OUR BABIES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2007, 14 March 1914, Page 11

OUR BABIES.

• ' -. ' ~— ~* — ! — ~~ < ' TBi Hygeu.l

Published under the auspi«» of tlw So.ciety for the, Health of AVcmcn and Children.'-■• • "It Iβ wlsor to put up a fonce at tin top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at.the bottom." FAILURE IN NURSING. In this and the next article I purpose giving somo idea of common causes of failure to nurse their babies in cases of. mothers who are anxious to do so. Ths. illustrations will bo' drawn from instances which camo under our notice recently in the Old World. Beforo going into detail it is desirable to mako perfectly clear that the power to completely nurture a baby for nine months, or evon , longer, should be taken as a matter of course in the case of every normal human mother, just as it is in the case of every normal mammal. However, under tho conditions of modern civilisation a considerable proportion of mothers do not succeed in supplying enough milk for their babies for the full period. MAIN CAUSES OF FAILURE. The main causes of failure are: — (1) Tho fact that the mother herself was reared artificially on preparations not well adapted for the perfect development of tho whole organism. Investigations have clearly shown, that where a mother has failed to "suckle her baby girl, the daughter tends to fail also when her time comes. This proves that, where artificial feeding has to be resorted to, tho utmost care should be taken to make the prepared food resemble human milk as nearly as possible. If proper care is taken there is no reason why artificially-fed infants should fail as mothers. - (2) Defective or one-sided growth and development. A poorly-developed, palefaced girl is not likely to make the best of mothers from any point of view, though it is wonderful how much such women sometimes do in spite of everything, if they tako proper, care of themselves after marriage. .On the other hand, there is abundant evidence that powerful, muscular women, who have been -too exclusively trained at colleges to high mental proficiency and .great' skill in gymnastics, ■ golf, tennis, etc., are apt to fail in all. aspects of motherhood- simply becauso tho various parts of the body particularly concerned in motherhood;, including special brain and nerve tracts, have

PRETTY EVENING FROCK. ■ . . been moro or less Mt out of account, 2nd havo failed to develop properly. If tho nutrition and energising of tho organism are concentrated throughout girlhood on mere intellectuality, and the development of bono and muscle to tho exclusion of' the domestic and more strictly womanly, home-loving, and child-loving sido of life ithero is found 'to bo some lack of'the "eternal womanly" in the adult. In no direction is this moro' clearly seen' than in the failure to properly nourish offspring, however anxious the mother may bo to do so. ■ . (3) Neglect of any of tho essentials mentioned in Pages 3 to 15 of tho society's book, '.'Feeding and Care of Baby," may militate against the povrer to completely nurse tho baby. ■ • Chief among these causes are:—Corset-wear-ing, lack of foresight and lack of healthy habits, especially insufficiency of open-air exerciso; neglect , of tho breasts, etc.; carelessness as to diet.and feeding habits; tho presence of constipation, etc. All such.mistakes tend in the same direction. But, in spite of everything, there arc very few modem ..mothers who cannot manago to nurse babies completely or partially for nine months if they will give reasonable attention' to what is needed even so lato ia tho day as after the birth'of the "baby, though, of course, their chances would be ■infinitely bettei in evory way if-they looked ahead in duo time. ' ' . . . It cannot bo too strongly impressed on women'that in the natural ppufse tho mothor should have ample milk for twins.* This is olearjy Bhgyyji by the fact'that, in hospital!) on the Continent, it ia quite a enmmqn tiling for a citv mother to be (ibis to supply aniple milk for two or jmbies,' for long periods. ' (4), Overfeeding ftp s&l)y.—grange as itimsy seen), this, is. a frequent cause of failure in the m\)k supply. Instead of cautiously training clio baby in the first week J;y starting wjth nursing ifgr Vwfjy & I&W sfel't?.? syery tjjres or four hotifj, ?s<} gradually «winng up to

