THE DESIRE FOR SNACKS 



between meals may arise from one of several causes : 



(a.) It may be from a deficiency of sugar in the diet; if so, a more liberal 

 supply of fruit suitably prepared, with the meals, will soon remove the 

 unwholesome craving. Over and over again it has been proved that the 

 wish for candies (one of the most pernicious of ha*bits) can be checked in 

 this way : 



(6.) It may be from some defect in the digestive process, so that the child is 

 really hungry, although well furnished with food. This is a case for 

 medical advice: 



(c.) It may be, and too often is, merely a bad habit, which must be broken, no 

 matter at what expenditure of patience and perseverance. It takes its rise 

 in infancy, when the mother responds to every wail with food (sheer cruelty 

 instead of kindness), or stuffs a "comforter" into the baby's mouth to 

 keep it quiet 



THE HABIT OF CONTINUAL SUCKING 



is thus formed, and the craving for some object constantly in the mouth is established. 

 Apart from the immediate injury to health by the exhaustion of the digestive organs 

 for want of rest, and the damage to the teeth from a too liberal supply of nutriment 

 to the organisms which cause decay, this detrimental habit of candy-sucking and 

 gum-chewing leads on to early cigarette-smoking in boys, and very frequently to the 

 practice of perpetually desiring " nips *' of alcohol to stimulate the jaded palate. 

 Now, these constant " nips " are found to be more deteriorating to the individual and 

 his offspring than rare bouts of drunkenness, bad as these are. Therefore, 



THE MOTHERS OF CANADA 



cannot be too watchful against the acquirement of either habit by the future parents 

 of the country. 



THE SUBJECT OF THE INFANT COMFORTER 



may here be fitly introduced, for, as Dr. James Cantlie remarks, " It seems of late 

 years to constitute a chief part of a baby's equipment." He describes it as one " of 

 the most deleterious and destructive " agents to health ever invented. " The evil 

 effects of the prolonged use of the ' comforter ' are not merely temporary," he writes ; 

 " they continue throughout life, causing a permanent deformity of the mouth, and 

 of the air-passages generally, frequently inducing many associated deformities and 

 disfigurements, resulting in conditions difficult to remedy and incompatible witt 

 robust health. To begin with, the marked prevalence of 



ADENOIDS 



and the introduction of the 'comforter' came in together; . . . the roof of 

 the child's mouth is pushed upwards (see Fig. 7), the floor of the nasal cavity is 

 encroached upon, and the passage of the air through the nose is impeded. The child 

 finds breathing by way of the nose difficult, and mouth -breath ing with all its 

 attendant evil effects sets in. The natural channel by which the air enters the 

 lungs is through the nose, where the air is moistened and warmed before it reaches 

 the windpipe and lungs. When the air enters directly by the mouth the throat and 

 tonsils are subjected to irritation, and resulting enlargement of the tonsils still 

 further impedes respiration ... air is inhaled in lessened and insufficient 

 quantity, leading to diminished expansion of the lungs, narrowing or flattening of 

 the chest, and imperfect purification of the blood." Dr. Cantlie proceeds to describe 

 in detail how adenoid growths are brought about, in what ways the jaws become 

 deformed (this affects the tone of the voice and the right position of the teeth), and 

 how the whole process of digestion is rendered feeble and inefficient by reason of 

 the constant irritation caused by the presence of this filthy, heating, unnatural object 

 in the mouth. This is his conclusion : " A ' comforter ' causes deficient respiration, 

 a deformed mouth, a miserable chest, a ruined digestion, adenoids, and ear-troubles." 



IS 



