Evening star., 1914-07-26

c. Pierce, surgeon, United States
public health service.
hood.
Of all the babies born in the United
States from twelve to twenty out of every
100 die in the first year of life. and the
greatest number of these deaths occur
during the warm months.
Many children are so frail at birth that
the slightest change in their environment
or the slightest fault in their dietary will
throw their weak organisms out of balance
and cause their death. Most children,
however. are born with healthy bodies,
and If cared for properly will safely pass
this time of danger.
The great cause of the high death rate
among infants is the ignorance OF the
persons to whom is intrusted the care Of
children. No matter how poor the par
ents, If they will but use proper precau-
lions In care and feeding they can bring
their children through the period of stress
and peril in safety.
Improper Food.
The chief cause of sickness and death in
infants is improper food Twenty-Five per
cent of the deaths of infants under one
year of age are due to intestinal diseases
The chance for food to become unfit for
use is grea test in the warm months, be-
cause at this time the chance of infec-
tion with disease germs is greatest: More
over, food is more apt to be spoiled by
heat. Furthermore, the delicate machinery
of the childS body may be diSarranged by
heat and humidity and rendered less able
to resist the attacks of disease germs or
the poisons contained in spoiled foodstuffS.
Children are very apt to have bowel
troubles during the heated season
Many of these show merely that ma
ture is trying to free the body OF the
should not be forgotten that any such
complaint occurring in babies in the
summer time may be outward and visi-
BILE sign of the beginning of I, serious
illness Since improper food is the
most common cause of this complaint.
1t is the sacred duty of every mother to
provide her child with proper food.
which should be carefully gwen at
regular intervals. This means increased
work for the mother. but this is more
than repaid by the child's gain in
health, weight and strength
The best food for babies is mothers S
milk The great bulk of children who
die every summer are those who have
not been fed in this way. No matter
what may be said to the contrary, the
child which is fed exclusively on moth
vive and grow. No milk or food, no
matter how skillfully prepared. can
entirely take the place of the mothers S
milk during the first year of an in
fa.uts life.
Sterilized Cows Milk.
The usual substitute for mothers
milk and perhaps the best and safest.
is cows milk, modified to bring the
percentage of fat and sugar up to that
of mothers milk by adding milk. sugar
and cream of known fat percentages
Great skill is required to formulate a
proper milk for any given child. This
should never be done without the ad-
vice of q good doctor
Milk. unless it is sterilized, always
contains many germs. These may cause
disease directly. or they may change
the milk so to produce polsons there
in. II the milk is clean in the first place,
is iced as soon as taken from the COW,
and is kept cold. the chances for de-
velopment of germs are much leSsened
No. milk which has been kept for many
hours before delivery is fit to be used
by children.
Recent eXneriments tend to prove that
the vitamines or essential nitrogenous
ingredients of milk are not changed
by boiling for short time, for pas
teuriZation of milk at a temperature
much below boiling point does not rem
der milk of less value as nourishins
food.
Pasteurization simply means heating
zrees Fahrenheit. and holding it at tha
temperature for one-haIf hour. Thi.
destroys such germs as are present ir
milk. and renders IL less liable to cause
intestinal diseases in children consum-
ing such food.
Dirty nursing bottles and nipples are
another fruitful source of harmful
germs The bottles should be of sucf
a shape to permit of easy and thor
ough cleaning. After the bottles ant
milk have been mechanically cleaned
they should be sterilized, either by
boiling them or exposing them to liv.
steam in a steam cooker for thirty
minutes. This applies to all the uten.
sils and dishes that have been used il
the preparation of milk. The use o.
rubber or glass tubing from the bottle
TO the nipple is almost criminal. fol
this tubing cannot possibly be cleaned
nor the disease-producing germs which
It contains destroyed.
Unless the baby has the proper en-
vironment it cannot be expected t.
thrive. The baby's room should b,