OUR BABIES

Southland Times, Issue 23141, 6 March 1937, Page 16

OUR BABIES

Wise Motherhood

(By

HYGEIA.)

Published unuer the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Flunket Society.) The following extracts from ,Sir Bruce Porter's lecture on “The Dangers of Tradition in the Nursery,” throw up extremely important points in a delightful way. We are extraordinarily prone to fall into the error of blindly following tradition and hearsay, in and out of the nursery, and these simple statements are refreshing and stimulating. The first of the nursery traditions with which the lecturer deals is that of— Growing Out of It

He says: Perhaps the commonest and most serious of the traditional nursery sayings is, ‘Oh, he will grow out of it!’ when some childish ailment or weakness manifests itself. We must grasp the important fact that the fate of men and women, both physical and mental, depends on the care taken in childhood; and the first five years

are the most important of this period. It is a matter of common sense. A plant or an animal soon reverts to a poor state if left to run wild in its early days. It must be properly fed and protected from the dangers peculiar to its race. A little care at the beginning saves serious trouble later on. When starting out on a sea voyage, the earlier you depart from your correct course file further you will get from your intended destination as the days go by. So it is on’ the sea of life. We grow into habits of illhealth, not out of them. Just as cities need surveyors to watch their growth and check errors, so should the human city be inspected. Nothing is more tragic (from a doctor’s as well as a patient’s point of view) than to examine a patient for some ailment, and to find evidence of serious and permanent damage which could have been found and corrected by earliei examination, and which was probably not even suspected. The whole character of a man or woman may be influenced by a physical defect contracted during childhood. Growing Pains

The common statement that children have growing pains is responsible for more chronic heart diseases in adults than anything else. Growing pains are rheumatism, and the focus of the infection should, be sought and removed. If this were always done, we should be saved much subsequent misery. Many causes of heart trouble are accidentally discovered as in the case of the boy who came up for medical examination for some important post, and whose heart was found to be affected. He had had rheumatism as a child, and his septic tonsils had been removed not on account of the harm they had done his heart, but because of the local trouble in his throat. If a child looks out of sorts, have the temperature taken and the cause hunted for. Treating a child properly, and having it weighed and measured twice yearly by a doctor will not make it introspective or hypochondriacal. Its heart and lungs can be sounded at the same time, and the chest expansion measured, as is done in some institutions now. Another harmful tradition is that bilious attacks occurring ,at rather long intervals are merely ‘chills on the liver,’ and can be neglected. They are frequently due to inflammation of the appendix, and should be seriously treated. Fainting attacks, too, should be most carefully investigated. Another tradition of the nursery is that all children are naturally righthanded. Quite a lot of people are naturally left-handed, and to try to make a child with a left-handed brain into a right-handed person is to upset its nervous system. Stuttering and kindred symptoms may result.

Caring for the Baby Teeth

Many parents think that the care of the milk teeth is unnecessary. This is a source of grave danger. Germs breeding in the cavities of temporary teeth will infect the tonsils and digestive tract, with all the evils of such infection. Milk teeth should be as carefully looked after as the permanent ones.

Habits of health as well as those of character must be formed in the earliest years, and most of the teaching must be done by example. It is no use trying to teach tidiness and cleanliness by talking. It must be done by having clean and tidy nurses and nurseries. Cleanliness of person and habit is of vast importance. If a child is taught by having its hands washed before and after meals that this little function is really important, it will be spared quite a lot of risks in later life.

(To be continued)