The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-03-07
List of PreyentabIe Deaths
Reach Appalling Figure.
First Month Most Dangerous
Time in Infants Life.
MORE DEATHS THAN IN WAR
Experts Lecture in Topeka OF
Care of Baby.
Excess Clothing and Bad Milk
Are Large Factors.

4 most appalling discovery has
been made by those who are delving
into the secrets of child welfare TO be
given to the world-secrets that ought
to startle parents out of their state
of complacency and willing ignorance.
The world stands aghast at the
slaughter in the trenches in Europe.
But look at these figures: In great
offensive moves being prosecuted in
the war, the average soldiers length
of life in a first line trench is thirty
days. Then he is either killed or
badly wounded. OF the 800, 900 babies
who die needlessly in the United
States every year, nearly one-haf of
them die before the first thirty days
of their life is accomplished. The
most dangerous job on earth, there
fore, is being a little baby. Every
child born into the world must fight
one or two or all the terrible trinity
poverty, ignorance, disease.
There has been established in this
country a Children's Bureau, and it
is through its agency that the babies
are beginning to get some proportion
of the notice that is due them. Here
deaths by great disaster in 1915, and
deaths of babies in the United States
in 1915:
EARTHQUAKE in Italy. Jan. 1s. cost. 900
Torpedoing of Lusitania May 4, cost LOO
Floods in China July 4, cost ;-...; $4,000
Capsizing of steamer Eastland July
cyclone aeS IN Texas Aug. 1911. cost. 200
Hurricane in South, Sept. 20, cost. $40
Total .111.751
Deans of babies in United States from
preventable causes 100000
Too Much Clothing.
The second series of lectures in To-
peka on the care of babies was given
Monday afternoon at the Warren NJ.
Crosby rest room. DIR. Wilson Hobart
talked on the care of young babies
especially with regard to clothing and
handling. Women insist on loading
too much clothing on their babies he
said. In warm weather they are near
ly always overdressed A flannel band
should always be used, and while a
baby is sleeping his feet should always
be covered. but while he kicks and
takes his exercise, if the day is warm,
il is all right to remove his stockings.
Babies should not be wrapped and
bundled until their arms stand out
from their bodies they should be
able to drop their arms at their sides,
lust as a grown person, and be given
chance to grow straight. Babies
should not be left to lie in one posi-
ton, as they grow tired and uncom-
Portable They should be moved often,
though not handled, too much They
should not be jiggled and tossed nor
held in a cramped position"
v
fence on the feeding of babies. Mr.
w J. v Deacon spoke on the impor-
lance of birth registration, and the
mothers imperative duty to see that
such registration is made.
Bottle Feeding Fatal.
OF all the babies that die. IS per
cent are bottle fed Fully 20 per cent
of city babies that are bottle fed get
their food through a tube sixty miles
long 1t takes about So hours for the
milk to get from the cow to the baby.
The tube starts at the COW, leads to
barn. often filthy and insanitary, then
to the shipping platform of a railway
station, thence to the city. to a milk de-
pot. then to the door or the house, and
finally to the baby The milk has
many chances to become polluted or
everheated- A large per cent of baby
deaths occur in July yet hot weather
does not kill babies The warmth at
fects Improperly handled food that is
given to the babies.
Public Aid Here.
One of the great factors in the work
for better babies in Topeka is the Pub
lie Health Nursing association, which
gives advice and assistance just where
it is most needed-that is, in the dis
tricts of the town that are least able
to pay for expert counsel The nurses
visit expectant mothers and give them
instruction in their own care, eating
and exercise In cases where the
necessary articles of clothing and
articles used in the care of young
babies. are lacking, the association
lends them. Their work is especially
effective since it reaches the class
wherein the highest rate of infant
mortality occurs.
Interest in the movement is being
shown all over Ameg<ca, in the Phil
ippine Islands. and even in Nome,
Alaska. The infants of a great part
of the western world opened this week
with grand bawl and in many cities
Sunday is to be the bowling windup.
Tho lectures this afternoon at the
Warren NJ. Crosby store are: Con
servation of Vision" Dr. r. s. Magee,
at two o'clock; a demonstration by
trained nurse from the Topeka Public
Health Nursing association, at $50