How Children Are Killed

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · May 23, 1907

How Children Are Killed

CHILDREN are killed by the manner in which they are dressed, and by the food that is given them, as much as by any other causes. Infants of the most tender age, in our changeable climate, are left with bare arms and legs and with low-necked dresses. The mothers, in the same dress, would shiver and suffer with cold, and expect a fit of sickness. And yet the mother could endure such treatment with far less danger to health and life than the tender infant.

What is the effect of this mode of dressing on the child? The moment the cold air strikes the bare arms and legs of the child, the blood is driven from the extremities to the internal and more vital organs of the body. The result is congestion, to a greater or less extent, of these organs. In warm weather the effect will be congestion of the bowels, causing diarrhœa, dysentery, or cholera infantum. In colder weather, congestion and inflammation of the lungs, congestion and inflammation of the brain, convulsions, etc., will result. At all seasons, congestion, more or less, is caused, the definite effects depending upon the constitution of the child, the weather, and various circumstances.

It is painful to see children thus decked to gratify the pride of foolish mothers. Our most earnest advice to all mothers is to dress the legs and arms of the children warmly at all events. It would be infinitely less dangerous to life and health to leave their bodies uncovered than to leave their arms and legs bare.—Selected.