PERILS OF BABY CARTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7886, 18 December 1903, Page 2

PERILS OF BABY CARTS.

MEDICAL CONDEMNATION OF AN AMERICAN TYF& The "push-cart,," in which, it is. impossible for a baby to lie down, lias come under a cloud. A medical man was very emphatic in its condemnation (says a London paper of October 10). The back-bone of a baby, he said, up to the age of from twelve to eighteen months is not properly formed, and to seat a child in a "push-cart" prior to this time is to court grave danger. Curvature of the spine, deformation of the pelvis, or curvature of the thigh are some of the evils that may result. An interview with the manager of Messrs A. W. Gamage and Co., Limited, was reassuring in that it' proved that in England at Least the danger has been foreseen and coped wiwi. Four years a-jo Mr damage returned from America with the " pushcart," in which a baby can only remain seated. At once it "was found to be , unsuitable to English needs, 1 and the firm devised a modification -witib different wheels, larger Eprings, and a simple arrangement, so that it can iorm, at will, a cart in which the baby can horizontajly. The "push-cart," the manager said, has come to stay. Its great advantage lies in the fact that it folds into a. portable shape, while the old-fashioned peraanbulator is even more difficult to handle ot a railway station than a bicycle. ■ The " push-cart " of the old type is still the favourite in America. Perhaps babies of too tender an age are not put in them. ; perhaps in the rush of Transatlantic city life such trifles as curvature of the spine and .malformation of other bones do not count. And the fact remains that Messrs Gamage still dispose of the old type of cart to American visitors only.