OUR BABIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 20, 22 January 1913, Page 7

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygcia.)

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to main' tain an ambulance at the bottom.” Summer Diarrhoea. Last week ,when dealing with this subject, we pointed out that Summer Diarrhoea rarely attacks babies unless they have been a little “out of sorts,’ ’or actually failing in health beforehand. We now enumerate some of the dangers to be avoided and the precautions to be taken. Keep Baby Germ-proof. When will mothers and nurses realise that a child who has apparently thriven for months, in spite of wrong treatment, may suddenly fall a victim to some malady against which his system would have been quite proof had he been kept in a state of perfect health and fitness, by paying due attention to all the sinjple laws of life and primary needs of infancy. A baby may hold out against almost any form of inattention or carelessness during spring, and yet succumb to the first drink of tainted milk given to him on a warm summer’s day. The effect of such food on a perfectly healthy baby might be merely to bring on passing colic, or to cause one or more green motions; but if the system had been insidiously undermined previously (though, there might have been nothing apparently wrong with the baby) the effect of a single feeding with risky' food might be an attack of acute diarrhoea, ending fatally, simply because the child had not acquired enough stamina to put up a good fight. If a baby is fed artificially, and there is no means of keeping prepared milk below 60deg. Fahr., the mother should heat up to loodeg. any residue left over at the end of 12 hours after preparation, and then cool it down rapidly as directed on page 24 “Feeding and Care of Baby,” and page lo “What Baby Needs,” and keep it cool. If there is no thermometer in the house the milk may be mildly scalded as follows: How to Scald Milk. Place the jug, of milk in a saucepan of hot water, heat until the water boils, and keep bailing for 10 minutes. Then cb'dr rapidly in running water, etc., keeping covered as directed in the Society’s book. Epidemic Diarrhoea. Under the ahoiye. heading, Dr. Ralph Vincent, senior physician to the -In[Hospital 1 , Westminster, makes' the following rehnprks on the disease diarrhoea of infants’:— This disea’se is peculiarly liable to appear at certain times of the year, and isp practically absent in other portions of the year. The conditions in which the disease arises occur during hot weather, and especially during a hot summer. The characteristic ,of, the disease in regard to tho date of its appearance is that it appears mostly towards the latter eng of summer, when the heat has continued for some considerable time.S i (Memo, by “Hygeia” ; The worst months in New Zealand are January, February, and March). Tits Most Fatal Disease.

As a mortal disease affecting babies, epidemic diarrhoea is the most serious of all. The number of deaths depends on the temperature. If it is a cool summer the number of deaths is comparatively low; if it is a hot summer the number of deaths is very high indeed. (Naturally the hotter the summer the more the germs grow and flourish in the milk). The year 1901 afforded a sad illustration in England. Thh'ffummer of that year was vary hot, and in many towns throughout the country nearly one-half the babies under twelve months old died in the three months July, August, and September. These infants died because they were poisoned.' (Poisoned, as Dr. Vincent proceeds to show, mainly by the microbes contained in tainted milk, acting on babies who had not been kept in such a state of firstrate health and condition as to enable them to resist the attacks of gar ms.—‘ ‘Hygeia. ”) Dr. Vincent emphasises the fact that the name “Epidemic Diarrhoea” is liable to be somewhat misleading, because, although all epidemic diseases tend to' attack the< bodily “unfit” rather than the “fit,” yet people who are quite well may fall victims In the case of so-called epidemic diarrhoea of infants, however, the disease is strictly avoidable. It can be avoided by taking the following very simple precautions—namely : 1. By always supplying “What Every Baby Needs, Whether Well or III” (See the Society’s book, pages 1 and 2). Don’t invite the microbes to establish themselves in the interior of the baby by keeping the soil ready prepared for their growth. A stitch in time saves nine. Don’t be careless about the baby’s health merely because the season happens to bo good and ho appears to be flourishing and seemingly in no need of special attention. Don’t omit anything that he is rightly entitled to have and that tends to keep him always at the highest pitch of health and fitness.

2. By not feeding him with germladen, poisoned milk or any other improper food.