Show 1 5 S 0 S S S r 5 0 5 I Ii S i. i S j I 5 i J Pt preventing venting Infant Mortality S SI i v 1 1 yr I J. J Haskin 5 I S By Frederic S ri r-ri lIE city of ot Baltimore today toda i Is playIng play play- r 1 Ing host to 10 a convention In which T I more moro heart interest l is J centered i. i than In an any convention of oC the tho year The American association for the study and prevention of infant mortality mortal mortal- it ity ty convenes there for a session of soy soy- ral days When it is 16 stated that there are arc more than deaths a year of children who have not passed the pe 10 period period pe- pe nod of infancy the amount of sorrow and suffering in involved involved m- m is appalling It lia Ita has been estimated esti estl- 1 mated by Dr Irving Fisher that 47 per percent cent bent of au an all the till 5 5 S deaths of children childrenS S lelow helow the age of 2 years ear vear could be bo prevented prevented prevented pre pre- vented if the count country coun coun- t try fry ry exercised its knowledge of ot sanitary sanitary sanitary sani sani- ref tary measures He estimates that 67 per cent of the I rA Bo children who die dio be between be- be I be-I ti f tween the ages of 2 Ip and 8 S years might have their life span lengthened if only ignorance poverty and dirt were banIshed banished banished ban ban- from the neighborhood of tho the cradle I and tho the trundle bed I Last year the American academy of medicine called a conference of men and women interested in preventing in infant infant infant in- in fant mortality to meet at Yale sity sHy The call challenged the support of nearly every leader in the child welfare welfare wel wet fare movement in the tho United States The literature brought out outon on on the question of preventing infant mortality was so rich richIn richin richin in suggestions that it was decided to create an association to meet annually for the purpose of mutual study and consideration consideration con con- of the tho problem before that conference The papers read before the confer conference nce have been published in jn book form for the information of the medical fraternity and the humanitarians of America The Tho academy at the Yale conference went on record as favoring favorin uniform birth and death registration l laws ws the reportIng reporting report report- ing to 10 the health authorities of all communicable communicable com corn diseases and the training of all school teachers in the essentials of physical life that they in turn may conSciously consciously consciously con con- and unconsciously guide their pupils into a more intelligent valuation of the inheritance of life and the tho re responsibilities responsibilities responsibilities re- re and duties of home making It believes tho the saying that the training training train train- ing of a child begins with its Us grandparents grandparents grand grand- parents is true and would therefore study Intimately the prenatal as well as the thc postnatal influences that make for forthe forthe forthe the health and well being of the infant population of the nation The situation confronting tho American people today is a peculiar one Preventive Preventive tive medicine gradually has extended the spon of life Ufe of those beyond the infantile period but in the face of a gradually de decreasing decreasing decreasing de- de creasing birth rate little has been done toward decreasing the tho infant death rate This spoils spells an economic scarcity of chil chit dren and has aroused the thinking men of the nation to the necessity of infant conservation It is true that in certain progressive cities the infant rate death-rate has been wonderfully curtailed It is not long since one child out of every three born in itt Now New York City died before its first birthday Now the rate is only one ou out t of ever every six Medical men and generally agree that there aro arc many prenatal con con- conducive to a high rate death-rate among infants The association is aimIng aimIng aim- aim Ing trig to arouse the people of the country to this situation so that every overy child that comes conies into the world may be blessed with witha a healthy parenthood by by- inherited conditions Perhaps the greatest menace to child life me Is impure milk In the city of Rochester Rochester Roch Roch- ester cister the mortality rate among infants fell off 65 p per J cent after th the institution I of a carefully guarded municipal milk I Supply It also has been shown that even under the best possible conditions cows cow's milk is not as good for the infant infantas as natures nature's nourishment Calves may flourish on it it but the records of Europe and America show that tho the fed bottle-fed bab baby r has less tess' chance of winning lifes life's struggle thap the on ono one to which the bottle Is a stranger The association is strongly of th the opinion that a baby un unnecessarily unnecessarily unnecessarily un- un necessarily for forced ed to live IIvo on a bottle Is having it its life gambled aa away This is especially true in view of the fact that neatly nearly three-fourths three of the babies of the country who are fed bottle-fed get et milk un- un to their needs if It has not indeed been produced under unsanitary condi condi- Ignorance reigns with reference to other things as well veTI as as the handling of milk A statistical inquiry among a large number number num num- ber her of poor mothers