The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

May, 1927
The Health Bulletin
of the wage-earner or the worker adds
to the complication and makes the ditiiculties
worse, and the baby suffers.
"We would like to emphasize in this
brief article right now, at the beginning
of another summer, that soap and
water are cheap. Soap can even be
made at home, and a few cotton garments
are easily washed and can be
kept clean each day with a few minutes
effort. A small piece of cotton
netting placed over a wooden crib,
hand-made, if necessary, and a tiny
piece of rubber, bought for a dime at
the ten-cent store, properly placed each
day, and kept clean, is sufHcient to
keep any baby comfortable and free
from flies, and therefore clean and
happy. A few minutes effort on the
part of the very poorest mother will
sulflce to boil the drinking water, in a
tin cup, over the fii-e coals, if necessary
; and if the mother is not nursing
the baby from her breast, the same
process will suffice to boil the milk
given to such baby, and to thoroughly
prepare any other item of food which
the larger child needs. Therefore, poverty
can be no excuse, leaving ignorance
as the chief curse to combat.
Until every prospective mother in the
State has an opportunity to know how
to apply the simple precaution necessary
for the safety of her baby, we
shall continue as an ignorant State,
and our baby death rate will continue
to advertise us to the world as a partially
uncivilized State.
RAISING BABY FULL TIME JOB
Some English novelists have recently
been carrying on quite a warm discussion
as to whether or not raising a
baby requires full-time attention. This
discussion has been carried on in the
English newspapers, magazines, and
over the radio. Quite a few of its
echoes have reached this side of the
water already. Although the discussion
has been carried on in the stolid
manner characteristic of Englishmen,
quite a bit of it has been very pointed.
One woman novelist, very much on the
affirmative side of the question, writes
that she once ran a baby herself. "Writing
of her experience, she exaggerates
some of her exacting duties in a manner
that would do credit to a native of
Georgia or North Carolina indulging in
a political argument. As an example of
some of the things she said she had to
do was to walk a mile each morning
to a neighboring farm for the purpose
of getting butter for the baby. Of
course, that is written in poetic license,
so to speak. In the first place, the
baby neetled very little butter to run
him ; and in the second place, on walking
the mile distance the first time she
would have realized the wisdom of
procuring a supply sufficient for more
than one day. She waxes very eloquent
on the necessity for entertaining
the baby and to keep the baby from
getting bored, all of which any mother
or any nurse would appreciate.
Resigning all levity, however, the
raising of a baby is certainly a fulltime
job, if it is carried on in a proper
and successful manner, and in a manner
agreeable to the best interest of the
baby and the parents. A baby demands
constant attention twenty-four hours
out of the day. Some ear must be
listening to its slightest cry, be it midnight
or morning, and if the cry is not
heeded, disaster may result. One
woman, writing, recalled a statement
that she heard her father make when
she was a child, that it was quite a
common thing for him to get up in the
night and hand out at least twenty
"dinks" of water. The parent must be
alert at every sound and call. A sudden
change of weather may demand
more cover ; a matter of thirty minutes
or more might prove disastrous to the
baby if delayed that long; and a thousand
and one things demand attention
day and night. The baby's food must
be just right, and it must be given at
the exact minute scheduled for the
baby's best interest: the clothing must
be constantly adjusted ; it must be protected
from flies and other pests and
dangers ; it must be constantly watched
for symptoms of illness, and immediate
action taken when such occurs. In
fact, if there is any job in the whole
wide world requiring all the time of
at least one individual, it is the job of
properly looking after a baby. For the