OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3042, 31 March 1917, Page 5

OUR BABIES

. [Br HTGEU.I . Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand' Society for the Health of Women end Children. "It is wiser to put a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." A YOUNG MOTHER'S LETTER. A young mother -writes from the country:- ,- •:-. ; ._ . , My baby, is fed on humanised milk, -which I always make myself. She ■has doubled her weight in four months instead of six. in spite of the •.' fact that she did no good at all for ' one of those months on '6 wellknown patent food, and had a bad ! attack of diarrhoea for a week. She is going to out her teeth very early. She is the picture of health, and so very bright and happy. She sleeps all night, and is a model in every way. If you have a picture gallery for 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 6trong if I follow the recipe. I have been using 2oz. less top-milk than is given in the recipe, skimming as thinly as I can. The cow ia a young Ayrshire heifer. I make np the quantity with loz. of whey and ■ loz. of boiled water. The milk seems to suit her very well; but, of course, I should be glad to know if I could do better. I found the treatment recommended for diarrhoea—viz., boiled water, etc.—most excellent, etc. COMMENT ON MOTHER'S LETTER. Here everything seems to have gone well, and one only wishes that such interest, care, and attention to detail were attainable everywhere. In 19 cases out Pf v2O where a child is apparently all rigtu the mother will continue any course of feeding she may have adopted, in spite of tne 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 so long as baby is doing well. Besides, Mrs.. fed 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 he nan scarcely be brought to .realise the folly of pursuing a course of'' feeding proved by- world-wide, careful observation and experience to he likely to cause a break-down later on. If the baby is. apparently doing well on, a wrong or indifferent method of feeding;' the-mother might rest assured thai it would do better still if fed in a better way. However, the average woman has no anxiety until actual disease arises, and even then she often turns in flurried despair from one patent food to another, instead of looking the situation fairly and squarely in the face, an 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 children rationally from the' 6tart there would be few sickly babies, and infantile,death would be a very rare event. ■•

. The grandmother, in many cases, tends to be opposed to all this, and says that what was good' enough in her day should be good enough now. If.she referred to normal, euckling by healthy mothers she would, of course, be right; but the present generation of young mothers haa not, for the most part., had the advant?ga. of being breast-fed themselves, and their education, habits, and subsequent life-training have not been such as to mate them, as mothers, the equals of the mothers of. earlier generations. ' Unfortunately, too, from one cause or another, they, have lost the guidance'of any reliable maternal instinct, and have not yet learned to. replace it (to the decree vMte 1 r « >* reason ..'/IREPLY TO YOUNG MOTHER. - Let US'now return to the practical question submitted by. our correspondent Itecipes should-not bs changed' unless . for some •clear and distinct reason, and 1 am of. opinion that if you try the standard humanised milk again you will find it'agree all right—Meed, ybii.do not" say that it disagreed. Firstly, let us consider! the supposed . over-richness of the milk. If the cream has risen well you really have nearly all the fat in the top Boz., which you are at present removing, and the layer Immediately below that, would be littlo if at all.'richorin-fat.than' ordinary ruilk. The topmost ounce would contain from 20 to a. per cent, of fat, whereas the tenth ounce should not contain more than 1 or 2 per cent. You will realise from this that. the. fewer ounces you skim off, the rioher, proportionately, you make your humanised milk in fat re-, datively, to proteid or flesh-forming mater-' ial. It would be-better, to skim, off lOoz. of the, top;milk from thedOoz. set, and. to use 12oz. of whey. If your milk'is' really too rich in fat, this can be; reduced by setting .350z. instead of iOoz. of milk, and taking off. the top lOoz. as before. ■' •'.'•■ ; It is better to use. a conical diaper for removing the top milk, (see page 21... "Feeding and Care of Baby^'). You do not say how you arrived at the conolusion that your milk was too rioh; There might be too much fat; it, is very improbable that there would be appreciable excess in proteid or flesh-forming material: Your best plan would be to 'send an ounce of the humanised milk you prepare, 'and an ounce of the cow's milk' from which you derive your top. milkj addressed to.the Plunket Nurse. Dunedin, and marked, 'Tor analysis.** .In both cases that the specimens are taken from thoroughly-mixed samples, so as to be fair averages. Add three or four drops of formalin to each phial to ■ prevent' decomposition. We ; will let you know the result. • I . By using only Boz. of top milk you re- | duce the allowance, of flesh-forming material below the best standard. Evi- . dently your baby is 'doing well; but increase, of weight is, of coUrse, not the only criterion, and it is safer to keep up-the ■proteid.' • ■ .; " " ~ When a child is. increasing so quickly in. weight one would bo'inclined to give less food rather than more. Where growth is very rapid the digestion sometimes becomes overtaxed. It is safer to keep baby on the short side i with regard to food rather than to give too much. The late Professor Budin, the eminent French authority on babies, always insisted that "underfed babies tend not to suffer from indigestion." Babies tend ,to be overfed in the great majority of ' cases. You must try to attain to the • happy, mean. ! ' The "One-cow's-milk" Fallacy. ! If procurable, it would be wiser to '■ uso'the mixed milk of a herd instead '■ of the mflk of one cow. There is no ' more widespread popular error than the ■ idea that' it is advisable to use "one •j cow's milk" for a baby. The milk of a particular cow may contain much more' or much 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 the average for the year in spring, and rioher in autumn. Further, tho milk drawn off after a long interval is poorer than milk drawn off after a shorter interval. Thus, in winter the average morning milk contains about_ 3 per cent. .of fat, while.the evening milk contains about i per cent. This is owing to the long night interval causing reabsorption ' of the fat from tho milk retained overlong in the v uddor. ' WheTe women 1 suokle their, babies only twice a day one sometimes .finds on analysis that there is less .than half the proper percentage of fat in their milk. This is the strongest argument against the irregular feeding of babies of ton resorted to by mothers, w.ho allow social calls to outweigh the rightful clnims of their infants. In'such cases, one not infrequently finds that the mother's milk causes vomiting, while prepared milk agrees quite well. This is not an argument in favour of artificial feeding, but against treating the baby as a secondary consideration.