The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-10-14

of my visits to these contests, where
] watched doctors and mothers examin
| ing the babies, was the large number
babies. Oh, yes, they knew Baby
name, the color of his hair and eyes
| the exact point where his cheek or his
chin broke into a delightful dimple, the
side of his family from which baby
kins got his many good points and his
few bad ones. the day when he had
| first sat up or toddled across the floor,
these and many other things the moth
ers knew, but still they did not know
what was going on inside of baby, in
the digestive apparatus on which SO
| much of his health and happiness de
pend.
OF course IL Baby could talk, Mother
would know exactly how he feels, be.
cause he could explain where the ache
is located. But when ones means OF
communication is limited to wriggling
and rolling up his eyes, and emitting
disturbed yaps, Mother must look for
signs or symptoms to take the place
of worded complaints.
And there are SO many ways in
which the flesh, the skin, the eyes, the
1 very actions of baby indicate that
his digestion is not in good working
order. And when the digestion is not
working, Mother must go directly to
the cause-Baby's food. We who are
old and strong. and seasoned know
what ills follow on the trail of indiges-
ton How we should sympathize with
a tender baby whose sufferings we can
alleviate by just righting the system
of feeding.
If the food does not agree with Ba-
by, he may be puny or over-fat; he
may be drowsy and listless or fretful
and restless; he may be out of proper
tion in his measurements or he may
have a rash.
Here are some of the things.I saw
and heard at the Better Babies Con-
tests. AS told you in the last article,
babies are examined at contests by
physicians for physical proportions,
strength, condition of muscle, skin, di-
gestive and respiratory organs, the
senses and intelligence or mental de-
velopment An attractive eighteen
months old baby was undergoing the
physical test when the physicians dis
covered a rash on its abdomen. They
penalized the child for this rash, and
the mother protested.
Why" she cried, Baby has always
had that rash. It's a sort of birth
mark" +
No answered the physician, Its
a symptom of too rich food You are
either oyer-feeding this baby or CIV
ing him food that is too heavy, milk
that is too rich for him to digest"
And they went into the question of
baby's diet then and there-Mother' s
first practical lesson in Babyology.
Again mother presented delicate,
doll-iike baby girl for examination,
perfectly proportioned but under
weight, under-height for its age. Elk
quisite as to silken curls and rose
petal cheeks, Baby leaned YEARLY
against mother, watching the doctors
languidly from eyes around which
there were blue circles Think of that.
Blue circles round the eyes of ba.
by that had not yet celebrated its first
birthday!
1t did not take the doctors long to
analyze that baby's trouble and to in
troduce Mother to her childs true con-
dition.
"Mrs. s." said the doctor, you are
starving that baby.
The mother was shocked and hurt.
q nurse her every three hours" she
protested.
mo doubt" answered the doctors
"but your milk Is not nourishing her,
Perhaps your baby should have both
the breast and modified milk. We will
find out"
They did. That mother learned that
her baby was drifting toward the dan
gerous rock of anenia. Her lesson In
Babyology was how to alternate the
breast milk with bottle feeding OF
modified milk
third baby was what you would
call a lat DOy. Ilc Nio SosSlEu Will
the most "pat-able" creases, and his
complexion was blooming, but he had
such a scowl on his round face and
he showed everything and everybody
away from him as if the entire world
was distasteful Mother said he had
never been a really good natured ba-
by, and she didn't know why. But the
doctors found out. The plump stom-
ach of which his mother was so proud
was not an indication of health but OF
undigested, unassimilated food, over
feeding.
At sixteen months, baby's head,
chest and abdomen should measure
just the same, 1S1a inches. This poor
little laddie had an eighteen inch
head, seventeen inch chest and an
abdomen measuring 1917 And just by
exploring with his finger, the doctor
found an ugly little mass of undigest-
ed food down in one corner of that
bullying abdomen, OF course, Baby
wanted to shove people away So do
you, Grown-up, when you have a SEX
tx.i:-t,.