OUR BABIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17244, 10 January 1924, Page 9

OUR BABIES.

(BT HTQEIA.) FukUaHtfl under the tvaylaea © 1 the kuyal Wear Batlsat Sooietjr for the hMlth of Women tad OhLutrean “ Xt is wiser to put up a fence at the sop of u precipice tnnn to nulatala nit aiabuAnaee at the fcottom.’* THE SCOURGE OF SUMMER. "While summer-time is tlelightiul to all or 11s, and its warm uays and bright sunshine tempt people into the open air and thus tenci to banish the ‘•colds,’ “sore throats,” ana “chest affections ” of the damper, chillier seasons of the year—wane tins heaithgiving effect of summer on young and old aIiKC is welcome, it is found i».iat summer kills far more babies than any other season of the year. V> hy is this? Why should summer not be the safest instead of the most dangerous time of year for infants:' 4he reason is simple. Most babies are fed on liquid food, which is specially liable to ferment in warm weaker. Milk becomes infested with microbes ; in other words, goes bad and becomes poisonous more readilj’ than any other food, and if wo are not careful in tho selection of a milkman it may havo gone bad in warm weather before reaching the home. So long as an infant is suckled, and the mother is not only regular, cleanly and careful in her ‘habits, but also gives the baby all his simple primary rights (outing, fresh air, sunlight, exercises, etc.), there is no safer season than summer. But, however careful the mother may be as to general hygiene, summer is dangerous, and often fatal, if t’here is any carelessness in artificial feeding (wiiether resorted to in the early months or coming in the natural course later on at weaning or afterwards), simply because microbes grow apace in warm weather if milk is not properly attended to. SUMMER DIARRHCEA. Why should -diarrhoea single out babies and calves and leave the rest of nurslings more or less exempt from this special curse of summer? In warm weather the young of horses, pigs, dogs, cats and the rest are almost uniformly healthy, while calves in all directions are victims of “ scouring, * £iid few babies escape- the same scourge under the name of ** summer diarrhoea.” WHY DOES NATURE SINGLE OUT CALVES AND BABIES? Calves are sacrificed because man takes the cow’s milk for himself and feeds tlie calf out of a bucket. The baby is sacrificed because the mother’s breast is denied to it also, and improper food, contaminated with germs, is substituted tor the pure, perfect, blood-warm vital stream direct from the proper source. The important practical question which we have to face at the present moment is this: Are ill-liealtlh and diarrhcea inevitable during summer time for calves and babies who cannot be suckled? Certainly not l In both cases the trouble arises, not from the mere fact of artificial feeding, but because proper care is not exercised to secure suitable food and to prevent fermentation. For babies humanised milk supplies by far the nearest approach to the mother’s milk, and if kept cool and given according to the directions contained in the instructions issued by the society there would be little risk of disease. Even with breastfeeding a baby may suffer from summer diarrhoea, but immediate suitable treatment of such infants, or of those who have been judiciously fed by artificial means, soon brings about recovery in the great majority of cases. Among babies who have been improperly fed, on the other hand, the risk of death from an attack of diarrhcea very great indeed, and lasting debility is very often left where tho haby i does not actually 6uecumb. I DEATH TOLL OF DIARRHCEA. | Professor Budin showed that the j number of artificially-fed babies who j died in Paris per week was about 20 in winter, but that in midsummer the deaths rose to almost 260 per week. This is very strikingly shown in a dia- | gram exhibited throughout the Dominion during Baby Week, 1917, and which may now be seen hanging in most >f I the Plunket rooms I A rise in tho death-rate among infants similar to the above occurs in New Zealand during warm weather, varying with the locality and the heat of the particular summei. Knowing the cause, the disease is one of the most easily preventable, and the mother w'ho allows her baby to succumb during the next few months should feel, in nine cases out of ten. that she has herself to blame. It is not Nature or Providence that inflicts the curse of summer diarrhcea, but the mother herself. SACRIFICE OF INFANTS IN HOT SUMMERS. In the hot summer of 1931 no fewer than 8000 babies died in London alone in one month—nearly all these deaths being due to infantile diarrhoea in bottle-fed babies. The Paris diagram shows that over 1000 babies died in six weeks in the French capital, wtien the weather was warmest. Among breast-fed babies the -death-rate for the same period averaged only 20 per week. The deaths that did take place in either class were mainly the result of ignorance and carelessness (especially careless feeding of mother and child, the use of the long-tube feeder, lack of fresh aii and exercise, irregular habits, failure to keep the breasts and the clothing covering them clean, and use of dummy or comforter for the baby). During the same three or four fatal summer months scarcely a death from diarrhcea occurred among the babies whose mothers attended at the four centres then established in Paris on modern lines. About half of these more fortunate babies were suckled, and the rest were bottle-fed with mdk supplied at the special “ Babies’ Milk Depot.” In tiie provinces a similar result has been achieved. Thus Dr Dufour, the pioneer in Normandy of the rational care qJ babies, including the use of humanised milk, shows that while the death-rate among infants averaged 55 for the four principal towns, the deathrate among babies whose mothers attended the denots and got proper advice and food was less than 3 per cent --in other words, only one-twentieth of the mortality which took place amonp' the babies whose mother persisted in going their own wav in spite of warnings and advice. THE PLUNKET NURSES will lie glad to see mothers and babies at the society’s rooms in the various districts throughout the Dominion.