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

THE BETTER BABIES CONTESTWhat it is, How it is Conducted, Prizes Offered, Results Expectedand How to Enter.Last month we announced theBetterBabies Contest to be held at theState Fair October 20th to 25th, underthe direction of the State Board ofHealth. This announcement musthave been just what our readers werelooking for. As soon as the Bulletinwent out applications for entries andinquiries liave poured in at an alarmingrate. They have been coming fromparents, rich and poor, in all stationsof life. We have had to make largerarrangements at the fair grounds, arrangefor more judges, provide resttents for tired mothers and sleepy babies,and arrange everything on alarger scale than at first contemplated.Many inquiries still come in regardingthe details of scoring and howthe babies are graded. For the benefitof our readers we here give a fewextracts from the score card just togive an idea of the nature and scopeof the contest.When the mother and child arrivethey will be received by a doctor anda lady from the Reception Committee.The doctor will examine the child forindications of contagious orinfectiousdiseases while the lady will proceedto enroll the child in the contest.Should any babies be found with contagiousdiseases it will be necessaryto exclude them from the contest.The ladies will explain the objectof the contest and any details connectedwith it. At the same time theywill record the child's name, age,sex, weight at birth, whether it isbreast fed or bottle fed and on whatfoods, frequency of feeding, numberof teeth, whether or not it sleepsalone, or with the windows open, aswell as the name, age and occupationof father and mother. All this givesthe physicians a better understandingof each individual baby.From the reception room the motherand child pass to tlie mental testroom. In the accompanying cut isshown a two-year-old b^'y taking aGiving a two year old boy a mental test.mental test. We cannot give all the testsfor the various ages, but as an exampleof these tests it may be stated thata baby twelve months old should beable to sit alone, stand and walk witha support, should play with toys, listento the ticking of a watch, look inthe direction of unexpected noises,follow moving objects with his eyes.He should also speak a word or two,recognize nis mother (shown by. cryingor uneasiness when taken awayfrom her) play with other children