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The mothercraft manual

Chapter 47: FOOTNOTES:
By Mary L. Read
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How To ...Parenthood & Family Relations

About This Book

The manual offers a practical, principle-based handbook for prospective and practicing mothers, translating scientific findings in biology, hygiene, dietetics, child psychology, and pedagogy into everyday guidance for infant and young-child care. It emphasizes early education through play and the mother's central teaching role, presents concrete routines and techniques used at a training school for mothercraft, and encourages preparation for motherhood as a learned vocation rather than reliance on instinct. The author favors progressive yet cautious interpretation of new research, provides pathways for further study, and cautions that personal medical and professional advice remains essential.


Relative Weight and Height Table—Girls[54]

The figures represent weight in pounds

Height in Inches 5 Yrs. 6 Yrs. 7 Yrs. 8 Yrs. 9 Yrs. 10 Yrs. 11 Yrs. 12 Yrs. 13 Yrs. 14 Yrs. 15 Yrs. 16 Yrs. 17 Yrs. 18 Yrs. 19 Yrs. 20 Yrs.
39 34
40 37 35
41 38 37
42 41 39 39
43 41 41 42
44 45 43 44 42
45 45 45 45
46 48 47 47
47 50 49 49
48 51 51
49 53 53 54
50 56 56 57
51 59 58 60
52 63 62 62 63
53 64 63 66 65
54 69 68 69 68
55 70 71 73
56 75 75 76 78
57 78 80 83
58 83 86 88 89
59 88 89 93 97 100
60 94 94 96 100 104 109 103 99 99
61 99 100 102 109 109 106 105 111
62 104 104 106 111 110 107 111 114
63 107 109 116 110 112 113 114
64 112 118 116 117 114 119 115
65 114 118 121 125 120 123 125

Pulse[55]

Age Per Minute
Birth 130
6-12 mo. 105-115
2-6 yr. 90-105
7-10 yr. 80-90
11-14 yr. 75-85

Respiration[56]

(During sleep)

Age Per Minute
Birth 35
1 yr. 27
2 yr. 25
6 yr. 22
12 yr. 20
Adult 16-18

Pulse and respiration in infants may be normally irregular and the rate greatly modified by apparently slight causes. In very young infants regular rhythmic breathing is seen only in sleep, and rhythm is not fully established before two years.

Temperature in young children is normally 98°-99.5°F., taken by rectum; it occasionally rises to 100.5 in apparently perfect health. It is normally higher in late afternoon.[57]

The rate of circulation (time required from leaving the heart till return to the heart) is in the newly born 12 seconds, at 3 years 15 seconds, in the adult 22 seconds.[57]

Infant Mortality

The infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of babies which occur for every 1,000 live births. Figures in the United States are available only for that part of the country known as the registration area, where the reporting of births and deaths is legally required. It is important that the birth of every child should be registered, and that laws requiring registration should be enforced in every State.

Deaths of Infants Under One Year of Age Per 1,000 Live Births in Foreign Countries[58]

Country Year Rate
Russia 1909 248
Ceylon 1912 215
German Empire 1911 192
Austria 1912 180
Italy 1911 153
Switzerland 1911 123
England and Wales 1912 95
Ireland 1912 86
France 1912 78
Australia 1912 72
Norway 1911 65
New Zealand 1912 51

The New York Milk Committee states that an infant mortality rate above 50 per 1,000 is preventable by sanitation, hygiene, prenatal care, and the instruction of mothers; and that a rate beyond this is unfair to the babies, and a disgrace to the community for its negligence.

Principal Causes of Death During Growth

Registration Area, United States, including about 65 per cent. of population. For the year 1913.

