All in the pink

MAYBE IT is time to rephrase the fairy tale question. Let us now ask:

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Who is the healthiest of them all?

No health fad this, no contest for biceps or triceps, slim waists or well-pedicured feet... This is a contest for babies, for healthy babies, or maybe we should say it as officialese would have it -`well-babies'.

Stanley Hospital in North Chennai was crawling with all types of babies this morning - small, long, fat, thin, fair, dark - all of them with big baby smiles plastered right across their faces.

Not a clue that they were being weighed and measured, being examined under the microscope, or should it be stethoscope.

But even as they played with their parents and grandparents who had brought them along, gurgled, put whatever they could lay their hands on, into their mouths, they were being not-so- ostensibly evaluated.

The occasion was the annual celebration of `World Breastfeeding Week' at Stanley Hospital.

Of course, what better way to celebrate than to start off with babies who have been fed on mother's milk and have proved that it is the `best'! Something on the lines of the Spert poster that came out recently perhaps... Macho Hrithik Roshan - a `mother's milk baby'.

With the thrust on eliminating bottle and manufactured baby foods, the campaign has quite doggedly pursued its aim of educating mothers on the importance of feeding children with breast milk. Changing tactics and throwing the feeding bottle out with the bath water, mother's milk has been the unrequited symbol at all government hospitals.

Mothers who come to the hospitals are being advised on how to bring up kids avoiding tinned and canned baby foods.

In fact, speaking at the inaugural function of the programme at Stanley Hospital, Dr. C. Ravindranath, dean suggested that creche facilities be established in all government hospitals to aid the women employees to take care of their children.

The well-baby contest is then an attempt to encourage these women to `keep at it'. The `healthiest' babies are chosen and some small gift awarded, but the parents might as well have been clamouring for the Oscars, such was their enthusiasm.

Most of them who had been referred by the RSRM Hospital came from lower economic backgrounds and were based in North Chennai, according to Dr. Rex Sargunam, head, Social Paediatrics department.

Four babies were chosen from among nearly 30 on the basis not only of the baby's health, but also the mother's awareness about immunisation and family planning methods.

However, all the babies went home with a `little something'. Why disappoint them, Dr. Sargunam said. Why indeed! Especially if actor Nasser was doing the honours! All's well that end's well, as one man from Stratford-upon-Avon said long, long ago.

By Ramya Kannan

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Section  : Southern States
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