
( New York City Municipal Archives) )
This episode is from the WNYC archives. It may contain language which is no longer politically or socially appropriate.
Leona Baumgartner speaks about a hypothetical four-month old.
Station ID interrupted.
1 s. 16 in. Inner to outer grooves.
Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection
WNYC archives id: 73841
Municipal archives id: LT1923
This is a machine-generated transcript. Text is unformatted and may contain errors.
Now you have the fourth in our series of monthly talks on Bringing Up Baby these talks are given by Dr Lee on a Baumgartner competent pediatrician who heads the Bureau of child hygiene in the New York City Department of Health Dr Baumgartner your theoretical baby is four months old now and incidentally so is my little daughter Johana you know how can I forget with all those questions you start out for me time what you're gonna do this month well she's turning over for one thing of course she's learning to control her hands and arms a little better trying to grasp one hand with the other to reach for the rattle but she's dribbling a bit do you think she's probably teething Well the time for the first two this very firm baby to baby but the chances are that her teeth won't show up for a few months yet and if you talk so much about the developmental plan of growth I think you've been crystal gazing but now I realize that all babies do pretty much to a plan and so their achievements are quite predictable well predictable up to a point but don't you forget that each baby grows and develops that he's right. Of course in our talks here I try to outline some of the advances we expect of the average baby if the baby is a bit ahead of schedule don't be surprised and if a little slower Don't worry as I said before babies differ in the rate at which they grow and that goes for how they be at any age. You know I hope none of our listeners have let the neighborhood baby race upset them it's a good idea to remember the fable of the tortoise and the hare remember it was the tortoise and not the hare who won that race so eight times to carry How did your bonnet take to solid food well she balked at it a little bit first especially the first time we tried cereal so we tried apple sauce she liked it better after a week we tried the cereal again and then she took to it quite well you take several kinds of cereal also stewed fruit and then she's off to a really good start I'm certainly glad you remembered not to try and force the cereal when she refused if you had by now you know you might be complaining of how she refused to eat or how she spit out what you gave or if you start her on vegetables or Oh Dr said we could but we're not quite sure how to begin or how to fix them well in the health department where we care for so many of the city's babies we usually starting in vegetables in the fourth month sometime after the baby has begun to take fruit and cereal pretty well most mothers I think find it vegetables fit in well at a feeding that comes in the middle of the day but let's go on to those directions for preparing vegetables first you wash them and then peel or scrape them if necessary you drop them mediately and a very little boiling water cover the pan and cook a few minutes until the vegetables tender you know cooking with a small amount of water saves the food bad news especially those valuable minerals and vitamins I'd suggest you make the same vegetable in the same way for the whole family usually saves time and money and that's getting sort of important these days. To fix the part you take out for the baby mash the cooked vegetable through a fine say ever and expensive food mail I think you can buy any of those at the corner hardware store then in the vegetable with some of the juice that was cooked and add a bit of salt tell me what about those kind you can find to they contain just as many of the necessary vitamins and minerals and foods first they're a lot more. Nancy they do save time yes a little bit easier if father has to fix them suppose that's right course of unless he's good at cook because well is a good father and what kind of vegetables are suitable at this age own carrots and peas and spinach and other greens beets mean beans tomatoes squash Speratus fact almost any kind they'd get maybe given that I wouldn't try cabbage or onions or sauerkraut or corn and do start offering the vegetables as you did the cereal a little of the time if the baby dislikes one kind don't force and there are plenty of others you can give or and a month or two later she may like the one she refused at first how about trying a lot of new foods at lunch well it's best to add only one new food at a time in our day. Whether or not it agrees with or if it does increase the amounts gradually depending on her appetite until she gets two or three tablespoons full That means about half a jar if you buy the prepared baby food. Keep the other half in the ice box to finish up the next day and because cook vegetables are apt to spoil very rapidly I'd suggest that you don't use an open can of vegetable or any cooked vegetable after twenty four hours Dr you have on a stool at different hours out alright Oh I'm so glad you brought that up for a lot of mothers ask that question it's a cause it's very common you know for an undigested vegetable to appear in the bottle moment when the baby first takes it this is not a bad sign so long as there is no looseness of the ball or mucus in the stool but do increase the vegetable slowly until the gestes system learns how to handle it. Incidentally remember if you give beets they do make a stool and the urine to read sometimes don't mistake this redness for blood oh yes and my wife asked me to ask you about eggs oh there's another common question. Is another food we usually start in the fourth or fifth month sometimes earlier that contains iron and vitamins which are good for the baby because AIG especially the white disagrees with some babies who are what we call allergic to it we usually start with very small amounts of the. They're all cooking of the food makes it less apt to cause allergy so we hard boiled egg at first in the following way place a clean a brown or white and i Pad and cover it with cold water he didn't fill the water comes to a boil then remove the pan from the fire and let the egg stand in that hot water for fifteen to twenty minutes thank off the shell and the right of way you will find the euro is firm and and yet not tough Nashat that is the yolk with a fork and put it through a strainer before giving it to the baby if you are gonna dislikes the taste of plain a try mixing it with a little milk salt or even put it in a cereal or vegetable that she already knows in one she likes later you can give the yolk of a soft cooked day incidentally don't throw the white out chop it up and put it in a salad or vegetable for the rest of. Family if a baby vomit say develops a diary or a rash of course you'd stop searching and if she refuses it don't force it and wait till later to give her the white and tell us about those immunizations you promised the radio audience you talk about this month well in the Department of Health Our emphasis is always on prevention of disease and for that reason