The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-03-06
BABIES RECEIVE
ATTENTION FROM
COUNTRY TODAY
This Is First Day of "Baby
Week" in United States.
Topeka and Kansas Sharing
Responsibilities of Occasion.
EVERY CITY TAKES A PART
Household Hygiene Instruction
for Mothers Here.
After This DIR. DeVillbiss VIII
Garry ON Campaign.
This Is First Day of "Baby
Week. in United States.
Topeka and Kansas Sharing
Responsibilities of Occasion.
EVERY CITY TAKES A PART
Household Hygiene instruction
for Mothers Here.

Kansas did it last October, and now
everybody's "doin' it." and Kansas is
doing it again. It is ''baby week in
the whole United States. Topeka in
cluded. Hundreds of communities.
representing every state IN the Union,
will think especially about babies this
week; they will hear lectures about
babies, and it is expected that the re-
mainder of the year will be marked by
a strengthening of all community ac-
tivities for saving babies lives and CIV
ing them a better chance to grow to
healthy maturity.
Six months ago a proportion OF
Kansas people, and especially male
citizens, were sneering about "a skim
ny old maid who was to come to Kan
sas to teach mothers how to feed and
bathe babies Aside from the fact
that the imported head of the child
hygiene department, DIR. Lydia Devil
bliss, is neither skinny nor an old maid,
and that Kansas mothers, as we'll as
all other mothers, can profitably be
taught the proper care of babies by
highly trained specialist, that bit OF
sarcasm was entirely appropos. THE
mere fact of maternity" DR.. DeVilbiss
said this morning, lis great expert
ence, we all grant, but there is moth
ing about it that gives any woman any
the proper care of a young baby. She
has to learn, and the object of baby
week is to disseminate such knowl-
edge among the mothers and fathers
of the state and the nation"
In Topeka.
In Topeka the Good Government
club, the Federation of Women, the
merchants and the School of House
hold Economics, now in session at the
auditorium, is cooperating.
The babies will not be entered in
judging contest this week. as that was
done in Topeka last October, but lee
lures are being given each day of the
economics school, and every afternoon
in the rest room at the Warren M.
Crosby store. The Pelletier store is
observing baby week with windows
decorated for the occasion. and pho
tographs of the babies taken at one
of the local photographer shops will
be given by the store. Tuesday aft
ernoon and Friday afternoon the store
will give baby PARTIES from two to five,
and will serve ice cream to the babies
and their mothers.
Mothers Influence.
At a meeting this morning at the
auditorium at $50 o'clock Or. De-
Vilbiss made an address on The Care
of the Young Mother and the Child"
The question begins away back in
the matter of heredity. and it has late
ly been discovered that the mother
Influences the moral and intellectual
nature of her child very greatly, in
stead of being the passive host as
she was formerly considered.
IF women live in a state of su-
pine subsection in married life, the
race suffers by the children she bears,
who will be a progressive, diff
dent, supine set of men and women.
Of hill ho
mother should be both prenatal and
post-natal. The first thing to consider
is whether or not the mother is we'll
nourished and if she has sufficient
food.
Mature is partial to the child, and
the baby is successful parasite. If
there is not sufficient nOurishment for
both, the child gets the best for its
growth and development. But if fresh
air and proper food are not furnished,
both suffer Cleanliness is another
matter of vast Importance, and so is
the matter of exercise. The woman
who lies around munching chocolates
and bemoaning her fate is not nearly
so well off as the woman who does a
normal amount of house work and
takes moderate, regular exercise"
DR. DeVilbiss spoke at considerable
length on the proper food for babies.
The bottle fed babies die at the rate
babies"
She showed the impossibi1ity of sub
stituting any food as suitable as the
babies natural diet, by explaining the
chemical makeup of milk, and the
difference to be found in the different
species of animals, and the various
ways in which the protein and the fat
act in various animals
DR.. DeNilbiSS says that in order to
determine a decrease or increase in
the percentage of infant mortality, a
period of about four years should be
considered.
mo healthy. happy baby is such an
exception to the great rule that it is
a rare possession. 1t is our hope to
create such conditions that all babies
may be proud possessions Babies
have not been highly enough valued
They must be made ar asset and not. a
liza bility to the state. The institution
for the blind in Kansas City is costing
the state an enormous sum every year,
thousands of dollars, whereas a soIu-
ton costing five cents a treatment
could have prevented nearly every
case of blindness in that institution"
Mortality in State.
The mortality among the babies of
this state is appalling. In the year
1915 there were 2,59S deaths of babies
less than one year old in the state of
Kansas. OF this number about 800
were from what are known as pre-
ventable causes-that is, through ig-
norance or carelessness. J w V
Deacon, of the state board of health
gave these facts in an address Sunday
Continued on Page Nine.l