OUR BABIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 306, 28 December 1936, Page 2

OUR BABIES

(By “Hygeia.”) Now is the time, when the clays are warmer and with summer close at hand, to commence that health-pro-moting process known as “hardening off.” By this we mean getting the baby, the toddler, or older child accustomed, first to cool and, later, tc cold sponging or cold showers or baths. It is also the time to get the little one gradually accustomed to exposure of the skin to air and sunshine. The practice of these healthgiving habits stimulates the body, improves the muscular tone and the circulation, and generally tones up the whole system. Coddling. The tradition that iliness is directly due to cold or chill, and that multiplication of clothing is a means of preventing this evil, is so deeply ingrained and has ruled the mind so long that it sometimes seems unalterable. No one doubts the necessity for warm wrappings and cotton wool and wellwarmed rooms for tiny, premature babies, but the plump, robust baby is much earlier and more easily able to adapt itself to changes of temperature than is generally supposed, and, one? able to run about a healthy child can accommodate itself to cold in a remarkable way without ill effects or even discomfort. The Function of the Skin. The skin plays a vitally important part in the matter of heat regulation. It is something more than simply a beautiful and useful covering to the body; it is a marvellous and complicated organ concerned in the regulation of body temperature, and has positive functions by which health is directly influenced. But most of us, unfortunately (children and grownups too) have skins which are more or less useless —definitely and inevitably rendered useless because they have been stifled from birth with too many clothes and never taught to function. How few of us realise that a healthy, active skin surface will do more to keep us really permanently warm and comfortable, let alone free from colds, than any quantity of extra clothing or the most luxurious of cen tral heating. But, like every other organ, the skin can only develop its function by means of exercise Oi tne same, and the agents which develop that function are light, air, sun and change of temperature. Consequently the skin which is Kept constantly covered and “coddled” gradually becomes useless and powerless as a protective organ. v This is why the coddled child feels the cold and reacts disastrously to changes of temperature, and this is probably the origin I of the belief that colds and other ail- ! ments are caused by a chill. Cougns, colds, and bronchitis are as definitely i infectious diseases as measles and I mumps and are caused by germs I "caught” directly or indirectly from j any other person suffering from the i Gisease. But chilling of the body does ! v.ciinitely lower the resistance to infection, and so predisposes the child to develop a disease from germs which the natural defences ot the body would otherwise render harmless. The “coddled” child is constantly exposed to dangers of infection in this way, while tne hardy child with an active skin keeps himself warm automatically, and maintains a high state of resistance to germ infection. The coddled child should not be suddenly switched on to cold baths or sent out of doors unclad. Far from it! The “hardening off” process must be carried out very gradually and with every care against sudden changes ot treatment. Some people believe the best and quickest way to teach a child to swim is to throw him into deep water. They think that it is natural to him to be able to swim and save his life, and that in doing so he wiil also have acquired suddenly and without any preliminary training a most valuable accomplishment, besides acquiring fortitude and resourcefulness in an emergency and a strong, well-

controlled nervous system. It is wonderful how widespread is this fallacy as to its being a sensible thing to throw a child into deep water. Perhaps once in twenty times, if the distance to be traversed were very short the child would manage to struggle out, but nineteen times out of twenty he would drown if not rescued. Suppose the child did manage without assistance, would he really be benefited by the sudden trial to which he had been subjected? Quite the reverse wouldus ually be the case. The sudden immersion and terror would be a great shock to the whole system, and, far from the memory being pleasurable, the child would regard with dread and alarm the idea of any repetition of the painful experience and struggle, in spite of'his survival. To the mother of a child who constantly catches cold we say most emphatically that if she is clear-headed enough to face the facts and courageous enough to map out a course ol treatment and stick to it faithfully, she will be repaid a hundredfold—though not at once of course, and it will be a great temptation to blame the treatment for the first cold which comes along after the regime has been instituted, and to revert in fear to the old ways. Courage and perseverence, however, will win in the end. Next week we will give a few hints as to how to go about this “hardening off” process.