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Salted

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salted

credit: Detry 26

Saline

salt slid from the tear

of a motherless child whose

orange groves hung heavy

with grief, oozed from lips

beyond repair;

edged the ears off

the corn and slipped sideways,

to smile at the watermelon

patch whose hatchlings

strutted and stalked, pecked

and pawed the ground, in search

of minerals that would induce

a full measure of life; to provide

for and savor the influences

beyond their control.

That brine hugs all children

to itself, like a bee hugs

the flower, gathering honey

and sharing pollen from

free-floating organisms,

whose only purpose in life

is to provide the salt

for grief-stricken tears.

            ~ Annette Gagliardi

This poem is in response to the Book of Ezekiel 16:4 (Bible, King James Version) which portrays the use of salting newborns at birth as a metaphor that compares Jerusalem to an abandoned child: 

Ezekiel 16:4  “And as for your nativity, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to supple you; you were not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.”

The English Standard translation: “And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes.” From: https://biblehub.com/ezekiel/16-4.htm

I have heard about, and have first-hand experience with, cutting the umbilical cord when a child is born, and washing the babe, then wrapping or swaddling in a warm blanket. But, I had not heard of the practice of salting your newborn.

You might know about salting your baby if you are Jewish, Islamic or Muslim, or even if you’re from an indigenous community. In fact, to sprinkle your newborn with salt goes way, way back in history. Dioscorides, Galen, and Soranus of Ephesus were three (great) physicians from the Greco-Roman Era of Medicine who were aware of the cleansing and preventative properties of salt. After washing, newborns were rubbed with salt so that their flesh hardened.

‘when a child is born, it should be sprinkled on him with powdered salt and roses reduced, to strengthen the skin by it against the air’. Eugene L. Mahmoud, M. D- Salting Newborns article, Dec. 2020)

Depending on the country and climate, some physicians recommended that infants be washed, as soon as they are born with a solution that included salt, or something more exotic — “with fenugreek water and barley flour;” or, you could go with this solution that others suggested: “to the salt should be added myrtle, rose, laurel leaves, pistachio tree leaves, costus or malabathron, either separately or mixed one another.”

That’s quite a solution with which to accost your newly born baby. I wondered, “What do we do, here in America today?”  Currently, American physician use a minimalist approach. Doctors today prescribe a small amount of neutral PH or slightly acidic cleanser. In other words, they suggest a warm, sterile, water sponge bath to prevent bacteria growth.  And, for premature infants, they suggest delaying bathing for 24 hours. The vernix, (a greasy deposit covering babies’ skin at birth) should be left on to help protect the child from exposure to disease.

Perhaps it was that vernix layer the ancient physicians wanted to clean off newborn infants. From antiquity, newborns were washed with salt (almost like hams being cured) to harden their skin. Although some physicians did suggest caution, so as not to get salt into the baby’s eyes or mouth, because that may produce inflammation, ulceration or suffocation. Because baby’s skin is still quite tender and weak, a newborn should be sprinkled — like dusting a donut with powdered sugar! — This is done to render the skin sufficiently firm.

“It is apparent from ancient times that the health of newborns was closely connected to the ability of the skin barrier to protect from objects and agents of illness.” (Eugene L. Mahmoud, M. D- Salting Newborns article, Dec. 2020)

Pennsylvania State College professor Dr. Vernon Raymond Haber discovered the use of Epsom salt as a powerful insecticide when looking for natural insecticides to kill the Mexican bean beetle. (From: “Salt v. Insect”, from Time Magazine, May 10, 1937:  https://oureverydaylife.com/how-to-do-a-salt-covenant-for-a-wedding-ceremony-12562079.html This makes perfect sense to me. If I wanted to protect my infant against insects and I knew salt was an insecticide, well salting would be my method!

