OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1642, 8 January 1913, Page 10

OUR BABIES.

1 [Bt HYOEU,] . j [Published under tho auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children.] i ■ , • ' It is wiser to put up a fence at the' top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulanco at the bottom. A MOTHER'S LETTER. "Young Mother" writes from the" country :—"Aiy baby, is led with humanised milk, w-luch i always make mysell. She has doubled her weight in iour months, instead of six, in spite of the fact that she did no good at ail lor one of those mouths on 's well-known patent lood, and had a bad attack of diarrhoea tor. a week. She is going to cut her teeth very early. She is the»p'icture of health, and 60 very bright anu happy. She sleeps all night, and is a motiet in every way. If you have a picture gallery lor your, babies I must send little Annie's photograph for it. "My only trouble is that the milk I set is so rich that I think the cream is too Strong' if I follow the recipe. I have been using eight ounces instead of ten, and skimming as thinly as I «m. lhe cow is a young Ayrshiro heifer. Howwould it do to use the-40 per cent, recipe i The eight ounces suit her very well, but, of course,! should.he glad to know if 1 could do better. I make up tho quantity with one ounco of whey and/boiled water. . ,- "I found the treatment recommended for diarrhoea—viz., boiled water, etc.— most excellent." Etc., etc. -. .COMMENT. Here everything seems to havo gone well, and one only wishes that such interest, -care, and attention to detail were attainable everywhere. : lu' nineteen cases out of twenty where a child is an-, parently all right the mother will con-; ,tinue any course of feeding she may have: adopted, in spite of the most convincing arguments that in the long run trouble is likely to arise'if a change is not made. The stereotyped answer one receives is: "Oh, i'm not going to make any change Iso long as baby is doing well. Besides, jf VS- ;__ f e j her babies;the same way, :and there is nothing wrong With them.'. /The average mother does not use her higher reasoning; faculties in these matters, and can scarcely bo brought to rea - •ise the folly of pursuing a course of feed-, ing proved bv world-wide, careful observation' and experience to be likely to cause a breakdown' in the long -run. lithe baby is doing well on a wrong or indifferent method of/ feeding, the mother might rest assured that.it would do better still if fed in' a better way. However, the'average woman hss no anxiety until- actual diseW arises, and even then she usually turnsin flurried despair from, onev. patent-food to another, instead ot looking the situation fairlj aud-squarely in tho face, and then,-calmly and patiently following out.some simple, rational , course of treatment based upon first .principles and experience. If.mothers-would, only look'ahead and treat'their progeny rationally from the start'there would be few ■ sickly babies, and, infantile , death would be a very rare event.. ■-. The grandmother, of course, tends to be opposed to all this, : and says_ that what was good enough,iirhcr day should be good enough now. If she referred to normal suckling by healthy mothers she would of course be right,;.but the present generation of young mothers has not for the most part had that advantage lorthemselves, and their education, nabits, and subsequent' life-training havev not been such- as to- make them/ns mothers the equals of tho mothers of earlier generations. Unfortunately;-too, from one cause or another, '/they- have lost tho guidahco of'nny reliable maternal "instinct, and have not yet'learned to re-: place it (to'the degree', to which it can bo replaced) by reason and intelligence. •'-' ANSWER/TO YOUNG MOTHER, . ' Now let us return,to the practical.question submitted by-"Young Mother. Eor'mulao should not.be changed unless.,tor some clear and distinct reason, and lam of opinion that if you try tho standard •humanised milk cgain you : will; find it a«reo all right;'indeed,'you.do-not,say-tiiat ■it disagrcetl.'- ; '. ... -:<r " ■, , .. Firstly, let ns consider the • supposed over-richness of the milk. If the cream has risen well you really have nearly all' tho fat in the top ten ounces, which you are at - present removing, and tho layer. '.immediately below that would ho little, if at all, richer in fat than ordinary milk. The topmost ounce, would contain from 20 to ■ 25 peri cent of fat, whereas the tenth ounce should not contain more than lor 2 par cent. , You.will -'realise from, this that the fewer ounces you skim off the richer, proportionately, you make your humanised milk in'fat relatively to proteid or flesh-forming material. It would be better to skim off the ten ounces of the "top milk" from the. 40oz. set, and to uso twelve ounces of whey. If your milk is really too rich in fat 'this can be reduced by setting'3o or 35 ounces instead of lOoz. of milk, and taking off the'top ten ounces as before. It is best'to use a conical dipper for Temoving the cream. .You do not say how you arrived at the conclusion that-your milk was too rich. There might be too much fat; it is veryimprobable that thero would' be appreciable excess m proteid. The best plan '.would be to send nn ounce of the humanised milk you prepare and an-ounce of tho milk from which you derive, your cream ;■ in' both cases make quite sure that the. specimens arc from .thoroughly mixed samples, so as to be fair averages; add three or four drops of formalin': to each phial to prevent decomposition. Address to the Plunket Nurse, Taieri and' Peninsnla Co., King Street; Dunedin, and mark "For analysis." We will let you know the result.: ; By using only eight ounces of top milk you reduce the allowance of flesh-form-ing material below the best standard. Evidently your baby is - doing well, but increase of weight is,' of course, hot : the only criterion; and it is eafer to keep up the proteid. If the, teeth should be cut early, as you anticipate, that would be one of tho best signs of perfectly. normal growth. ;{When a child is increasing so quickly in weight one would be inclined to give less food rather than more. Where growth is, very rapid the digestion sometimes becomes ' over-taxed; i nnd, ns - tho late Professor-, Budin, a great French authority, , always insisted, "Underfed babies tend not 'to suffer from indigestion," Babies tend'to be overfed in the great majority; of cases. ;.-•■' ~ ; ,- If procurable, it would he wiser to use the mixed milk of a herd instead of the milk of one cow. • There is no more widespread popular error than the idea that ,it is advisable to use "one cow's milk" for a haby. Tho milk of a particular cow may contain much more or mucn less than the average of fat or proteid, whereas the mixed milk-'of a; given herd varies very little, except, that-it would be decidedly poorer than tho annual average in spring and' richer in autumn.. ■'