Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-06-30
BABY CLINIC BABEL
OF POLYGLOT WALLS
Infants Mothers Receive Sound
Advice From Nurses at
Fourth and Green.

"Glug, glugl" Wow, wow!" Yah.
yah!'
A polyglot jnrgon of infantile yells
smites the air in the vicinity of 4th ana
Green streets every Tuesday and Thurs
day at 2 in the afternoon, when the baby
clinic is held. In shrill linguistic jaos'
chubby youngsters voice their protests
in Lithuanian, German, Italian, Yiddtsh
and sometimes in plain American at the
lndignty of being undressed down to
their little "shimmy- shirts" before so
many spectators
No one pays any attention to their
protests. They are undressed. just the
same they are put on the scales strug-
Cling fearfully part of the time, and
their weight is entered in the book.
where Miss Wilson, the nurse in imme-
dlate charge of this clinic, keeps rec
ord of the condition OF all Of her little
charges.
Most Of them are healthy babies-due
to the fact that the aim OF the baby
clinic is to be preventive rather than
curative. The surprising part Of it all
is the eagerness with which many OF the
mothers, reared in the "old country"
where outside interference with ones
bambinos is hotly resented, clutch at
the opportunity to bring their youngsters
to place where such expert advice in
baby lore can be obtained gratis.
Don't shake your baby up and down."
said Miss Wilson, admonishingly yester-
day to a young mother who was trying
to quiet her gurgling irst-born by an
acrobatio process; sit isn't healthful
for It,"
This was new advice. surely. Who
ever heard OF not shaking ones baby2
But what Miss Wilson says at the clinic
is dogma, and though her ancestors had
shaken their babies for generations with
out end, that mother decided then and
there to discard the old methods in IA
vor OF the new, since her erstwhle puny
youngster was developing into such a
healthy specimen.
It's a proud set OF mothers, indeed.
who show up on these clinic days. Some
OF them are simply laden with babies,
babies in the arms, babies tugging at
the maternal skirts and babies toddling
along in the rear.
The clinic is a big affair at 4th and
Green streets, just like Sunday afternoon,
and one for which 1t is meet that the
very best clothes an infant possesses
should be put on him. In fact, one mother
had deemed this an occasion of such i'm
pressive ceremony that her 10-weeks-old
girl baby wore her christening robe. The
china blue eyes of another glistened with
pride in the consciousness OF the fresh
pink rosettes on its bonnet and the pearl
necklace encircling its tiny throat.
The visitor at one OF these clinics is
almost sure to notice the absence OF
tssthing rings. messy nursing bottles and
unclean gee-gaws such as many mothers
give their children to chew on. This lack
is a result OF the comprehensive instruc-
tive work which the city nurses have car
ried into the homes of these mothers.
Sometimes when mother is very. very
new to America, and hasn't had her eyes
opened to the foolishness of some of the
old customs. 1t is no unusual thing for
the nurse to find baby done up as tight
as a little mummy in swaddling clothes
or they must come instanter. for what
baby could survive a Philadelphia sum
mer In swaddling clothes?
This isn't all. either. Often when
times are hard and money is tight and
milk, even at cents a quart. is beyond
the reach OF some, the mother frantieally
wonders what she can feed her baby on.
II she gives It anything that happens TO
be ia the house, even II IL is tea or coffee.
who will blame herr The nurse doesn't.
but she carefully investigates and IL the
family Is too poor to supply the wee mem
Der with the necessary milk the city
comes to the rescue. so that these young
sters viii grow into splendid. desirable
citizens.