Through watching the conferences between mothers and physicians at Better Babies Contests, I have come to realize that, while 75 per cent. of the ailments from which babies suffer can be traced to some form of stomach or bowel trouble, comparatively few women recognize symptoms of malnutrition or overfeeding for the menace which they really are. Many mothers seem to consider that a slight digestive trouble is almost as casual a feature of baby’s career as teething.
At times I felt as if the doctors at the contests were introducing mothers to their babies, for hundreds of intelligent, affectionate, well-intentioned mothers did not really know their babies. Oh, yes, they knew Baby’s name, the color of his hair and his eyes, the exact point where his cheek or his chin broke into a delightful dimple, the side of his family from which Babykins inherited his many good points and his few bad ones, the day when he first sat up or toddled across the floor; these and many other things the mothers knew, but still they did not know what was going on inside of Baby, in the digestive apparatus on which so much of his health and happiness depend.
At one contest, I saw a physician penalize an attractive eighteen-months baby because of a rash. The mother protested.
“Why,” she cried, “Baby has always had that rash. It’s a sort of birthmark.”
“No,” answered the physician; “it’s a symptom of rich food. You are either overfeeding this baby or giving him food that is too heavy, milk that is too rich for him to digest.”
That mother learned how to modify milk.
Another mother presented a doll-like baby girl for examination, perfectly proportioned but under-weight, and under-height for its age. With silky curls and rose-petal cheeks, Baby leaned wearily against her mother, watching the doctors languidly from eyes around which there were blue circles. Think of that! Blue circles round the eyes of a baby that had not yet celebrated its first birthday!
It did not take the doctors long to analyze this baby’s trouble and to introduce Mother to her child’s true condition.
“Mrs. S——,” said the doctor, “you are starving your baby.”
The mother was shocked and hurt.