TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 150, 27 June 1931, Page 7 (Supplement)

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOOpJtt

THE USE OF A THERMOMETER A thermometer should always be hung on the wall of a sick room. It helps you. You may be frightened that the patient is being overheated, or that, on the other hand, ho is being chilled. Watch your thermometer. It should read somewhere about 63 or 65 degrees. Be careful where you hang your thermometer. Strictly speaking, you should hang it on the patient’s nose, because what you want to know is tho tern perature of the air he is breathing. The Patient’s Drink When a patient is sweating profusely he is losing a lot of water through the skin; therefore he gets thirsty and craves for drink. A feverish patient should be given plenty to drink; children, especially require a good supply of liquid. Plain water is a useful drink for patients. The milk should be flavoured with different things. A little tea, coffee, cocoa, nutmeg, vanilla, or, in certain cases, a little whisky may be used to take away the rather sickly taste of a continuous milk diet. Acid drops are pleasant to suck. Alen who are used to smoking and are temporarily deprived of that solace like acid drops. The Mumbling Habit We are a nation of mumblers. .1 have a number of small boys to examine when they leave school, and I can never hear what their names arc. I have resorted to the device of making them spell their names. It is impossible to distinguish between the names of Simpson and Parker. I just hear a grunt, and that’s all. Speaking is never taught; the poor teachers do try. but tho children are only at school for a few hours a day. The rest of the twenty-four hours is spent with their

5 parents, who think it is swank to speaW nicely. When I was a school doctor the children spoke two languages, one when reading in class, and quite another when they were playing in the streets among themselves. No man whose free cdu« cation I have paid for can say “cei> tificate;” it is always “ sustificate” of “stiff ticket.” Many men are turned down for good jobs because they cannot speak nicely; salesmen who ha\f to address customers are chosen fol their voices and articulation. Hygiene of the Mouth (ircat care should be taken tu cleanse the mouth in nursing a case of measles; some boraeic lotion, warmed, may be used to wipe out the child’s mouth three or four times a day. If he i® old enough he will swill out his own mouth if some cleansing mouth-wash b® given him. The object of the attention to the hygiene of the mouth is to prevent the painful discharge from the ear that may appear. There is a small passage leading from the bark of the mouth right into the ear, and this may be infested if the mouth is clogged with, mucus. Varied Diet Best A varied diet is the diet we are meant to eat. The shape of our teeth tells us that. We have neither the long, tearing teeth of the purely meateating animal, such as the tiger, not havy we the flat, grinding and nibbling teeth of a sheep or a horse. We come betwixt and between. Therefore 1 object to people telling me they never touch meat, or they cannot bear fish, or they don’t like vegetables. A bit of all sorts in season is the correct diet. But I wish to emphasise the value of fresh things. The chemical foods contained in fruit and vegetables are preventatives against any important blood disease like scurvy. Indeed, we hardly ever see scurvy to-dav.

r A Word to Mothers * Mothers. I. am a doctor, and therer fore know everything. 1 warn you that you must not let your boys I>l idle. They must have their time fully occupied, and they must go to bed J tired. They must get up when they wake, and they ought to have a plunge, • or at any rate, a good wash, all over the body once a day. Do you remem1 ber when Jack was a baby how you. used to wash him every night? I do not know how you reason it out, but you have evidently made up your mind , that what is good for Jack at seven > months is bad for Jack at seven years. ; If I came to you and said, “What on 1 earth do you wash your baby every > night for? Are you mad?” You would r soon put me in my place, and give me > about twenty reasons why the baby’s i skin should be kept nice. In great I humility 1 venture to remind you that r Jack at seven or even at seventeen has a skin. I have the water over me every morning, and I am more than | seventeen. II Occupation for Boys Well, in return to keeping the lad ; occupied. If you let him wander about in idleness he will get into mischief. Do try and think of something to amuse him. He is only a boy, and ; wants to have some interest taken in him. Is there a band he can join? Which instrument would he like to learn? Would he collect something—■ stamps, butterflies, plants or shells? Has he got a dog, and could dad help him to build a kennel? Has he joined the Scouts, the choir, the library, the church or chapel? Is his home as happy and attractive as you can possibly make it? Can you. by trying, give him some healthy amusement at home in tho long evenings? Well, if you leave him idle, he will some day end up in rhe I doctor’s consulting-room, and that is not a desirable thing. Fresh Air and Light Coverings The room must be well aired; stuffy air never saved a life yet; open the window at the top and keep it open. The child need not be half-suffocated with bedclothes and woollen garments; one warm vest and a flannel nightshirt! is enough for the child to wear. The coverings should be warm and light; a sheet, one or two blankets, according to the weather and time of year, and a light coverlet, will be all that is needed on the bed. It will be difficult enough for the child to breathe when he is stuffed up with bronchitis; do not make it all the harder for him by piling a great weight of clothes on top of him; above all. do not put a heavy, lumpy poultice on his chest so that at every breath he has to lift the poultice. Try the experiment in bed yourself; put the cat on your chest, and see how difficult it makes your breathing; you will soon pitch the cat, on to the floor. If you are to nurse your child correctly you must see that the chest is left as free as possible. If the child gets tired of milk, flavour it with tea or coffee or cocoa, or a little nutmeg. Fresh fruit juice should be given three times a day.