nursings of 10 to 15 minutes, the nurse often tries to get tho baby to take as muclrjns it can. Tho same mistake is made in tho succeeding:weeks, tho baby being commonly fed every two hours. A frequent result is that for a,week or more tho baby gains in'weight more quickly than the. average, then indigestion sets in, the baby becomes restless and irritablo, tho-mother loses her sleep also, and the milk supply begins to dwindle. First the baby's weight bocomes stationary, then it begins to go doivuhill. When loss rather than pain has been noticed nt several weighings the mother.is ordered to give a bottlefeeding in place of. one of the breastfeedings; then two complete bottlefeedings, ahd> so on, .and in a. short time it is decided-, that-the baby , must bo weaned. The mother is told that there u something.radically wrong with the quality of her milk, becauso the baby, cries after the feedings, but is contented after -the bottle-feedings., In reality it is a very. rare thing :■ indeed for the milk to disagree unless her habits are very far wrong: In the vast; majority of these cases the supply of mother's milk has been caused to fall short of the quantity required, and the baby cries simply becauso ho is not getting enough—perhaps only a, half or a third of the quantity.' allowed- at each feeding by bottle. - - - -.- I shall give a very interesting illustrative case, next'week where a baby, who was failing before it was a month old in exactly the. way I have described, was quickly-restored to a flourishing condition by-first ascertaining what was the shortage in;the mothers supply by means of weighing the baby before and after nursing, and proceeding to systematically "mako up the deficiency by giving only just what was needed after each nursing.. To keep up full , stimulation of the'breasts the baby was suckled at each feeding time, only the amount needed to make up the full quantity\being given by. bottle. Further, both breasts were used at each nursing. The feedings were reduced in number from 10 to six in'the 24 hours, and no night-feeding was allowed. The baby quickly went up more tEan an ounce a day, and soon became the picture of health and chubbiness. At the. same time the mother's health and spirits rose, and the. milk supply steadily increased. • Yet this mother had been told that her milk was poisonous, and that it was absolutely necessary to wean the baby. She was well-to-do, and had what would be called every advantage, yet-this was the third baby that, for no other reasons , than such as have been given, had. been condemned to artificial feeding. The mother was most anxious to nurse her children, and had every natural quality, physical, mental, and moral, tending to perfect womanhood— a good mother defeated through wrong counsel. ; /~' The Society strongly disapprove of the use of artificial foods as a substitute for mother's or humanised milk. Full directions for the preparation of'the latter is contained in the Society's published pamphlets entitled "What Baby Needs." Glaxo Builds Bonny Babies.—AdvU

MRS. CARLYLE'S CAT.

NEW LETTERS. Somo. new. letters , of Mrs. Carlyle's arc a refreshing, oasis in- tie mass : of , print that daily loads the new bookshelves. They occur in a very pleasant volume called "in Cheyno Walk and Thereabout," by that authority oh Chelsea and its famous people, Mr. Reginald Blunt. They are letters written to a housemaid who camo;< from Scotland to the Thomas Carlyles' ■ service in 1865. This is how her duties were defined by Mrs. Carlyle: f ... j "What my 'Housemaid has \o do' is just, I suppose, what other Housemaids 'have to do, where there are only two servants kept. She lias to do the House- work, to answer tho door, : to wait at table, to bo tho 'least bit-of a Lady's maid to mo, and the least bit of -valet to Mt. Carlyle.. As the house is of moderate dzo, and as we . have no. dinner parties, and as both Mr. C. and myself aro orderly, the work is certainly not. heavy for anyone who understands her business. x The washing is all given out; only the servants wash their own clothes—thero is a little garden-to dry fhem in. I.give my Housemaid twelve pounds a year, and one .pound ten for beer money, which she may drink or save—as she likes; tea and sugar of course is given." "I Wish'. She Ware Dead!" Another delightful letter is about a cat. "I wish she were dead I" Mrs. Carlyle says, and then continues: ' "Well! ! Thero sho is—and as long as she attends Mr. C. at his meals (she doesn't earo a snuff of tobacco for him at any other times!) «o long will C. continuo to give her bits of meat, and driblets of milk, to the ruination of the carpets and hearthrugs!—! have over and over again pointed out to him tho stains she has made —but he won't beliovo them her doing! And the din-ing-room carpet was so old and ugly —that it wasn't ;vorth rows with one's Husband about! .' Now, however, that nice now' cloth must be protectedagainstithe Cat-abuse. So what I wish is that you would shut up the creature when Mr. C. has his breakfast, or dinner, or tea. And if ho remarks on her absence, say it was my express desire. He has no idea what a selfish,' immoral, improper beast she is,; nor. what. inischief she does to tho carpets*" .';-''■ .