OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2705, 26 February 1916, Page 10

OUR BABIES

TBI Htgeu.l

Published under tlio auspices of tho ltoyal New Zealand Health Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up fl. [race at the top of a precipice than to maintain au ambulance at the bottom." INFANT FEEDING AFTER BABYHOOD Wo frequently receive letters from parents and nurses as to tlie be.st food to give children from tho time of weaning up to, say, four or five, years of age. it hiis heen suggested that a definite table should 1)0 inserted in the next edition of tho society's book, "Feeding and Care of Baby"—a table comparable with th» one on page 3-1, which gives feeding up to the first nine months. We quite agree that it is j net as desirable that there should bo method and system in the feediug of children after weaning as bofore; but it is not possiblo to lay down a single standard for universal use after the first year, on account of the variation in suitable foodstuffs procurable in different localities or avail, able for use in various-circumstances. In tho first nine months of life there is only one ideal food for the child (mother's milk)—only one perfect method of feeding—viz.,, suckling, and, practically speaking, only one proper standard as to frequency of feeding—viz., every three or four hours, and no night-feeding. THE SECOND YEAE. When it comes to tho second year tho .choico as to food becomes wider and v/idcr._" It is true that for some months milk is still tho best main constituent; but there is no necessary advantage now in human milk over cow's milk, thongh It is generally conteuded throughout the Continent of Europo that the child tends to thrive best who is partially suckled up to 18 months, and this is also tho custom in most Oriental oountrics. 0 However, it may be assumed that, among ourselves, cow'g milk will continue to be the main nutrient constituent o£ tlie baby's food up to the end of at least tlie first half of the second year of lifo; but an equally important matter i'or tho future welfare of the child is the nature of tho increasing allowance of supplementary -food required during this time. There are many preparations which will supply the necessary nutrient materials,'and thus ensure satisfactory gain in ; weight. Unfortunately, this has been almost the sole criterion; henco the legion of nursery recipes for pap, and tho nost of patent babv foods. Indeed, these form the basis of tlie average modern woman's idea as to how a child should be fed In tho second year of life. It has become so ingrained into us that a baby only needs milk and mush, that this is practically all he gets in many cases until ho is two. years of age. Who does not know the simple routine list—bread and milk, porridge, milk puddiuga, groats, barley flour, tapiooa, sago, ariowroot, potato and gravy, etc.? Given In. moderation, any of these things is ill right; but tfie fate of the child as regards his teeth nnd jaws, his digestion, and his health depends more on a wise selection of a sufficiency of food that will ensure proper exercise for jaws, teeth, and salivary glands.

Tho main point'is: What are we to do to ensure the carrying out of Nature's de. sign to have tno child equipped at 18 months with what, tho dentists tell us, should be the finest biting, grinding, and chewing apparatus he will over have in proportion to his size? Surely wo are not going to let ship tho golden opportunity for preventing feebie jaws, decayed teeth, aud indigestion by failing to ensure plenty of masticatory exercise.

EXERCISE FOK JAWS, ETC. Dr. Harry Campbell, who, along with Dr. Sim Wallace, is the leading EnglWi authority on this transceudently important subject, says:— "In order to 6eo.ure the full advantage. l ) accruing from tho use of the jaws and their appendages, it is, above all, necessarjr for them to bo adequately cxercwed during tho period of development. If this is dono the masticatory ■ instinct will establish itself .as " a permanent force, so that the individual will tend for the rest of his life to subject ovon soft foods to thorough mastication. "The tongue, tho lips, and the'jaws o( the newly-born child find their natural exercise at the mother's breast, and wo should therefore do our utmost to get the mother to suckle her child. If, unhappily, we fail in this, we must seo that the teat of the feeding bottle is so constructed as to confpel the child to earn his meal by at any rate, some exercise. "Directly the dispositon to bite hard things is manifested, tho instinct (for instinct it is) should bo gratified. This instinct is commonly observable before the sixth month, and should become more and more pronounced as the time for the eruption of the teeth aproachea. It is now more thaai ever necessary to provide the child with hard substanoes on which to exercise his jaws and gums."

After recommending the daily use of ohop-bones. chicken bones, etc., from the sixth month onwards. Dr. Campbell goes on to says— '

"There is only one way to develop the masticatory instinct in a child, and that is to give him food which obliges him to masticate. If this is not done it is mere waste of words to tell him' to chew his food properly. To try to teach a' child how to masticate by setting him to watch and imitate the chewing movements of someone else, in the absence of food needing mastication, is almost as futile. -The first essential is to.-give the child from an early period foods .which compel mastication;

"Starch, then, should be given to the child in a solid and somewhat tough (or dry, crisp)..form, such as bread crust (or toast). A well-baked crust, cut in a suitable.form,- and spread with butter, baconfat, or dripping, constitutes a very acceptable and wholesome morsel. ' When by such means as these, the child's instinct to masticate has had proper oportunity to develop, we may allow a, ccrtain amount of soft starchy food, such as porridge, boiled potatoes, milk pudding, and the like, nnd these he will now be likely to subject to something like adequate mastication, which will tend to mitigate tho ovils associated with' suoh food."

In another place Dr: Campbell says that once the masticatory instinct is properly developed, a child can scarcely perform the act of swallowing without übjecting even soft food to some mastication. Dr. Sim Wallace (the eminent London dentist I have before reforred to) speaks with equal emphasis-on the same matter. He insists that the qualities of toughness, hardness, or dryness of food are almost as essential as what are called tho nutritive properties for the child's health and proper development, especially for mouth, jaws, and teeth.

Whilo general indications, such as tha abovo can be given for guidance in the feeding of children from the end of tho first year onwards, precise feeding tables which would be universally aplicablc cannot be given. The definite aud precise feeding tables which apply more or less closely for the rearing of all infants, so long its their food is restricted to milk, have no place when wo comc to the wide divergence of foods in different localities which become available from the end of the first year/onwards. Tho common eeuso, wisdom, and discretiou of. the mother are more and more called for as the child passes from the suckling stage towards the stage of taking the ordinary food of the household.