The Nome daily nugget., 1936-02-07

X group This indi- cates that, taken as a whole, infancy is a very hazardous period of life.
 It Is quite change for the infant to experience when it leaves the uterus or womb and attempts to adjust itself to the outside world. It has lived for nine months in an incubator. Now, suddenly, 1t must develop its own heat regulating system. It must develop the ability of breathing and of digest ing foods. It must extract gases from the lungs the same as adults.
 Almost half of the babies that died in Illinois during 1880 died within the first few days of life. The deaths up to one year of life totalled 7,153; the deaths within the first few days num- bered 3,342. These infants were not able to adjust themselves to the out side world.
 The next greatest causes of death were pneumonia and diarrhea. One thousand sxty-one babies died of pneumonia; 765 died of diarrhea. Most of the pneumonias in this group are not of the infectious type of this disease. The pneumonia represents rather inflammation of the lungs due to lowered resistance and general de. bilitation of the infant. If the child does not adjust itself properly, is not nourished properly, or for any other reason fails to adapt itself to the out sideworld, pneumonia In many instances Is only terminal or end condition.
 Whooping cough causes more deaths in infancy than does any other in. fectious disease. One hundred and four deaths were attributed to this cause in infancy in 1880. For anyone to minimize the seriousness of whoop. ing cough in the face of these figures is manifestation of Ignorance.
 There has, however. been a great de- crease in the death of infants during the last 40 to 50 years. This has been due chiefly to better knowledge of the physiology of the infant. We have not used vacclnes, anti-serums or med lcines to keep the infant healthy.
 
 been made in the science of digestion. We know what to feed the infant to keep 1t healthy, promote growth and prevent disease. We know the proper measures of foods to feed infants of various ages, and how concentrated and how dilute 1t should be- The gen. eral care of the infant insofar as ex- posture to sunlight, the feeding of or ange juice and cod-liver oil, have not been for the purpose of giving medi- cine but for the purpose of feeding .he infant growth h-promoting and other sitamin like substances that will pre- Sent the development of pneumonias and diarrheas. The crying infant is m object of pity, but the little fellow IS only getting his muscular exercise. He takes his daily dozen while crying. We do not know how to reduce the infant hazards during the first few days of life. The hazards of being born and the adjustments he infant must make in order to sur. rive iE the outside world seem to be hazards for the infants of all peoples Ill over the world. It has always been | so. And if weak child survives the first few days, then 1t may succumb in | few months to those two executing 1iseases-pneumonia and diarrhea.
 Better knowledge of what consti- :utes cleanliness, the general use of refrigeration for keeping infant foods rom souring and the screening of windows to keep out flies and other winged insects, have all been impOr- .ant meas in the health of the child, and they lessen the possibility ,f infectious diarrhea, but they do not seem to prevent the diarrlhea that Is 1ue to the maladiustment of the or gans of the body.
 But when a child passes the first birthday, he enters into the healtliest period of life. If he can avoid the se- ,ere infectious diseases, he has not much to fear except accidents; but ac- :idents are cause of too many deaths | n youth.
 The healthiest age group is that from five to twenty years of age. After that the period of wear and tear be- gins.
 According to m editorial in the Journal of the American Medical As sociation recently, the infant who sur wives the first year can have life ex- pectancy of 105 years. But not if he gets fin the way of an automobile be- fore that.
 o Western Newspaper Union