Midsummer Hints by Mary Wood-Allen

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Aug 4, 1904

Midsummer Hints

By Mary Wood-Allen

THESE hints are principally for the mothers of young children; for this beautiful season, so filled with life and beauty, brings with it certain dangers for the little child, dangers which might have been prevented, or at least lessened, if mothers only knew.

“What is the matter with the baby?” I once asked the young mother of a child who evidently was very ill.

“O, it’s only his teeth,” was the reply, with an air of resignation to the inevitable. Most mothers have the idea that the troubles of infancy are wholly due to teething, and are therefore unavoidable. Because of this belief, ailments which might have been easily cured in the outset, are allowed to proceed unchecked until they perhaps become fatal.

Teething is a perfectly physiological process, and it should be comparatively free from disturbance of the general system. This is proved by the fact that some children pass through the teething period without illness, and with almost no pain. If a child has serious trouble at this time, it is proof that something is abnormal and needs attention. One of the first things to be done is to teach the mother some physiological facts, and the most important of these is that the child at birth is not a completed being, but a being in process of construction. Up to the time of birth the alimentary canal has had no work to do, and even at birth it is not finished in its structure.

Starch and Sugar Detrimental

The adult has the power to appropriate all forms of food, starches, fats, sugars, and proteids. The infant has no power to digest starch, and sugar only to a limited degree, as furnished in the mother’s milk. To give it then starchy foods at all, and cane-sugar to any extent, is to violate the laws of its physical organization, and to create disturbance. As white bread, rice, potato, crackers, etc., are principally starch, we can readily believe that they do not belong in the healthful dietary of babyhood. And yet we often see mothers feeding these things to the infant in arms. I have seen a mother feed a six months’ old baby, potato, hot biscuit and coffee, and then if it were sick, the blame was put upon the teeth, which in a fit of total depravity were supposed to have “got onto” the helpless little one.

Physiologists tell us that the child must be near the end of its first year before it can appropriate starch, and then only in small amount. The baby who is fortunate enough to have its natural food, needs nothing else for the first nine or ten months. Then when it begins to take cow’s milk, a farinaceous substance may be gradually added. To indicate how gradually, we may give the formula of an experienced physician: One tablespoonful of oatmeal, one quart of water. Boil until reduced to a pint. Strain. Of this gruel put one tablespoonful into one bottle of milk. If this is a proper amount of starchy food to give a year-old child at one feeding, it will not be difficult to understand how much out of the way is the diet of many a yearling child.

It is not the purpose of this article to direct the diet of the bottle-fed baby. This is a matter which will tax the skill and science of the mother assisted by her own family doctor. The most that can be done in our limited space will be to suggest some precautions.

Care of Food

The care of the child’s food demands the strictest attention. Many mothers do not realize how soon food will become infected by standing uncovered in the room. I often go into kitchens and see the milk and butter standing open on the table all through the process of cooking the meal. A very few minutes, in such heat, and with the absorption of the germs that are always floating in the air, are enough to render the milk unfit for the food of the infant, no matter how strong and vigorous he may be. For the good of all members of the family all milk and butter should be kept in a clean refrigerator. These two articles should always be the first removed in clearing the table after meals.

The screening of doors and windows is not only a matter of comfort, but of health; for we are learning the possibilities of the fly as a carrier of infection. The greater freedom of officers from infectious diseases in soldiers’ camps is attributed to the fact that they have screened tents, while the common soldiers are not so protected.

Pure Water Necessary

The purity of the water-supply is also imperative. How this is to be assured is a matter deserving of the most careful study. Distilling is the most certain plan; but whether the water be purified by distillation or boiling and filtering, the same precaution should be taken as with milk; it should be kept covered. A very simple experiment will demonstrate the presence of germs in the air. Boil milk, or make a meat broth. Put some of either fluid into a bottle that has been cleansed by boiling, and cork tightly with sterilized cotton. Put another part into an equally clean bottle, but leave it open to the air. This last will soon be spoiled, but the first will remain good as long as the bottle is tightly corked. Milk for the baby may be thoroughly sterilized, but if set uncovered to cool in an open window, it will not long be sterile.

The purity of the air outside, as well as the opening of doors and windows to free circulation, needs purposive thought. Stagnant ponds or pools, outside closets, garbage uncovered, barns and stables, are all sources of air defilement. Mothers should see to it that their children are not allowed to play near any such source of contamination.

Discard Superfluous Clothing

The careful mother is quite apt to err on the side of keeping her child too warmly clothed. Babies often are made to swelter under an amount of clothing that is positively dangerous to health as well as destructive of comfort. It requires judgment to rightly gauge the amount of clothing suited to the changing weather, but an extra garment mornings and evenings, and next to nothing in the heat of the day, will probably meet the needs of the case. The skin that is always shut away from the air grows weak and liable to chills, while the skin which has an opportunity to become acquainted with the atmosphere acquires a protective power which is a safeguard.

A serenity of surroundings is needful for the infant as well as the adult. He feels the mental atmosphere, and responds to it in his physical as well as his mental condition. The infant should be left to himself as much as possible. He is far better off on the bed or the floor than in arms. With unrestricted freedom of limbs and lungs, with simple and appropriate food given with regularity, with pure air, with no tossings or teasing, with a serene atmosphere about him, with all his needs attended to, and

with the heaven of mother’s sweet face smiling at him from a little distance, he should thrive and grow in the summer, as do the flowers. —Mary Wood-Allen, M. D., in Union Signal.