Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-28
SAVE THE BABIES
State Board of Health Issues An
nuaI Circular on Care
of Infants.
DANGERS OF SUMNER SEASON
Effects of Heat on Food Causes Trou-
BILE Useful Suggestions
Made.

Springfield, H., May 2S.-The few
hot days which there have been during
the present spring showed their effect
upon the infants in Chicago and other
large cities and the marked increase in
the death rate among babies foretold
significantly what is to be expected in
the blighting heat of midsummer.
Year after year the summer season has
caused untold suffering and thousands
of deaths among the infants of the
state and especially those of the con-
gested districts of cities. Frail chill
dren, who have battled through the
rigorous weather of winter and early
spring, have proven unable TO stand
the extreme heat with its attendant
maladies peculiar to the young
In the opinion of the state board of
health this enormous death rate is to 4
certain extent preventable through the
education of mothers as to the real
and immediate causes of summer dis
eases, and acting upon this belief, the
board has within the last two years
undertaken a campaign of education
which has unquestionably saved many
lives.
Last Years Circular Did Good.
Last summer it issued for free dis
tribution a circular filled with valua
BILE suggestions for mothers as to the
feeding and care of infants. and writ
ten in simple style. which made it in
telligible to all. Two large editions OF
the circular were printed, but by the
beginning of autumn both were ex-
hausted.
The board is now distributing
throughout the state a new pamphlet
written along the same general lines
as that of year ago, but larger, con
tanning more information and so writ
ten and illustrated as to be better
adapted to accomplish the object in
view
Admitting that the mortality among
infants is in direct relation to the de
gree of summer heat, the board OF
health contends that it is not the heat
which kills, but the effects of the heat
upon the infants food 1t is conse-
quently assumed that the most impor-
tant lessons for the mother of young
babies are along the lines of infant
feeding. and to this subject the greater
Suggestions for Mothers.
Suggestions are given for the nurs
ing mother which, if observed. will add
much to the comfort OF the mother and
the well being of the infant, while the
question of weaving is con
sidered in a liberal and practical way.
is the mother urged to avoid
giving drugs and medicines to young |
babies, and soothing syrups and other |
nostrums are condemned in strong
terms.
Artificial feeding, either for the baby |
deprived from birth of the mothers
milk or for the child at weaving, is |
discussed fully, and the advantages of
condensed milk, manufactured goods,
sterilized milk, and other foods are
considered.
Good, clean, fresh cows milk, prop-l
erly modified is advocated as the
ideal food for infants deprived of breast
milk. and the proper methods of modi-
ication are described, not in the tech
meal verbiage of the physician, but in
such way that the work may be done
in any household, and done as exactly
and as perfectly as in the thoroughly |
equipped laboratory
MiIkman's Duty Told.
Equally as valuable are the sugges |
lions of what to avoid if the child is to |
be made and kept strong and we'll The |
mother is told how to feed the baby |
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