OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1800, 12 July 1913, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

—:—« fBY BCtgeu.l

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women, and , Children. "It is wise? to put up a fence it the top ot a precipico than to maintain *n ambu- ' lance at the bottom/' MASTICATION. A previous article on mastication showed the extreme importance of exercising tho .jaws by giving babies, and young children some food needing thorough chewing, instead of limiting them to "pap," when they have got beyond the stago of mother's milk. This providing of food which needs work to be done on it is equally important during tho second year, and exerts a profound influence over tho "manufacture'and setting" of the permanent teeth if continued until J they have all coino through the gums and taken, up their life-work—to say nothing of the value of proper eating habits as aids to digestion, throughout life. To tho expectant and nursing mother, thorough mastication is of special significance, and tho importance of tho whole, subject can scarcely be overestimated. The following extracts from i Dr. Harry Campbell will help pai«n(a to realiso the duty thoy owe to their ' offspring from first to last in this very practical field of true education:— Tho more the food is masticated tho more completely it is insalivated. Now, 'i inasmuch as starch ls_ converted by the -i saliva, first into dextrine and then into maltose, it follows that tho whole of the • starch of tho food ingested may bo trans- ; formed into maltose within the; mouth j if only mastication is persisted in long ( enough; and it is surely better for the i individual to manufacture his maltose i within the laboratory 9f his own organ- , ism than to have it administered to him , in the form of the artificially prepared | "malt extracts"; yet, strange to say, , paitients are often allowed theio extracts when they are forbidden tho starchy , foods which they could', by adequate mas- , tication, cmite easily coavort' into inal- , tose' for themselves. _ As a matter ox t fact, starchy foods, if , sufficiently, in- . salivated, are seldom indieesiiWe. ' j Mastication increases the amount of j alkaline saliva passing into tho stomach,

,and thus not onity prolongs tho period of starch digestion, in i that organ, but influencas gastric digestion-in other , ways;'.. 1 it is probable that a'deficiency^of'alkaline saliva in the stomach is inimical to ' normal digestion. ... .[Memo. by. "Hygeia."—Mothers should ] clearly understand that tho salivary •glands are late in developing, and that j therefore starch does not normally form part of the food until the baby. is nino .months old. After that age, - Nature provides for a stendily4ncreasing flow of saliva. Hence the neejl for introducing . rusks; bread, cereal jellies, etc., to keep pace with the growth of tho child's starch- : digesting organs.! ' Mastication promotes tho flow of gas- ' trie juice, and thus prepares the stomach, 1 for the reception ot .food. This effect £ is probably produced ohicfly' througli the medium of psychic influence, for the p more efficiently, mastication is performed ' tho more effectually is the sense of tasto excited. Mastication stimulates tho heart, and so circulation. MUSCLES OF MASTICATION. Seeing that all rhythmic muscular coil 1 tractions stimulate the flow of blood and lymph "not , only in the contracting ' . muscles themselves, but in the neighbour- j ing parts also, it follows that the exer- -

ciss of the masticatory muscles, whiolt are far inqre massive than is generally realised, influences, with their own nutrition, that of the important structures adjacent to them—i.e., the jaw-bones, salivary glands, mucous membrane of mouth, soft palate, tonsils, pharynx, and cavities of tho hose, etc. All theso parts aro, during mastication, copiously flushed with blood and lymph, their nutrition being correspondingly stimulated, and it is not theieloro surprising that in those who from childhood upwards have been accustomed to masticate efficiently they should bo well doveloped—the jaws well grown and shapely, the teeth sound and regular, tho tongue (lor we must not forget that it, too, is a masticatory muscle) and salivary glands large, the nasal and naso-pharyngeal passages spacious, and tho mucous membrane of tho mouth and adjoining cavities healthy; and that, on the other hand, in those who havo never adequately exercised their masticatory muscles these various structures should be correspoudingly ill-developed and liable to disease. It- should be observed that some of tho largest muscles which cause the movements of the lower jaw during mastication arise from the very region Where) adenoids spring. That the jaws do not attain normal size unless properly exercised is shown by the overcrowded teeth of those brought up on soft_ foods, even in the absence of that peculiar deformity of the jaws resulting from mouth-breathing, which, ,as wo shall [see, is itself tho indirect result of inefficient mustication, , THE TEETII. But were there any doubt on these mat. "ters, it is only necessary to consider tnt teeth themselves to arrive' at certainty. .Who can contemplate the jaw-bones of a six-year-old child, so dissected as to display all the embedded teeth,' without, being-"-assured of the influence of masticationTn promoting their normal development and eruption? Fifty-two teeth meet tho view; tlio entire region from tho orbital rims to the inferior border of ttto mandible is, in fact, a mosaic of-them, temporary and permanent, the latter in various phases of growth, and only by "efficient mastication that shall ensure the conditions necessary to 'it can their adequate development possibly be brought about. It in mnstication alone that can stimulate the circulation—in the toothgerms that they may grow, and in tho jaws that, when grown, the teeth shall find room; and mastication, again, is necessary to enable the permanent teeth to take up their normal positions, so as to secure a good "bite"—i.e., proper apposition of the upper and tho lower teeta. tho pressure of the two rows of teeth! against each other makes for a health condition- alike of tho teeth, tho sockets containing them, and the surrounding tissues of the gums, inasmuch as it stimulates the circulation of tooth-pulp, tuothEockets, and adjacent parts. ■ Hcnce disease of the teeth and tooth-sockets (decay, abscess, etc.) is much more common in inefficient than in efficient masticators.