimnal muscles well developed. National exercise would develop both the posterior «nd anterior abdominal muscles, such exorcises, for example, as—1. Standing upright at “atten- 1 tion” and bre .thing slowly and deeply till the lungs were tilled and the str-iin was felt on the abdominal muscles. 2. Bending back with arms extended above the ho -d, and then bending forward till the hands touched the feet. 3. A rotary movement on the axis of the body. 4. Lying flat on the back, and in that posture raising the legs (knees straight) at right angles to the body and then lowering them slowly. 5. Lying flat on the back and rising to a sitting posture without using the hands or arms. All these practised gently, and never overdone The import nee of women keeping themselves fit was obvious. The death-rate of infants here was 5 per cent, and it was as high as that only because the hospital received so many imperfectly-developed babies. The cause of this lay largely in the health of the mother during the time she was carrying the child. The death rate could bo reduced to 2 per cent, if children were born healthy. The greatest causes of death were prematurity, imperfect nutrition at birth, and if a woman kept fit these would be removed Moreover, _ the two great dangers of maternity—haemorrhage and sepsis—would also be largely eliminated if women exercise their bodies Those were a tew of the facts related by Dr. Allen with great emphasis and in a bluntly humorous manner that highly diverted his auditors at times.