Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1913-08-26
GEORGIA MOTHERS
WARNED BY BOARD
Against Dangers of Entrustng Babies
to Nurses Who are Diseased,
Dirty or incompetent.

as rule, do not exercise sufficient
care in selecting nurses for their ba-
bies, is declared by the State Board
of Health, in an article describing
some of the dangers to which helpless
infants are exposed because of this
negligence.
Too often, says the Board, the
! thoughtless mother employs the first
negro girl who happens to be availa-
BILE, without inquiring at all as to
her health, moral character and intelli-
gence. Such mothers forget that the
| baby is left for hours at time in
| the sole care of this nurse, and that
it may suffer permanent harm If i'm
properly handled, neglected or exposed
to disease.
Four rules are laid down by the
| Georgia Board Of Health, by which
a girl or woman must be judged before
she should be employed to take care
of a baby. They are as follows:
The nurse must be healthy.
The nurse must be neat and clean
about her own person.
The nurse must be of good moral
character.
The nurse must have intelligence.
Don't employ anybody to take care
of your baby unless that person comes
up to these four requirements, says the
State Board.
Consider to begin with the import
ance of the first qualifcation-heal
Suppose nurse girl, who may seem
to be in good health, comes from a
home in which there is tuberculosis or
some other contagious disease? Sup.
pose the nurse has been exposed to
smallpox or is tainted with some dan
gerous contagious disease? A very
great many negroes are. Suppose that
through your thoughtlessness you have
employed as a nurse, a woman suffer
ing from any of these diseases? Think
what terrible rsik your baby is run
ming. Assure yourself first of all that
the nurse you employ is healthy.
Should Be Personally Clean.
The second thing to consider is the
nurses personal cleanliness. Get a
nurse who is neat and clean, says the
State Board, or for the baby's sake,
don't get a nurse at all. To begin
with, disease germs always flourish in
body which is not kept clean, par
| ticularly in the summer time, and in
addition tiny baby is exceedingly
susceptible to unhealthy and unpleas-
ant doors. If the nurse is so dirty
that you notice it yourself, though
only coming in close contact with her
occasionally, think how horrible it
must be to your poor baby whom she
! handles daily, and who on account OF
| it's helplessness and inability to pro-
test, is really the victim of your care
| lessness. If your nurse has an odor
about her, says the State Board, tell
her how to get rid of it, and if she
does not do it, then get rid of her.
The third thing to consider is the
nurses moral character. This is i'm
| portant not only because an honest,
respectable girl is always the most
faithful, trustworthy and reliable; but
also because by the time the baby has
| become two or three years of age it's
| little mind is like a highly sensitized
| Photographic plate powerfully infiuenc-
| ed by everything it sees and hears.
A nurse of vile language and loose
| moral habits may, without even mean
! ing to do so, teach a child evil express
| sions and immodest actions which it
will take years of later training to
counterfeit.
The fourth consideration is the
| nurses intelligence. This does not
mean that the girl who has had the
most schooling necessarily makes the
best nurse, but it does mean that
good nurse must have practical COM
mon sense. If it is important to have
| an intelligent gardener to bring your
plants and flowers to perfection, how
much more important it is to have an
intelligent nurse to rear your baby
Watch Your Nurse Closely.
Maybe you can't find out all these
things to a certainty when you en-
ploy nurse. In that event, it is alb
lutely essential that you watch the
nurse closely until you do assure your
self about them all. Find out where
the nurse goes with your baby when
she takes it out for a walk. Make sure
that it isn't lying neglected in its car
riage with the sun beating into it's
eyes, while the nurse is idly gossiping
Make sure that your baby is not play
ing on the floor of some dirty negro
cabin, when you think 1t is in the
park. Make sure that your nurse is
not allowing strangers or sick persons
to fondle your baby.
If you find out that the nurse is not
properly caring for the child, dis
charge her. 1t may mean life or death,
for human baby is one of the most
fragile and delicate of all Gods crea-
lures. The proper nursing of a baby
requires constant thought and atten-
ton. 1t means more than rocking the
baby to sleep (Which is not necessary,
and 1t means more than changing the
baby's soiled clothes, which is seldom
done as often aG II ch0uld ha To VIZ,