The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-01-06

! ing the amount of sugar served with
the fruit. This was seven months ago,
and now the mother writes that the
abdomen is smaller, the teeth in bet
ter shape and the child much less
fretful.
1t is shocking to see the number Of
children brought to contests who at
three, four and five years have discol-
ored, decaying teeth. The condition
of the teeth is a sure indication Of
maternal care-or lack of it. Just as
soon as the little teeth appear, they
should be cleansed. Baby-size tooth
brushes, very soft indeed, can now
be purchased. At first, the teeth should
be brushed night and morning, not
with tooth paste or powder but a
very mild antiseptic like glyco-thymo-
line may be dropped into the water.
The tiny teeth must be brushed up and
down as well as back and forth, and
special attention should be given to
brushing the gums.
When the baby begins to go to
the table, or eat three meals day in
the nursery, the teeth should be
cleaned after each meal.
Mothers often say in extenuation of
the bad condition Of the babys teeth
that it has had bad teeth from the
beginning. Except in the case of con-
stitutional disease and weakness. this
Is incredible The baby's teeth come
lin strong and white They are neg
lected and abused. If the teeth turn
dfscolored and crumble, one of three
conditions exist. They are not proper
ly cleaned or the diet given the child
is not right or the teeth are not used.
The diet should be looked into by
some one who understands the prop
er proportions of starch and minerals,
OF meat and vegetables, of mushy food
and hard, OF saccharine and acid Just
as soon as child has enough teeth
to chew with and has outgrown the
choking age, he should be given well
toasted bread, zweiback, and hard
crackers to strengthen his teeth on.
If the teeth are in bad condition and
will not yield to ordinary cleaning and
sensible change of diet doctor or
dentist should be consulted. The
health and shape of the permanent
teeth depend on the care given the
first.
In visiting Better Babies Contests
have been shocked at the number Of
babies scored low for irregular fea-
lures which might easily have been
corrected In infancy.
The baby laid carelessly to sleep
may grow up with mis-shapen ears. I
have seen babies lying In bed with one
ear curled forward. The wee baby is
such tender, pliable bit of flesh and
blood Just let 1t get into one bad
habit of sleeping or lying. and 1t may
be marked for life. When you lay it
down, be sure that you lay back its
ears smoothly and firmly.
OF course If a child has inherited
protrnding ears, this defect is not easy
to overcome, but 1t can be helped or
softened by having the baby sleep
right from the start with thin netting
cap that will hold the ears not tightly
but easily in place.
Do not lay the baby down always on
one side. Let 1t sleep first on the
right, then on the left side. have
seen children of eight or ten years
whose faces are asymmetrical-tha is,
larger ON one side than the other and
physicians say this may have come
from always sleeping on the one side.
Later in life when the form of the
face is fixed, the adult may form any
sleeping habit he likes. but the baby
should be trained to sleep on either
side
Your child has a right to all the
beauty you can endow 1t with. II
your baby has thin eyebrows and
lashes, try to encourage their growth.
1t can be done. Feed the eyebrows
with little cocoa butter, or yaseline
II you are very careful, you can even
touch the lashes with tiny camels
hair brush dipped in melted vaseline
l know man and wife whose looks
were married by scanty lashes and col
orless brows. When her babies came.
this woman determined to do some
thing to improve this unfortunate In.
herttance. She rubbed vaseline into
the brows, had the lashes cut twice be-
fore the babies We're three months old.
/ asking the family physician, an excel.
lent surgeon, to do this for her. and
4 then she touched the roots of the
lashes with melted yaseline. Her chill
dren now all In their teens, have
beautiful lashes and brows.
/ 1t is absolutely criminal to let a
child distort its mouth by sucking
thumb or fingers Let no mother de.
ceive herself by saying that the habit
Is the child's greatest comfort, a nat.
ural sooiher or pacifier. In later years
that child, especially il 1t be a girl
7 viii call her mother to task for per
hitting the indulgence.
/ have seen mothers actually start
babies in this fatal habit of finger
sucking by giving them what is known
as a pacifier," or rubber nipple on a
ring. II Is natural for a baby TO suck
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