REFLECTIONS FROM THE BABY SHOW.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18015, 27 November 1926, Page 10

REFLECTIONS FROM THE BABY SHOW.

THE TREATMENT AND CARE OF INFANTS. (Written for the "Star'* by Dr HL T. J. Thacker.) Jimmie: “We’Ve got a a«v baby flown at Our house." Elderly neighbour: "Hxnr sice—and fllil the stork bring It?’* Jimmie: “Oh, no. It developed from a sxLiceUular amoeba.” Being my good fortune to attend and judge a baby show last Saturday at Spreydon Park, is the present force that needs now compel me to write. The writer is forced to think of God's idea, the man Christ, and how as an infant he was handled and transported in a shawl. Could our wondrous Gipsy missioner tell, a few words to our young mothers about Christ's attire jn His babyhood? What were His swaddling clothes? His earliest recollections of his own open-air attire, and how those wonderful open-air folk, the gipsies, clothe, feed and house their babes and carry them?

Kach babe, I take it, is a human ** seed potato.” one that will grow, multiply and replenish the earth. At a baby show, it is at first hard to find the baby. It arrives in a one-human-power push-gig or victoria, built to keep out all sunlight and ultra-violet rays. It is also a shopping cart, a canteen and commissariat waggon, conveying, too, spare parts of clothing, rugs, blankets and sanitary appliances. When ready to start out, it is as hard U> get a squint or peep of baby as it would be to see an Esquimaux’s car in a winter blizzard. Out of this rubbertyred, shock-absorbing baby phaeton the baby is rescued, a bundle of clothes, ribbons and every titivation that a proud mother and “ gran* ” can think of. The head and ears are enveloped in a tight-fitting head-piece, similar to an aeronaut’s headgear. No ventilation, but hot moist, body heat. The ears are superheated and secrete too much lubricating protective wax, and when this becomes inoculated baby has a discharging ear then a middle ear disease, then a mastoid.

Misused Rubber. Rubber now enters largely into the baby’s kit. If in full togs, he has a noxious rubber dummy, the future woodbine, pinned on, or in his subconscious sleepy state he is sucking it and breathing through the left and right ends of his mouth, and not through his nose, which, being out of use, like an unused tunnel grows "mushroom buds” in the shape of i adenoids. These are an over-develop-ment of the normal gland tissue in the naso pharynx. Our next sermon will be on these and their full cousins, the tonsils and appendix. Clothes, frocks, pinnies, tight sleeves and tight under garments, safety pins as large as those used on trotting horse covers, plastering and binding this lovely human unit into the smallest space possible—no wonder modern young folk run riot, because here we are already developing elements of psychopathy and. psychalgia, i.e., disease and pain of our soul—painful experiences, maybe ending up in claustrophobia, which impels a freedom of limb and life outside, a scant bathing suit at New Brighton, an attenuated skirt, no sleeves, a bare back, denims on man and bathing trunk trousers on high school boys. Then the baby’s foot gear, socks, bootties or what not, are strenuously tied tight at the ankles, ensuring iced feet and blue skin.-Any kilts that be are skin tight and gartered with tight rubber bands, and now the most recent and modern rubber obnoxion is a pair of overtrunk rubber waterproof pants to keep baby wet when it has soiled itself. What humbug! Nearly always this is due to some disorder or disfunction of the bladder, and the urinary apparatus in either sex. Here is the laying of the foundation stone of such an adult irritation. Each and every mother uses her utmost horsepower to get the last pinch out of that sanitary towel (of coarse material) and with a venomous jerk 6be fixes it with a horse-cover safety pin. Woe is man 1 Woe is woman! How are these poor weak human seed potatoes handled. It is all wrong. There should be no pins used, no tightness, baby’s clothes should be slacks (swaddling). Tapes and buttons should replace pins and absorbent wool should replace the coarse cheap economical sanitary towelling. The exhaust end of man should be as free as day—should be encouraged to function continuously and thus help us in this way to get rid of that disastrous cancer-producing disease of today—constipation—toxaemia. Cleanliness and dryness are two very keen essentials to a baby’s toilet. "Ever blessed be water.” The human body is:— 64 per cent of water. 16 per cent of protein. 14 per cent of fats. / 6 per cent of salts. 1 per cent of carbohydrates. The carbohydrates are flycogen in the muscle and liver. Tt is human petrol stored in excess as fat. Muscle contains 75 per cent of water and 31 per cent of protein. Every cell in the body is ever in a state of activity, building up and breaking down, taking in food supply and casting out excrements. So why harness a baby? Why padlock his lumbar muscles? Why strangle his legs, why block his exhausts? Water is a necessity. No fluid, no life. Enough fluid, normal activity. Too much fluid, drowning, death and decay. Fine babies, bonny babies, were at the Spreydon carnival. Health Conference. Why not a “Baby Health Conference” in each of our parks in the sun during an afternoon. Here is the idea: As an adjunct to the Plunket systems this would be a wonderful education. Every mother to suckle her own baby. This can and must be done. Give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you. The want of mother’s milk Is the bed rock cause of Borstal criminals: Special stress should be laid on the importance of maternal infant and child welfare, emphasising the necessity of prenatal care, frequent physical examinations i of the mother during pregnancy, skilful care of the mother during confinement and of the infant during the first months of life. The general health of adults and children, the care of the eyes and mouth, the salient facts about whooping cough, measles, chicken pox, pneumonia, tuberculosis, diphtheria, influenza and scarlet fever — can this not be done for our children ? It is done for pigs and sheep and poultry, dogs and cats. TKX DOCTOR'S THJSB2L When in the cottage blessed with Lore’i sweet store A baby is born and. o'er the rustic door Is bung the crown of motherhood, and fair Is ail within—the Doctor’s there. When 'neath the pall of mystic Death's ' weird spell A mother’s heart is broken by the i knell Of all that’s dear, and on the stair Wo baby feet—the Doctor’s there. When virtue flees and breath of ruthless lust Hats into the soul as does the gnawing TOFt When no one else with her the shame will share, With reotlier's touch—-the Doctor’s there.

Where blossoms Life’s sweet Xnd at blush of day. Where breath of withered rose at evetide steals away On the South wind—in Joy sad care. An uncrowned king—the Doctor’s there. —W. A. MaoKXnia, MLD.