MEDICAL HINTS FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume I, Issue 22, 16 November 1872, Page 3

MEDICAL HINTS FOR COUNTRY SETTLERS.

NO. 11, Ir is of the utmost importance that a strong and healthy constitution should ho established in early lila. The future health, and oven the length of life, may depend very much on tho treatment of tho lirafc low years of infancy. It need scarcely bo a dinned that the food which nature provides for the first months of infant life is the best; but 1 am anxious to disabuse mothers and nurses of bo mo occasional misconceptions. Ist. Nothing can supersede tho necessity of milk diet in early Jite. Aliik and eggs uvo tho only natural products which contain within themselves all tho elements necessary to build up tho healthy bodyy Wo cannot originate an element j whatever is inquired for nutrition must be derived from, tho food wa eat, Iho water we drink, and tho air wo breathe. Eggs »ro out of the question in early infancy ; we arc, therefore, reduced to tho only complete and a!I-auflluicnt article of diet for infants, pure milk. Ibid. There is no reason why a deficiency in tho natural supply from tho mother should not bo supplemented by cow’s milk ; nor why tho milk from several cows may not bo used simultaneously cr indifferently. 3rd. Cow’s milk is as good as goat’s milk, or ass’a miik, or camel’s milk, or any other milk. They diilbr merely in their relative”strength, and not in their essential composition. In spring and summer, cow’s mil!; is about ono third stronger than mother’s milk, and should, therefore, be diluted to that extent. In winter, it may bo about tho same strength. 4th. There is no reason why a motherless infant should not bo brought up in as good health by tlxa spoon or tho bottle us by tho breast. «>th. None of the expensive patent foods for children can supersede tho necessity of pure cow’s milk, Bullock’s Soiuola, Bright’s' Nutritious Farina, Tolson’a Corn Flour, Smith’s Nursing Powder, Ihivalent a Arabian,' Mariana, Ac., consist of variable proport ions of wheat Hour, barlej' Hour, vice flour, potatoes, starch, India corn ox* maize, and are all inferior to good old wheat flour, and should be largely combined with pure cow’s milk, if used in early infancy, ox* with beef tea, meat broths, gmvies, or eggs, a few months later. Tho above patent foods are deficient in the nitrogenous elements of nutrition, and ail of them nearly destitute of tho minor* f saline matters which nre absolutely necessary to iho formation of tho bones and tissues, and tho support of tho body in health} and ax-0 consequently utterly unsuitable as an exclusive uvliolo of* diet, especially for young children.

In early practice I attended a clergyman’s family in Leicestershire, mid for some reason or other, the mother waa unable to nurse her children herself. The nurse, therefore, and half'11- dozoa old dowagers, wore entrusted with tho management of tho first child, and in their wisdom they selected soma of tho patent *1 nutritious foods” that are id way a advertised, to tho exclusion of milk altogether. I protested and argued against this -violence to nature, bub to no purpose. “I was only a young pariah doctor,” and they were “ wiser than ten men that; could render a reason.” I was, it ia true, at that time surgeon to a largo poor-law Union ; but this was just the experience which enabled me to apeak wish authority and confidence. I had soon, ia luiuiirrlcss instances, how impossible it was to rear healthy children from half-starred mothers, who could not afford to buy for their children sufficient now milk to supplement their own scanty supply. My instructions as to infant’s diet were disregarded. “ Louder and holder bards were crojvned. Whoso dissonance my music drowned.” This “jury of matrons” cooked two or three c t tho clergyman’s into tho grave, and everybody sympathised with their “ providential Im-s.,’ Another child was born, and as I was not then (he “ parish doctor,” my opinion was allowed to prevail in tho council. Tho child was fed according to my own directions, and the result v/issiro succeeded in rearing n strong, healthy child. I uiy we, lor tho old ladies took groat credit to (.heroselves, mid after 1 left tho noighbouihood succeeded in rearing half-a-dozen more, when they had been shown how to do it, and how to make tho egg bland on end. Bread is too indigestible for tho fret two or three months of infant life, and, therefore, produces flatulency, griping, and restlessness. Whcitten four should not be given unices old and weil ripened; if new, it should bo first baked. Corn-flour (Indian meal) is too hot and stimulating for infants under six months. It almost always produces eruptions and boils. One object ion to some of tho patent corn flours is that, they contain a largo proportion ol barley meal or Indian corn flour. Brooders of horses are well aware that strong corn—as whoa!., barley, beans, and maize—cause enlargements of tho knee joints and fetlock joints, and lamcm-ss in young boraes. Arrowroot, always agrees with infants ; sago almost always- Tho beat fot d for infanta, that are fed by the spoon or bottle is, two-thirds good cow’s milk, and one third water, with arrowroot or sago. At five or six months, infants may bo fed with potatoes or bread mashed up small in gravy or heed tea. Eggs after this age are very excellent food. Kggs contain all tho elements necessary for tho nutrition of the child, and have this advantage— that they cannot be adulterated with any dirty admixture. " Au egg or a nut you may eat after a slut.” Miik ought still to form a large proportion of tho child's food. Children, for their own and j their mother's good, ought to be weaned under j twelve months, at the very furthest. If children I are well led on proper, light, nutritious diet, are ; warmly clothed and bra it ho pure air, they axa \ hound to live aa a general rule-