OUR BABIES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 1 September 1908, Page 2

OUR BABIES.

(BY HLGEIA.)

Ifc is wiser to put up a fence at the ' top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom. With the above heading a regular weekly column has been published in : Dunedin for the last fourteen months ' under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children. In response to requests from other branches of the Society it has been decided to make the column more widely representative, while at the same time adapting ifc to the particular needs of §ach centre. This will be effected by the insertion of items of special local interest, answers to local correspondents, etc. Our broad aims and teachings have now become well-known throughout the community by means of articles and reports of meetings which have appeared from time to time in the press ; but it if! desirable that everyone interested should obtain the Society's pamphlet, "The care and Feeding of the Baby," of which over 10,000 copies have been printed This can be procured from the hon. secretary of the Wellington branch of the Society, Mrs A. R. Atkinson, Wadestown, a charge of 3d per copy being made to cover cost of production and postage. ] n order to prevent our having to re- . peat over and over again the essential rules, recipes and instructions which every motherjor nurse should have available for constant use and reference, we shaff frequently allude in the column to passages in the Society's pamphlet, and*-trust.therefore that our readers will keep a copy at hand. I WHAT WE UNDERTAKE. ! The Society's aims and undertakings in connection with this column are conveyed in the following quotation from the first issue of "Our Babies" which appeared in the "Ofcago Witness." 12th June, 1907:— "The Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children has arranged for a weekly column devoted to the baby and its mother. The information will be authoritative, reliable, and abreast of the most advanced knowledge of the day; and no pains will be spared in the direction of rendering all advice or instruction given as simple and practical as possible. At the same time, it must be understood that a main object of the Society is to stimulate interest? and to raise the or knowledge and thought among women on all matters affecting the health of themselves and their children. These aims "cannot be ..carried iiito effect by the issue of mere dogmatic assertions or instructions, and mothers can no longer trust to mere instinct; the complex conditions of ; modern civilisation, demand the exercise of thought as well if we are to save the i*ace from a continuance of the degeneration already in progress: This column will not attempt to stifle inquiry and discussion, but will encourage them, under the conviction that this is the only effective means by wh'cli prevailing fallacies, prejudices, and errors of thought and practice can "be eradicated and the truth established in their place. Ultimately the column will be devoted mainly to ; the answering of questions received from correspondents; but in the meantime, as an. introduction, we shall discuss certain matters of paramount' importance to the face. ■ ; The first point to emphasise is that justice will never be done to babies •until the community clearly realises that normal breast-feeding is immeasurably better for the health of both mother and child than any system of artificial feeding that has been or ever will be dsvised. Even if the jnbtJi«f*SLOwn milk were diawn off *by,.;'m'eans''*>| "a breast-pump and given" to the tfaoy through a bottle, * half'the1 benefits! of suckling both to mother and child would be sacrificed, and half the disadvantages and dangers of-ordinary artificial feeding would have to be faced—e.g.. cooling of the milk, infection with mierobes,'sucking in of air.-etc. * /. '" •.'■.": THE BABY'S WORST ENEMY. The baby's worst enemy is not lack of affection on the part of the mother, but her indifferent health and vitality, her neglect of the laws of, life, and her lamentabl3 ignorance as to the proper .course to pursue in the joint interests of herself and her offspring. In despair she turns from one course to another, oblivious of the fact that, as Herbert Spencer cays, 'Hhe regimen to which children are subject is hourly telling on them to their lifelong injury or- benefit; and for one iway of going right in this matter -there are twenty ways of going wrong.'.' Our aim will be* to point out- the "one,; way of going right," so far as that way may be known, and to frankly give anyone who v—- entertain a contrary opinion the opportunity of showing that the • path we have indicated is not after all the best one. If nothing is :. brought forward to the contrary, we J may • assume that the advice we have tendered is tacitly admitted to be sound. RETROSPECT. In the fourteen months which have elapsed since the above was written, and during which, the column has appeared regularly every week none of the advice given has been refuted or even challenged. On the other hand., a growing stream of correspondence has been received from mothers in all parts of the Dominion showing how their babies have flourished under the general care and system advocated by the Society. Almost without exception these letters have contained thejaames and addresses of the senderSj who have usually written asking for further advice on some special point. At the present moment, however, we have ah hand two unsigned communications; from'r-Ivux-' and ."A Grataeful Mother." Correspondents should understand that no weight can bo attached to :sueh anonymous fetters. however appreciative, since we have no means of assuring | ourselves that they are genuine and: bona fide. NeWher names nor addresses of correspondents are ever quoted in^he-.column without the express consent of the writers, names being asked for merely to satisfy onr readers and ourselves that all letters dealt with in the column are responsible and reliable. Communcations may be sent to "Hygeia," rare the Editor, Wanganui "Chronicle." RUPTURE. Several letters have been received from mothers inquiring about the supposed risks of rupture of hernia arising if the support of ah abdominal binder is not continued throughout theearly months of infancy. REPLY. The abdominal binder and other contions are unknown in some countries, and it is said.that the. consequent I freedom of breathing and muscular exel cisc causes a rapidity of growth and development during the first year of life Drac.ticallv unknown among ourselves— babies left free being able to stand and walk long before those who are hampored and swadled in the customary way. There should be nothing to impede the absolutely free play of the movement.1? of the trunk and abdomen. The idea of supporting the walls of the belly is absurd. Anything which affords habitual support hampers muscular action and restricts free breathing. The walls of the abdomen, instead of being strengthened, aro weakened by the use of a binder, and the tendency to rupture js increased, not diminished. TheTe is rarely any valid excuse for using-a binder after say about th<* first fortnight of life, during which time it may have

been desirable. If a special tendency to rupture is pjesent, or if there is an actual hernia, a doctor should be consulted who will treat the condition himself or explain how it-can bo cured by the mother or nurso without interfering with the health and the free and natural movement of parts. It may interest mothers who are doubtful about this matter, and cannot rid their minds of the prevailing "idea that a baby's abdomen is not safe without support to know that at £he Society's Baby Hospital near Duncdiri binders are always dispensed with within a week of the time of admission. One might as well bind a pair of bellows! From the point of view of breathing the chest and abdomen should be regarded as a wind instrument, and as such should be as free to move as a concertina.