showed that one out pf of every overy live five gave their babies water to drink I The Thc same is true in the case of or salt One physician records the fact that he ho asked a mother what she fed her baby Same Sarno thing my mother fed me mc was the laconic reply What was as that pressed the physician Same thing she ate ate was the answer When he further queried what her mother had eaten she replied that it was buttermilk and rye bread Asked what she was eating eating eat eat- ing she replied and sau- sau sage sae I. I Figures it il is covering man many years cars sho show far better to be born in the country countr than thanin in the city The Tho countr country baby has 50 per percent percent cent more chance hance successfully to weather tho dreaded first year ear than the city infant This is attributed in part to the excess of fed bottle babies in the city and In part to the better better better bet bet- ter sanitary surroundings of pf the country Wherever r Hy children r have e been taker taken to the country in In numbers the result always has been a diminishing death rate rale among- among them ed Th improved transportation tion facilities that permit the tho city worker to have a suburban home have proved an important factor in the child chUd saving campaign The experience of the social workers at Sea Breeze and Junior Sea Breeze indicate how much may mar be done in lowerIng low low- erIng th the tho infant mortality rate b by the observance of Imo known Imon n rules of health Sen Breeze is a New York philanthropy for indigent mothers and helpless babies A Ar r record cord was kept of 59 9 59 P s seriously sick Ick babies babies ba ba- ba- ba bies bleg brought there from th the crowded tenements of New York and treated with an abundance of sunshine and clean food The res results showed that recovery recover followed in cases e or 99 59 per cent It W was 8 then planned to carry the Sea SeaBreeze SeaBreeze SeaBreeze Breeze idea idea- to the mothers and children who could not go to Sea SeaBreeze Breeze A I strong corps of visiting nurses enlisted and made a canvass of the upper east eastsIde eastside side tenement districts in search of op to aid these unfortunate mothers and children B By visiting homes they were able to find mothers who were sorely In need of as as- These mothers agreed to co cooperate cooperate cooperate co- co operate with the tho nurses In their efforts to save the tho babies and were instructed I In all the details of Infant care The re- re Bult was that although the infant death rate In other sections of the city showed an Increase that summer over the pro pro- ceding one In the territory covered by bythe bythe the Junior Sea Breeze workers the rate was materially reduced S One of the gravest dangers that besets tho the pathway of the baby is While troubles are more Immediately immediately Im Jm- im- im mediately mediate fatal and therefore the Infant death rate from those diseases much higher yet et thousands of consumptives who live Jive be beyond rond the period of infancy may trace their infection back to their Infant days A child is sensitive to contagion contagion contagion con con- of all aIt kinds even under normal conditions but especially BO so to tuber tuber- To make the matter more se serious serious so- so rious tuberculosis is better hetter able to hide Its presence In the tho body of an infant than thanIn In a grownup so it is not suspected The characteristic symptoms of adult tuberculosis tuberculosis tuber tuber- arc lacking In the tho handling of tuberculosis among Infants as well as among grownups the medical fraternity is handicapped by so socia social social so- so cial cia conditions which form an effective bar to the introduction of ot methods which might wipe it off of the list of dreaded disease Notwithstanding this they arc are encouraged in their work by the knowledge knowledge knowledge knowl knowl- edge that there is an Ideal at which to aim Strange to say this ideal comes from the veterinarian Some years ago alO agoa alOa a Dr Bangs decided he could eradicate tuberculosis In cattle attic He Ho took look a herd of infected stock and put the healthy members on a farm where there was as no tuberculosis As calves alves came in the In Infected Infected Infected In- In herd he immediately carried them to the non-Infected non herd and fed them only on non-Infected non milk or on pasteurized pasteurized pas pas- milk from infected cows lOWS In Inthis Inthis inthis this way he gradually increased the size of his non-infected non herd and the infected herd until the latter was exterminated Of course cours it would be Impossible Im un- un possible to so segregate people or to take babies babl's away from infected mothers moth moth- ers but the he Bangs bovine experiment is I cited by physicians as an encouragement to them The economic pos possibilities of the baby saving savin campaign of the humanitarians now in session in Baltimore are beyond estimate Many of the richest contributions lions that have been made to human i welfare were given by bv men who were born Iii lii ignorance poverty and dirt i Helped by science and philanthropy through the unequal fray of at the first years year's battle for life thousands otherwIse otherwise otherwise other other- wise doomed to n 9 n infant grave would grow up into virile manhood and virtuous virtuous virtuous vir vir- womanhood Tomorrow Catholic Communities in in America I |