I want to be sure all mothers know what can be done by immunization I believe a child should be protected from all dangerous disease it's to which he may be exposed and against which medical science has perfected a safe method immunization in fact I think parents who overlook this are neglecting their children in a shameful way most doctors advise that babies be immunized against at least three serious disease smallpox if they're in who can call protection against these diseases is achieved by giving a substance that builds up the baby's resistance to the disease that's the original series of inoculations or shots should be completed by the time the child is a year old now a good many doctors I know that babies against smallpox as early as three months of age sometimes even before this. And if part of health child health stations we do it at all four and a half or five months one advantage in early vaccination is that the infant is not as likely to infect a vaccination by scratching you know you have on a really can't reach around there and hit the vaccination when she tries to scratch it the other is that the reaction is usually much less severe in early infancy than in later years of life you do know incidentally don't you that smallpox is an extremely serious disease and that vaccination is a sure prevent AIDS yet in states where that nation is not required smallpox is common for as in states where vaccination is compulsory there are almost no cases certainly all New Yorkers learned about smallpox vaccination last year but you know Dr Baumgartner I never quite understood what action nation really was well the smallpox vaccination is made by applying a drop of vaccine and then pricking the skin underneath it with a small needle and this vaccine contains the virus or are the germ of how pox when the vaccination takes the babies having a light case of cops and the wonderful thing about how policy is that though it is a very mild disease it protects a person from getting the severe disease smallpox C. Now you're gonna have to get a vaccination very soon I guess what is going to be life Well first when it's given it doesn't hurt babies really seldom cry at all for about three days nothing happens then a small red pimple of peares which changes into a blister it gradually gets bigger and is surrounded by red an area it's usually at its worst on about the eighth or ninth day and at this time the baby may run a fever so many do not sometimes their fretful I'm not as hungry after this a tough Brown scab forms on the spot until the scab falls off and it takes perhaps two or three weeks be sure to keep the vaccination dry. Well the best way to manage is to give the baby sponge a sponge bath instead of top that has been the time the blister forms and tell us fab falls All right how about these other shots well if there is a second disease you must guard your guard your baby against you know it used to kill thousands of babies every year before the injections provide it is safe and simple method of protection two or three injections are given a month or so apart from for the baby is a year old that injection may spring for a few minutes and the baby may run a little fever during the first twenty four hours after it is given but it really causes no serious discomfort or illness after some months your doctor may test the babies see whether immunity has been established this test is called a shake and after three years it will be necessary to give another dose a so-called booster dose because children gradually lose their protection against Syria this booster shot usually brings protection up to a safe level again. Hooping cough is another important disease in childhood it's the third one against which protection is necessary and particularly for children under two we still lose a good many babies unnecessarily in New York City under two years of age from who can call now occasionally a baby will get hooping cough even though he has had the injection and he gets a much milder form of the disease than he would if he had had no protection there are several ways of getting these injections sometimes the injection is given for each disease separately that is the fifth area in the hooping cough and sometimes the injections for Dick Therion tetanus another disease that people are not going to ganster given together the baby may react to them with a little fever and restlessness which rarely last more than twenty four hours now many of you will wonder about ten. Tetanus which you may call a lock is a serious and often fatal disease that may follow any injury especially a dirty punctual it may occur after an accident involving a rusty nail for example and many doctors are including immunization against tetanus along with the immunization against diphtheria as I said a minute ago but your doctor will advise you about whether or not to inoculate your baby against tetanus the very last type of protection I want to talk to you about today is given to children who've been exposed to measles it's pretty important to talk about it right now because we're having our great many measles cases in the city this protection is given to young or weak children who have been exposed to meis in a child under three years of age or in order to child who is rundown or evil measles may be extremely dangerous or it's the best thing in the world to do is to keep you away from anybody that's having missiles you already know but then if she has been exposed get in touch with your doctor to discuss treatment just as soon after exposure to measles as possible and while the serum will still be effective the protection of the serum last for only a few weeks so it is not given usually unless the child has been exposed but remember it's important again to keep all babies away from both hooping cough and measles these diseases are dangerous baby. When the order of child that is say want to over three can have them with very little trouble but it's a little babies that should be protected and modern protection against both of these diseases mean a milder disease you know Mr Kerry we've had so many special problems to talk over today we just haven't had very much time to spend with baby have waiting I always hate to distraught about disease because after all it's healthy babies out I think everybody's interested in and health is more than just the absence of disease. I do want to get in my monthly word to you in favor of good parent baby relations has been said that kindness real genuine kindness to the baby will help more than anything else if you're kind to him when you when you talk to him or a body when you feed him in fact at all times then you'll be started on the right road in his care and you'll be started on the right road to a life that's fun kindness is a good word and a good attitude to keep in mind and I know I've got to say goodbye you know I've enjoyed the letter you sent me so far and I'll try to answer the questions you've asked to let me hear from. Dr. Hygiene of New York City Department of. St New York City that's the New York City Department of Health. And will tell us some special things about that five month old baby and her next month talk until then we bid you good health you know civil Broadcasting System.