Feminine Interests

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 727, 29 July 1929, Page 5

Feminine Interests

OUR BABIES

By

Hygeia.

Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of V/emen 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.” THE DANGERS OF TRADITION IN THE NURSERY In the following paragraphs we conclude our extracts from Sir Bruce Bruce-Porter’s lecture on this subject;— The Mistake of Darkening Rooms “Darkening the room where children sleep is quite unnecessary. A screen can be placed to keep bright, direct light out of ‘their eyes. It is not possible to make an ordinary room dark without sacrificing the ventilation, and, moreover, children accustomed to sleep only in darkness are slaved to this habit all their lives. It is also a mistake to keep the night nursery absolutely quiet. A child will learn to sleep quite happily with the ordinary noises of life going cn. Bedclothes should be as light as possible. Getting Air Into the Body “The next point is to get air into the body, having got it around it. Tight binders should never constrict a baby’s chest. Like all other young animals, a healthy baby is never at rest when awake, and constant movement helps it to grow and develop. So never swaddle it in layers of flannel. and see that its clothes leave its limbs free. “We all know that ‘we must use or we will lose,’ and in no case is this more true than concerning the air passages. The child must be taught to breathe through the nose, or that passage will become blocked w r ith adenoids, and all their attendant risks of deafness and the narrow chest that accompanies such troubles. “There is no means at present of removing a child from all risks of infection from the tubercle bacillus — the disease is too prevalent —but we can see to it that the child is brought up in healthy conditions, and give it strength to fight any stray germs it may pick up. Given a good circulation and a good chest expansion, the child should be safe. “Children should never share sleeping places with anyone else. Apart from the risk of overlying, it is unhealthy for them to breathe the air already breathed by parent or nurse. Now For Our Next Essential: Fresh Water. “Children require drink just as

much as do adults, and to give a child milk when it is thirsty is as bad as giving it a piece of bread. Milk is a food, not a drink. There should be no set hours for drinking, except that, of course, the child should not be allowed to wash its food down with water to save chewing. Thirst is a demand of the body cells for water, and the time at which it is made may vary. In the nursery the child should be encouraged to drink water, and certainly should never be refused it. Food must be in very fine particles and in solution for the body to take It up from the digestive tract. Other uses of fluid are to help the body throw out -waste products and to regulate the temperature. The body gives off fluid by the skin, the lungs, and the kidneys. If the skin did not act on a very hot day, the body temperature would go up on exertion, and death would probably result. You have heard of the child who was covered with gold leaf to represent an angel in a papal procession. The child died in convulsions because its sweat glands were blocked. Control of the Bladder “Lack of control of the bladder is common in childhood. Control is usually gained by the properly trained child between the first and second years. But it may take as much as four years before the child can gain complete night control. There is no date laid down for this achievement, for the* age varies in different children, just as it does for walking and talking. Control is the result of conscious effort, and as it is a mental process we find bed-wetting prevalent among the mentally weak. Do Not Punish a Child for BedWetting “On no account should a child be punished or scolded for this, and the nursery tradition which labels bedwetting as “naughtiness” has caused untold misery and injustice. Get the child to realise that you know its difficulty and want to help. Praise it when a chart can be shown of several day-s of successful endeavour. Do not cut down the fluid taken during the day, though by all means reduce that given in the evenings. Next We Must Consider Fresh Food “To begin with, every child should be fed as Nature intended. To provide healthy milk the mother must live a healthy life of sunshine and fresh air. If an expectant mother lives a healthy life she should be able to nurse her child when it arrives, to their mutual benefit. We have learnt a good deal about diet in the last 30 years, and we realise more than ever that the most carefully selected dairy will not replace the mother in the scheme of Nature. When one of her laws is broken Nature exacts the penalty. The child should find its food supply for months from its mother, and when that supply is cut off suddenly and the glands prevented from secreting someone has to pay the bill, and it will not necessarily be only the child who does so. If, however, it is decided that the child must be artificially fed, the tradition that the milk must, be from one Cow is a dangerous one. The cow selected may not be a healthy one. . . . There are so many- sources of contamination on the average dairy farm that all

