The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-01-06
Little Talks on Babyology
By Anna Steese Richardson Director Of the Better Babies
Bureau of the Woman's Home Companion.
Baby's Little Defects and How to Cure Them


not designed to take the place of the
family physician in the home circle.
4 They do not deal with remedies nor
cures, but with the prevention OF all
ments which will assume such proper
tions that a physician must be called
/ in
Mothers-and doctors-are waking
up to the realization that preventive
medicine is the crying need among
babies The day when babies were
supposed to "out-grow'' certain disdg-
urements or tendencies to disease or
weakness is past. Most of us can look
back to the barbarous practice OF
soothing a baby with paragoric and
then trusting to Nature to relieve
the condition which made soothing
necessary. We really seemed to think
that miracle woull be worked while
the baby slept!
If baby had any terrible deformity
or acute disease, We turned to surgeon
or physician, but we took long chances
with the baby who was merely good.
We never stopped to figure that the
good baby could be made better ba-
by by intelligent care, better baby
transformed into well-nigh perfect
baby. And yet parents owe the chill
dren they bring into the world pre-
ciseiy this care.
One of the most interesting features
OF the Better Babies Contests which l
have visited this fall has been the
amazement of some mothers when they
discovered that with, oh, such lit
tie care and attention, they could work
such wonders in their babies.
AS an example, in one city near
New York, the physicians in charge of
the examinations at contest asked
me if | would attend meeting or
dress rehearsal" of the examination
few weeks before the c9ntest. They
wanted a demonstration of just how
babies are examined by the Better
Babies Standard score-card. So all
the arrangements were made, the
physicians agreeing to have real
baby on hand for model to under
go the full examination.
The baby scored precisely as If a
regular contest was underway, and
was penalized 5 for a rough skin and
Is for an eruption. The mother pro-
tested vigorously. The doctors show
ed her fine eruption over the abdo-
men and under the arm pits. She de-
clared that the child had always had
the marks-they were sort of birth
mark. The doctors explained that
such an eruption indicated overfeed-
ing. Here was bottle-fed baby, get
ting too heavy fare. The mother adj
mitted that she knew nothing about
modifying the milk The doctors told
her how it should be done
The roughness of the skin was due
to mosquito bites, lots of them. The
mother said she couldn't help that and
neither could the baby. That was the
fault Of the mosquitoes! The doctors
did not agree with her. They ex-
planned that careful mother protect
ed her child from mosquitoes with
netting, that mosquitoes carried disease,
that the itching sores made Daby nerv-
ous
The mother listened resentfully,
especially when she saw that by the
card her baby scored only SO. Never
theless, she must have thought
great deal about what those doctors
said, because when the real contest
was held in her city six weeks later,
she entered her baby and It carried off
q first prize, scoring IS per cent. The
chairman Of the committee In charge
of the work wrote me that this mother
had lightened the quality of the baby's
food. and the rash had disappeared
She had cleared her house OF mosqui-
tos and the baby's skin was as smooth
/ as rose petal Which shows that a
Better Babies Contest makes mothers
! think-and act. Also, that child
can be made healthier and happier
with just little thought and atten-
ton.
1t another contest where very
large prizes were given, mother
came to me in tears. Her baby was a
beauty, but IT had not won prize.
She brought the baby to me to prove
its beauty, doll-like features, abso-
lutely classic in their fneness, deli
cate skin. soft silken curls. And
those stern doctors had said that the
baby could not have prize just be-
cause its teeth were dark and it's
stomach too big
This baby" was three years old. Its
head should have measured 20 inches
in circumference. its chest q and its
abdomen 20 Instead, its head meas
ured 10, its chest 1919, and It's aldo
men 2lh. IN a wee baby the abdo-
: men Is protuberant, but from two
years on the chest should be larger
than the abdomen. This indicates
two things that the child's respira.
tory organs are In good condition, with
fine chest Development, and that the
food is properly digested
1t took considerable questioning to
find out why this pretty child was not
in good condition, but in time we got
al the truth. The little girl loved