Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-11-18

THIS Is the fourteenth OF
series OF articles about the people
charged NTH the duty of handling
the money Whtch each year is
donated to the Community Chest.
IN A CITY that has one of the
highest infant mortality rates in
the country Miss Caroline SWee-
i ney, director of the Infant We'll
fare Society. has demonstrated dra-
natlcally that proper care of babies
before they get sick is the best and
cheapest way of reducing death rates.
Last year an average of 70 out of
every 1000 babies IN Washington died
before they reached l year of age,
but among the LISP babies under
! year of age who we're brought regu-
larry to the Infant Welfare Society
clinic there were only eight deaths.
This record is particularly striking
when one considers that the babies in
this clinic come from the poorest
homes in Washington-homes where
the death rate is usually highest
Miss Sweeney isn't a miracle work.
erin spite of this record-but she is
long years of experience with both
adults and children that prevention
pays big dividends in health work.
Providence Hospital Graduate.
A graduate Of Providence Hospital,
Miss Sweeney spent several years with
the Instructive Visiting Nurse Society
before taking charge of the Infant
Welfare Society 10 years ago. Her
interest has always been in helping
families handicapped by poverty and
ignorance. With the assistance of
full-time nurses and seven part-tlme
doctors. she conducts daily clinics at
the Infant Welfare Society's Office in
Childrens Hospital. These clinics,
she emphasizes, are for we'll babies.
Mothers register their babies at the
clinic as soon as they are born and
bring them in for periodic check-ups
until they reach school age. A die
tician at the clinic gives the mothers
careful instructions on what to feed
their babies and helps them work out
diets that will fit relief and charity
budgets. Nurses visit the homes from
time to time to see that, IN spite of
slums and overcrowding, the babies
immediate surroundings are clean and
healthful.
Doctors immunize the babies against
diphtheria and other illnesses and
see that they receive medical atten-
ton at the first sign of any physical
trouble. instruction in how to train
and discipline children also is given
at the clinic. for Miss Sweeney has
found that bad health often results
from parents ignorance of how to
treat behavior problems.
Keeps Careful Check.
Beng something of a business wom-
an as we'll as a nurse, Miss Sweeney
keeps as careful record of the
ba bies as any business man would
keep of his accounts. Each child has
chart on which his monthly
progress is recorded. When progress
is not as fast as it should be thorough
tests and examinations are given. All
charts are reviewed periodically and
often throw revealing light on the
most significant dangers to child
health
For example. studies of the charts
have shown that the most common
causes of serious illness among the
small babies registered at the Infant
Welfare was pneumonia which fol-
lowed Whooping cough. Following her
policy of stopping illness at its source
Miss Sweeney began to search for
some way of reducing the number of
cases Of vhooping cough. She found
that doctors were experimenting with
a serum which they knew was not
harmful and believed was effective
in preventing whooping cough For
the past six months they have been
experimenting with this serum in the