Salt has been used for thousands of years as a simple and effective method of preservation, especially for food. The concept of “purification” in this context refers not to chemical cleansing, but to the inhibition or outright killing of harmful microorganisms that cause spoilage or disease. The ancients (and some modern cultures) apply that sensibility to the preserving of newborns, or more accurately, to the practice of prohibiting fungal other microbiological disease.

Salt achieves disinfection through a “fundamental physical process involving water movement. The mechanism is a passive one, relying entirely on the concentration difference between the salt environment and the internal environment of a microbial cell.” (from: https://biologyinsights.com/how-does-salt-purify-the-science-of-osmosis )

However, salt purification has limits. It only targets organisms that are susceptible to the osmotic pressure difference across skin cell membranes. That means it will not have any effect on non-biological contaminants present in food or water.

In his medical textbook, ‘Al Mansour,’ speaks of neonatal care without explicitly stating the substances with which the newborn should be sprinkled or anointed. But, he provides a pretty thorough description of cleaning up the newborn baby.

“The baby’s ears should be sucked as he is being born and after. Beware that the milk does not enter [the ears] during nursing. The newborn’s palate must be rubbed with honey, and it is necessary to clean his nose by rubbing it with hot water and oil and wiping it. You must also rub and anoint him,(with salt) stretch out his members in [the appropriate] directions, swaddle him and settle the parts of his head, the forehead, and nose. With these cares, the child is protected against a large number of diseases.” (From: Al Majusi’s book, ‘The Complete Art of Medicine,’ on ‘The Regimen of the Baby’s Bodies’, in Chapter 20 of Volume Two, Article One)

The well-known Arabic physician in, ‘The Canon of Medicine’, says:

The face and the body of the newborn should be bathed in salt water to harden the skin and set the features. The best salt for this purpose is the one which contains a small quantity of seeds of Indian hemp, costus root, fumitory, fenugreek, and origanum. The saline bath could be safely repeated if the body is found to be still dry or covered with secretions.’ 

Different methods of salting are still used in today’s Turkey as well as other parts of the world such as the Middle East, India and China. They are recommended to prevent disease and death.

This practice is performed with the assumption that it will: (a) avoid the bad smell of the infant body, (b) decrease sweating, (c) strengthen the muscles and bones, (d) prevent infections, (e) ensure that injuries would heal fast, and (f) to deter supernatural beings and evils. The normal anatomy of human skin consists of a complex, multi-functional organ that interfaces with the outside organism in the environment. Newborn skin is soft and sensitive, but far from  perfect. Newborns look red, have various colors of skin, may be wrinkled or bruised, have lots of fuzz on their face and back (called Lanugo) or they may have ‘stork bites’ or ‘angel kisses’.  Many babies have tiny white marks that look like pimples called milia, which are caused by blocked oil glands. If your baby is overdue, he or she may have dry, peeling skin, especially on their hands and feet. In fact, peeling of skin will probably happen after a week or so to every newborn. Today’s physicians are (perhaps) more concerned that newborns achieve ‘thermo-stability’ before they are bathed, which currently, is warm sterile water.

I was thinking that if you live in a third-world country and you sit on the ground, or you let your infant lay on the ground, there is a high chance for parasites, insects and microorganisms to attach themselves to your infant or go through the skin to infect them. In addition, the close proximity to animals and animal dung would provide more chances to infect your infant.  Salting would be a tried-and-true mode of defense against parasites and some insects such as the Mexican Bean Beetle. So, I believe salt would certainly be effective disinfectant.

The difference between the sterile environment of a 1st world hospital and the conditions of a farmhouse of rural home will probably be vastly different. Salting makes more sense if there are more environmental ‘dangers’ for the infant.

Salt is (and was) also use as a spiritual purification. Midwives and elderly female relatives believed that salting babies provided protection from foul morals, helped to ward off evils, prevented bad smells and sweating, as well as from putrefaction. Hail the wonders of salt!

Historically, salt was sometimes used alongside boiling to enhance purification. Thank goodness that humans only salt their infants. Think of the ramifications of boiling!

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