milk should be pasteurised and bottled at the dairy. The child should be given fruit juice quite early in life —a few weeks after birth is not too soon. “With the weaning period we come to another nursery tradition that may be scrapped, that is, meat juice and gravy. The belief that ‘red meat means red blood’ is utter rubbish. There is more iron in spinach than in meat, and anyhow, the actual amount of iron by weight in the body is minute. . . . “It is a mistake to suggest to a child that it will not like any particular article of diet it ought to have. “It is not difficult to get children to eat fruit and vegetables if they have been well trained. White flour is a comparatively modern product, and all children ate wholemeal bread before its introduction. . . . Habits of health are, like those of morality, the result of early training. Nothing can take the place of fresh, food, and even with the present domestic difficulties no preserved foods should enter the nursery. . . . The Drainage System “Our last point is the good drainage system necessary to the city. The young child empties the main street of its body regardless of those about it, and one of its first lessons is that of giving a warning when attention is needed. . . . My friend, Sir Arbuthnot Lane, has said more than once that he has never met cancer save ill patients who have suffered from constipation, and, speaking with over 30 y-ears’ experience as a physician, I support his statement. If, as we know, the body is made up of myriads oC living cells, can one imagine a more sure and quick method of doing it permanent damage than by chronic poisoning from constipation? Summing Up “Having touched on the four main requirements of the healthy city—fresh air, fresh water, fresh food, and a good drainage system—let me summarise by pointing out that man was intended to live in the open, without clothes. His first shelter was a “lean-to.” and when he learnt the use of fire he had a cave with a hole in the roof through which smoke could escape. His clothing consisted of a skin to shelter one side or the ocher from the wind. He lived on raw food and drank water from a brook. Today the house is a very different thing. Many rooms have no chimney, the heating being my means of steam pipes or electricity. Men’s clothing consists of hot, close-fitting garments, though women have adopted a move sensible kit for the moment. Food is preserved dr devitalised, and its cooking further, deprives it of the surviving vitamins. Tea and coffee have found their way into the schoolroom. Lack of knowledge as regards the care and feeding of children is responsible for many delicate adults today. “We have incurred a heavy load of debt, which our children will have to shoulder, and it is our duty to give them a decent physical start, without which the mental make-up cannot be good, and without which ali our knowledge of psychology will be powerless to help them.”

HOW DO YOU BREATHE?

If people knew how to breathe, there would be less sickness than there is! Always breathe through the nose, not the mouth. The nose is the antechamber to the lungs, and its purpose is to prevent microbes and injurious particles in the air we breathe from entering the lungs. It is estimated that the air a person breathes in 24 hours contains 57.000 bacteria and other impurities. How important it is, therefore, that the filter provided by nature should be allowed to do its work. The person who has learned to take deep breaths through the nose, and hold the air in the lungs for a long time, can run for a train without danger of heart failure. Indifference to human life seems horrible, but our own carelessness in breathing is daily suicide. Bleak winds, damp air, scorching breezes are all, in their turns, ushered unannounced into .the lungs of the person who will not learn how to breathe properly, causing troubles which are totally unnecessary. The habit of careless breathing may be exchanged for a habit of correct breathing by giving careful attention to the matter for a little while. Begin by taking long, deep breaths through the nostrils every night and morning, going into the open air for the purpose. Take but a few breaths at first, and gradually increase the number, and the length of time you hold the air in the lungs. - Try to .make the inhalation and exhalation of equal length. In this way you train the lungs, and, as they become used to the exercise you can make a practice of taking deep breaths whenever you are in the open air. Thus you will accustom the lungs to the habit of demanding a certain supply of fresh air, and, when they make the demand, you will unconsciously grant it. Bad colds, and even more serious maladies have been cured by proper breathing. NOVEL USES FOR “LEGACY” FURNITURE When you already possess furniture for which you have a certain affection, it may be embarrassing to become the owner of further pieces, especially if respect for the giver prevents you from turning them into hard cash. However, by using them for purposes other than those for which they were originally intended you may still find them of value in the household. The kueehole writing table, for instance, for which there is no space in the sitting room, will become an excellent toilet table for a spare bedroom. Give it a top of plate-glass, and use the little stationery drawers at the sides for powders, creams, handkerchiefs, and so on. The back of the opening may be fitted with "metal bars to take shoes. The hallstand, for which you have no use in its present state, may be made into an acceptable fitment to take the family golf clubs, hockey sticks, cricket bats, and so on. Clips may be fixed to it that will keen these impediments upright, and the* whole will then take its place in the room or recess dedicated to such articles. The obsolete overmantel is usually capable of being divided up into a number of separate mirrors and brackets, for which use may be found in a variety of positions in rooms and corridors. Superfluous chairs are likewise capable of being converted by a capable carpenter into such things as dinner trollies and tea wagons. Brass warming pans have gone out of fashion as wail ornaments, but the lids may he transformed into wallsconces by fitting them with candleholders and adding rings by which to hang them.