OUR BABIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 280, 29 November 1935, Page 11

OUR BABIES

The following extract is taken from an article in the Women’s Pictorial, written by Nurse M'Kay, and we have take the liberty of reprinting it: — ’ “Teaching Him Good Habits. “Nature never implants an instinct in a baby without a purpose connected with his well-being and growth. The instinct therefore in itself is good and should be encouraged. To allow baby to use an instinct for a purpose quite unconnected with its raison d’etre is to allow it to develop abnormally. “This is just what happens when baby’s instinct to suck, deeply planted in him so that he may be able to get nourishment from his mother’s breasts, is practised apart from the question of nourishment altogether. What happens when baby sucks at the breast? At least two things. He receives a reward of food, and he starts the salivary glands functioning in order to deal with this food. Now if baby sucks on a dummy or even on his own wee thumb he is still hoping against hope to get a reward. Saliva is constantly manufactured and then swaHowed, s» that the poor stomach is hardly ever given a moment’s peace. This, in itself, is a very fruitful cause of digestive difficulties. “When baby sucks on the breast he takes more than just the nipple in his mouth, and he brings jaws and lips into play as well as tongue. This is excellent exercise, which does more than any other single factor to make room fqj well-spaced teeth. When sucking on a thumb or dummy, however, only the tongue is used, and this is constantly pressed against the roof of the mouth. In this way the palate becomes raised and the jaws narrowed, so that mouth-breathing often results, while the teeth come through in a crowded condition and do not interlock well with the grinders of the lower jaw. “Some mothers give baby a dummy because they feel that ‘the poor little mite must be bored with nothing to do.’ In this way they centre baby’s interest in life in his own person and appetite, instead of giving him a chance to reach out to the outer world, and take an interest in what is around him apart from his own ego. “Another reason for avoiding the dummy is the question of cleanliness. I travelled in .the tube the other day with a baby of three months who wore its dummy proudly like a badge pinned to its coat. In the crowded, train the said dummy, damp already with saliva, brushed against all manner of coats. It was, of course, to be taken through dusty streets and into germ-laden compartments, and one would have been interested .to have had. a microscopic examination of its state at the end. “Dare we take risks like this with the unaccustomed little system? J.ist to dip a dummy in boiling water will not clean it! Germs can dig themselves in more deeply than this, and baby sucks so strongly that he will be bound to carry .the cleansing process a step further, and draw every particle of impurity into his system.”

The Dummy or Comforter. Sir Truby King says in “Feeding and Care of Baby”: “The Society for the Health of Women and Children has been making strong efforts .to bring about the abolition of the ‘dummy,’ and has drawn the attention of the Legislature to the extent and gravity of the evils resulting from its use. Doctors and dentists are at one on this matter. Every year the journals of both professions teem with references to the evils of the ‘dummy habit.’ The abomination was scathingly denounced at a recent Dental Congress, and the following extracts from a letter since received by the society from the president of the • New Zealand (Dental Association, Mr. T. A. Hunter, need no comment: ‘ln reply to your note (concerning the '‘dummy”), speaking from a dental point of view, there can be no doubt as to its evil effects. . . , During early [childhood the bones are soft and easily moulded, so the use of any such appliance as the “dummy” is highly injurious. By its use the bones of both mouth and nose are involved. It is the cause, in most cases, of contracted or what we call “V’’-shaped arch, interfering with proper dentition, causing the teeth to erupt irregularly and to be misplaced, one of the most frequent types being protrusion, which in turn induces mouth-breathing with its train of ills, such as adenoids, enlarged tonsils, etc., thereby lowering the vitality of the child and rendering it more susceptible to disease of any and every kind. ... I have said enough from the dental point of view alone to warrant the authorities in taking steps to abolish the use of such contrivances as the “dummy.” I fail to see any argument in its favour, especially when we consider that the habit is an acquired one.” Warning. % “Don’t use a ‘dummy’ or comforter. It is utterly unnecessary, and is always prejudicial to health. A ‘dummy’ deforms jaws and teeth and palate, and causes saliva to dribble all the time, thus interfering with digestion. Further, it is a leading cause of adenoids.”