Omaha daily bee., 1908-07-19
ADVICE Needed BEATS DRUGS
A Few Practical Suggestions for the
Care of infants in Hot
weather.

-
A Boston physician Cf large experience
offers through the Boston Globe a few
practical hints, which. if needed by
mothers, may help to reduce infant mortal
ity. He says:
LAS large a room as possible should be
selected for a nursery, in which the sun
shines part of the day. The air should be
kept as pure and as clean as possible. The
temperature should be between G6 and g.
degrees measured by a thermometer hang
ing three feet from the floor. Never
should the temperature be allowed to rise
over 20 degrees. After the first year of
the child's life the temperature may be
as low as 80 or even IS degrees.
"A child who is kept in too warm a room
becomes pale, loses appetite, shows symp-
toms of indigestion. occasionally vomits,
stops gaining in weight, perspires very
much and takes cold easily. In summer d
child should be taken out of doors after
it is one week old in spring and In fall
usually at about three months old.
Fresh air is required to renew and pur-
ify the blood, and this is as necessary for
health and growth as proper food. The
appetite is improved, the digestion is bet
ter, the cheeks become red and all signs
Of health are seen. 1t is very healthful for
a child to sleep out of doors; 1t thus be-
comes stronger and less liable to take cold.
Children who take cold on the slightest
provocation should be kept in cool rooms.
especially when asleep. They should not
wear such heavy clothing to keep them
in perspiration much of the time. Every
morning the body, especially the back and
chest, should be sponged with cold water.
The best way of giving a sponge bath
is to stand the child in a tub containing a
little warm water, and a large bath sponge
soaked in cold water should be squeezed
two or three times over the body. This
should be followed by a vigorous rubbing
with a towel until the skin is quite red.
The best food for an infant is mothers
milk, as it contains all the ingredients
necessary for the proper nourishment and
growth. AS a rule all mothers should
nurse their own children, except when the
mother has or has had consumption or
any other chronic disease, or is herself IN
very delicate health. The baby should be
nursed at regular intervals during the day
and once or twice during the night, and
should be kept at the breast about twenty
minutes for one nursing.
If a child must be fed artificially, cows
milk is the best after the mothers. All
other kinds of infants food may do for
a time, but never permanently. The long
continued use of other foods as the sole
diet often produce ricketts,, and a condition
of general malnutrition follows. The child
is pale, and it's muscles are soft and flabby,
Cows milk for infants use ought to be
modified, as 1t does not contain the in
gradients in the same proportion as the
mothers milk.
Most infants suffer from overlooking,
either from too much food at a time or too
rnr,,1A ,,.-I.- N--a.t- T. -.
gradually acquired. and may continue un-
til twice as much food as is proper is taken
in the twenty-four hours. This habit is
most frequently seen in infants whose d.
gestion is not quite normal, and they often
appear to be hungry the greater part of the
time, especially at night.
An food taken in excess of what a
child can digest becomes a burden to him.
The food lies in the stomach undigested.
ferments and causes wind and collie. The
infant is restless, constantly crying, sleeps
badly and stops gaining, and may even lose
In weight. Such symptoms may lead TO
the mistaken conclusion that too little food
is given and 1t is accordingly increased
when It should be diminished.
whether the child feeds himself or is
fed by someone else the following rules
should be observed:
Plenty Of time should be allowed be-
tween meals.
Food at regular hours only; nothing be-
tween meals.
The child must be taught to chew his
food. But as mastication is done by all
, children very imperfectly, all meats should
be cut very fine, all vegetables mashed
and all grains cooked very soft.
I, Children should not be continually urpsd
to eat and under no circumstances forced
to eat.
Children should not be given jellies.
pastry sweets, etc, even in such small
quantities as not to upset the digestion, as
they soon lose appetite for the simple food
which they had taken with satisfaction.
Always give first at the meal the one
important article OF ~food-milk, meat. oat-
r meal or vegetables-which the child habit
ually refuses. Children so readily form
habits OF eating only certain things and
refusing others that such an inclination
! should be checked early.
I'm very hot weather children should he
! given less food, particularly less solid food
and more water"
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