Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-12-28


The very best tonic for a baby is pure air. 1t
should he supplied twenty.four hours in each day.
Fresh air, properly inhaled, lis the sure preventive OF
catarrh and tuberculosis. Pure air is the babys just
dne. No mother has the right to deprive her child
OF this precious, health-giving boon.
In the darker ages of motherhood, babies were
literally deprived of air. To this fact may be traced
part Of the White Plague curse of today. | can recall
seeing babies wrapped up. head and all in dusty little
shawls, so that not a breath of fresh air could pene-
tratc the supposedly delicate lungs. l have seen
babies thus wrapped up, tucked into a cradle or huge
armchair behind a kitchen stove, where the choking
odors of cooking and coal gas were added 10 the
generally impure air of the room. The average moth.
er, in fact, was convinced that not a breath of what
she called cold arr must reach her baby's lungs.
Is it not wonderful that so many Of us have lived
to-raise babies more sanely?
This is a ~fresh-air age. But this does not mean
that a mother should 60 to extremes in supplying
the air her baby needs nor in hardening its body,
as some faddists maintain. The baby should not be
chilled nor exposed to a direct draught, but the air
in the room should be cool and pure, not hot and
fetid. In this one respect, strangely enough, the
city baby has the best of the country baby. The
average city house is uniformly heated by steam or
furnace, and easily v%entilater. The country or farm
house is still heated largely by stoves. One room
is very hot, others very cold. The warm rooms are
places of reguge for the entire family and they are
kept too hot, often every window is closed tightly
and the air is sadly vitiated.
1t is a significant fact that at all the Better Babies
Contests this year, where the Eetter Babies Bureau
offered two championship prizes, one for city babies
and one for country babies, the city babies scored
higher than the country babies and showed a better
chest development, The country baby should have
Tho hoct ~ DIV ~ hroofho| h,t II dooc not hocauSo it's
home is seldom we'll ventilated, and because it's busy
farm mother has so little time to take it out in the
fresh air. The city mother is always being reminded
of dangers from impure air, by newspaper writer's,
by talks at clubs and social centers and at clinics.
Even her older children come home from school,
preaching the gospel of fresh air for the family baby.
She. is shamed into ventilating her house properly
and taking her baby out for a daily airing.
The country mother keeps her house closed in
winter to shut ont cold and in summer to ward off
heat, dust and flies. Her baby has small chance to
breathe fresh air.
From the beginning, the baby, city or country,
should sleep in a ventilated room, window open top
and bottom, at a temperature Of from IS degrees to
20 degrees F. A thermometer is a better investment
than cough syrup. A baby raised in a uniform tenn
%perature will not need cough syrup. The, crib should
not stand in. a draught, but be protected by a screen.
81 -IAO' ~ 40 wy oAAH"A's OpShAAo va +" use 49,
let the ventilation come from the larger room. Hap
py, also, that mother whose house can boast an open
fireplace. This room should be chosen for Baby's
nursery. Open fireplace ventilation is ideal.
Whenever possible the baby should be tucked
warmly into a carriage and allowed to sleep outdoors
in the daytime. Only extreme cold and Indictment
weather should prevent this sensible plan. Nor
should the baby's face be covered while sleeping out
doors. A sunny corner of the porch is an ideal day
sleeping room, with the carriage screened from the
sun. In summer, "a mosquito net should protect the
baby from flies, gnats, etc.
Never should a child be allowed to sleep in a
room with gas or lamp burning low. The fumes from
such illumination are extremely bad for the lungs.
They exhaust the oxygen which the baby needs so
sorely. X
The busy farm mother who cannot take her baby
for a daily airing has no excuse for not letting it
sleep outdoors. If she has no carriage, she can have
casters put on the crib and roll it out on the porch.
or even a deep box can be padded and baby can be
made safe and comfortable by adding a firm hair
mattress and warm lankets. When the baby begins
to sit up and play, a similar padded box or small
fenced enclosure should be built on the porch for a
nursery. 1t is a positive injustice, nothing short OF
criminal, to keep a delicate baby in the kitchen.
Many a mother worn out with a fretful baby will
secure rest for. herself. and good health for the baby
by making it comfortable outdoors. The sleep in
fresh air is %restful, and babies that will not sleep
we'll indoors acquire the habit if placed on the quiet
porch or under a shadystree
The sturdy baby should have its regular daily
airing, weather permitting, from the age of two
weeks. AT six months; the airing in his carriage,
that these voters clearly recognize this and are pro-
ceeding accordingly. The third fact is that II certain.
Bull Moose bosses don't like it they can lump IT.
Kansas City Journal.