[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Baby illness term

[Günther Böhm]

Otto schrieb:
> Lack of calcium and vitamin D on the mother's behalf affecting the  
> child and resulting in mortality is an interesting scenario.
> I am aware of the reproductive rate of our colonists and also am aware  
> of the infant mortality rate which could reach 50% in the first two  
> years depending on the stability of their living conditions.
>
> I am curious as to how many of the infant deaths per percent of the  
> births were attributed to calcium and vitamin D deficiency? Was the  
> vitamin D deficiency a common malady among the colonists as a whole?  
> Or was it a rare condition?  I know there were many deaths of infants  
> due to the complexity of life and the lack of medical understanding.  
> It is of interest to me to categorize frequency of occurrence of each  
> malady to be able to mentally visualize a communities day to day life.
>
> It would be helpful if Rose-Marie qualified the frequency of the  
> births of those three children. Were they born one year apart?

Otto,
of course there were lots of reasons for the high infant mortality with 
epidemic diseases such as pertussis, mumps, diphtheria, rubella and 
measles playing a substantial role. But "Krämpfe" or "Frais" were 
different. In many families by half of the children or even more died of 
"Frais". I found this phenomenon in an ancestral branch where food 
supply was not a major problem but the pregnancies really happened 
annually. It was accepted like a Scourge of God and the next son or 
daughter got the name of the deceased one.

Günther