Cause of Death Under 1 Yr. 1-2 Yrs. 2-3 Yrs. 3-4 Yrs. 4-5 Yrs. 5-9 Yrs. 10-20 Yrs.
1. Congenital debility 60,551
2. Premature birth 27,359
3. Injuries at birth 5,131
4. Digestive 43,243 9,942 2,653 1,124 697 1,968 2,939
5. Respiratory (except tuberculosis, chiefly pneumonia) 25,274 9,272 3,567 1,724 1,055 2,296 2,502
Tuberculosis 2,491 1,879 1,053 693 507 1,702 8,350
6. Whooping cough 3,442 1,516 596 301 152 246 40
7. Measles 2,011 2,562 1,117 584 302 660 346
8. Diphtheria and croup 913 1,857 1,781 1,498 1,293 3,171 918
9. Scarlet fever 255 618 798 684 603 1,563 621
10. Influenza 608 171 105 47 42 126 202
11. Smallpox[59] 27 4 4 3 5 8

The death rate is higher during the first five years than at any other five-year period; higher during the first year than any other year; highest during the first month; and its maximum is during the first week of life.

It is estimated that about fifty per cent. of all children die before they are born. Life is conferred at conception, and miscarriage is really death before birth. The registration of stillbirths, with causes, should be required by law, as it now is in some foreign countries.

Diarrhea and other digestive disorders are prevalent causes in summer; pneumonia and colds in winter.

Of the deaths from summer diarrhea, about 90 per cent. are babies artificially fed, compared with 10 per cent. naturally fed.

Mortality in Pregnancy

United States Registration Area, 1913

Puerperal septicemia (blood poisoning, due to lack of surgical cleanliness in care) 4,542
Albuminaria and convulsions (usually preventable by regular examination of urine) 2,397
Accidents (frequently preventable by prenatal hygiene and skilful medical supervision) 2,703
Other causes 368
10,010

Most of these deaths were due to preventable causes.

Even with these preventable deaths, the chances of death in childbirth were only 1 in about 200 births.

In every community where instruction has been provided in prenatal hygiene and the care of infants, a marked reduction has resulted, both in prenatal deaths, in mortality in pregnancy, in infant mortality and in the inability of mothers to nurse their babies.

FOOTNOTES:

[34] See Preface, page xiii.

[35] C (?) = Possibly contagious; isolate.

[36] C = Contagious; child should be isolated.

[37] Diagnosis of a specific disease in a given case can only be made by an experienced physician. The Table is of value particularly as indicating the mild symptoms with which these begin. Incubation is the period from exposure to first symptoms. Isolation dates from first symptoms.

[38] G. = Onset gradual.

[39] S. = Onset sudden.

[40] Quoted from Rose’s “Laboratory Manual in Dietetics”, and Sherman’s “Food Products”, by permission.

[41] In part, quoted from Fisher’s “Graphic Method in Dietetics”, by permission; in part, calculated by the author, from data in Rose’s “Manual.”

[42] Exact figures not yet available; mineral about 3 times that in bolted.

[43] Exact figures for unpolished not yet available; mineral about 3 times that in polished.

[44] T = tablespoon.

[45] c = cup.

[46] t = teaspoon. Level measures.

[47] From “Food Products”, H. C. Sherman, by permission of the publishers (The Macmillan Company). Complete tables there itemized.

[48] Blatherwick.

[49] Amer. Jour. Diseases of Children, November, 1914. Doctor Roland G. Freeman.

[50] For normal relativity see tables, pages 374, 375.

[51] Daten und Tabellen, Vierordt.

[52] Girls average ½ inch shorter until 2 to 4 years, then 1 to 2 inches shorter until 11 to 14 years; ½ to 2 inches taller 11 to 14 years; then shorter.

[53] Girls average ½ pound lighter than boys during first year; then 1 to 2 pounds lighter until 12 years; 2 to 3 pounds heavier until 14 years, then lighter.

[54] From the Ninth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, by courtesy of the author, Doctor Thomas D. Wood. (Data are based upon examinations, during fourteen years, of pupils in Horace Mann School, New York City.)

[55] Holt.

[56] Uffelmann, quoted by Holt.

[57] Vierordt, quoted by Holt.

[58] In the United States the rate in the registration area, according to the Census of 1910, was 124 per 1,000, a total of 159,435, from which the Census Bureau estimates the total deaths for the entire country as 300,000 under 1 year of age.

[59] Before vaccine was generally used, was as prevalent as tuberculosis.