Talks on Health

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17013, 11 April 1923, Page 4

Talks on Health

By a Family Doctor

HOLIDAY EXERCISES. Vos, thank you, I had a lovely Easter holiday ; so quiet and so peace iul. j went down to my little tiny cottage with my little wife, and 1 forgot f>!l. about the stomach-aches and pills. .My jaded spirits are completely re stored, and I have come back like a giant refreshed, ready to cure anybody of anything, or, rather (in order to be strictly true to my principles) to prevent anybody getting anything. On the cold nights 1 sat quietly in front"of the fire, which was blaming with logs; and. in case you may think I was too lazy, let mo inform you that I cut and chopped the logs with my own fair hands. A lot of great, men have been fond of chopping—Air Gladstone. George Washington, Peter the Great, and er me. I can vouch for it that il is good exercise. I roallv must have my photograph taken wielding thg axe Oh, no, thank you, 1 never fake pills; f flourish my ax® and exercise my abdominal muscles. On the bright days we went for walks. Lovely country, New Zealand You do not halt appreciate it. This year you really cannot refrain from walking in the country. Never mind the profiteers with their thousand pound ca:», snap your fingers at them. Walk in th_* country; spend on fares what you formerly spent on quack medicine* A FAMILY QUESTION. It is of no use to ask me whether 1 approve of large families. I want 1,. know such a lot of things before 1 an swer. If you are a fine upstanding man with plenty of money and an assured position and a healthy wile who loves children, 1 am in favour of a large family. Look at your wile—v. ha,t a darling she fs : how good, bo-.v sensible, how strong, and what a fin-* record her family history show*—her old father is seventy-six and has noc lost a tooth from his bead. -Well, trie more people there are in the world like tier the better for all of us. We cannot have too much of a good thing. W hen the Homan matron was asked to produce her jewels, she went into th? house and came back with her splendid boys and said: “These are ttiy jewels!” SEE YOURSELVES. Look in the glass. It you have no ■lnn and no forehead and filthy teetn and an unintelligent expression ; if you have to put a cross instead of signing your mime; if you have a chronic rough ; if, after having had a free etlu cation, the utmost that you can do is push a bit of mud from the middle t«» the side of the road, ami then push i, hack when the foreman shows you that you have disobeyed his orders; d‘ you have nine ill ted. rickety children already and your wife is miserable and draggie tailed and never clean, then you ought to hesitate before you en cumber the world with more children. Your eldest hoy is an a reformatory, vour second is in the asylum, your third is a chronic invalid, and your others

arc dead because you could not taki proper care of them. It will be scan dalous.if you continue this dismal history. If you consult your unborn children, they would not thank you for bringing them into tile in a slum, keeping them badly fed until they died of tuberculosis. Far better that they should never be born. CARE OF THE CHILD. I cannot always choose something to interest everyone, so if you arc not interested in babies you may overlook this paragraph. But if you have been blessed with a tiny, helpless baby vho is solely dependent upon yon for its health and happiness, will you do me the favour of rending the following odd hints on a variety of points? Babies’ vests must be long-sleeved and high-necked. Remember that the lungs extend above the collar-bone and all round under the arms to the back, and that low necks and short sleeves favour bronchitis. Soiled napkins should never be put on without being rinsed through and thoroughly dried. Do not use soda or u asking powder, as they cause chafing. Starch powder is

better than fullers earth, as the starch is white and shows up the dirt; a mixture of starch powder and zinc powder is best of all. j REARING THE YOUNG. j You must put the infant to sleep in I a separate bed ; numbers of infants are I overlaid- How horrible it must lie to J wake up and find you bare suffocated j your own baby! Infants are partic-u- ---| larly susceptible to cold, especially in }■ the feet. If you cannot- get an inciin- ! rubber hot water bottle, warm a brick • in the oven, wrap it in a blanket and j use that to keep the baby's feet warm, j It is a. mistake to drink stout in the j belief that it will help the flow of j milk. That is nonsense, and a relic of the -days when the Suiroy Gamps i would order the stout for the nursing I mothers and then drink it themselves.' I T>fink liiilk. Bottles with long indiarubber tube* are death-traps. Beatshape bottles, with an opening each end so that tiny can be washed, through, are best. INCIPIENT SYMPTOMS. It«is convenient to remember that the rash of chicken-pox and scarlet fever appear in v tbo first twenty-four , hours of the child’s ill no*.-. 'fo if Tommy fee's bed C ;i Sunday morning, and will not eat bis breakfast, contrary to the usual cyistqin, the rash will appear late on Sunday "night nr on Monday morn "me. The spots or chn.k-en-pox a-openr first m t-he « he.--; or ofi the back. bu i they may show thc-m selves o-u the face very early. The rash rf scarlet fever first appears a a genual blush not in the to rn of spots*, on the 15- ek and chest, and then rapidly spreads. The rash of measles appears on the fourth day. so if Tommy feels hot and out of sorts on Sunday

I morning, yen must, look for the rash ; |on Wednesday night or Thursday . | morning. Bear in mind that you can ib ‘ fined if you do rmL rn ;>• t that 1 j there is a cr.sc of scarlet fever in the ( HI LORE .VS If.LYKVC Never despise children’s < i>mpl tints and ray that every child must go through them, and the. the;.- do .«»t have ali the chi!.-Iran's it would be much better to go through \ childhood without them. Never expose one child needlessly to infection when ‘ another in the same house has it- ’ Never forget that the real trouble in these infectious complaints is not the disease itself but the complications. In the case of measles you think the child is better when the temperature is normal ami the rash has- gone, and you forget that bronchitis so often sets in in a dangerous form sifter measles, i Keep the little one warm in bed til! | the cough has gone. \