OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 164, 5 April 1919, Page 5

OUR BABIES

I |Bl HYBSIA.I . I Published under tho auspice; of tho S Royal New Zealand Society lor the K Health of Women and Children. i "It is wiser to put up a fence- at tno V top of ii precipice than to maintain an S3 ambulanco at the bottom. I BALANCINC~BREAST-FED SADIES. t BEFORE AND AFTER NURSING. i The following extracts from a, letter rcj ceived from the North Island will be of r interest to our reader":— | EXTRACTS FROM LETTER. f My baby is just six months old and i weighs only 141b. He was seven at birth. -[Memo, by "llyseia": A baby should 5 double his weight in five months-that is, }, on reaching the sixth month. 1 Late yho : has a, liuie colour, but generally he is pale. 1 dread folks passing that-remark. ... I have done all I knew in looking after myself and baby so that lie would 1 look better. I am considered a very 3 healthy woman, although not overstrung i; in the way of doing hard work. 1 generi ally have a cold shower several times a : week. We are great believers in fresh 3 air, and we also took after our diet. ■ : I have fed baby regularly from tho t timo the nurse left, ho has been unite a regular, he always sleeps out on the t verandah in the (lay time, and the wins' dow is open at night, and yet he is not 9 cs biu as ho should be. I omitted to '•■ state lie does not have any food,about Z ) a.m. Also he has no soother. We can- ; not understand why he does not grow. !: He seems ouite healthy. J When he was about four months old I if was without help lor a month, and ho < did not gain the whole of taat time. As f soon as i realised it I began feeling myf self up, taking malt extract and cod ! liver oil and extra milk every day. I j was advised to take daily walking-excr- \ cisc, which I tried to carry out as much [ aB possible. Then for lour or five weeks \ baby put on 51b. each week. Tho followi ing week he did not gain at all. It was ' very wet the whole week, and I did not '! go out for a walk- Would my not taking \ daily exercise make the difference,, or S would be it be that his teeth are coming? 1 Would the latter cause him to be very wakeful at night-time? I have not had a » good night for some weeks, but 1 tniuk i it must bo his teeth. i I think there must be some littlo thing j wrong in my management. lam ciiclnst ing stamps for a copy of the society s i book, as I thought it might help me. j Baby is well and healthy, ami generally j good in'the day time, but not fat. After i tho first two or three feedings in the day j] ho seems satisfied.

It is not easy for a good many of us to nurse our babies, and we want to know how to feed and how to look after ourselves so as to increase the supply ol milk. I have lcur books on the manage ment nf babies. P.S.-I have had two very bad nights again, aud feel f must do something. Baby seems healthy, but makes little progress, and is wakeful at night. ' COMMENT. This is a typical sample of the letters which come to tho society from all parts of the Dominion. Hero is a mother, devoted to her offspring, anxious to do the very best for it. Becking information in all directions, but rcceiviiur nowhere the one thing needful—namely, advice to weigh the infant before aud after suckling. Mother and child present, the ordinary features char.icterisuc ol iiui'Bing with an inadequate aud declining supply of breast milk.

Though- not actually ill, the baby is "pale, .very wakeful at night time, not so big as he should be," in spite of very careful attention to fresh air, oxerciEe, regularity, etc.--indeed, to all essentials except ascertaining and regulation of the food supply. The mother says that when ahe was herself overtaxed with household work and worries and did not get enough outdoor exercise, baby gained no weight for ft month. Then she took daily walking exorcise and fed herßClf up, and for over a month tile baby gained weight, and only stopped gaining when wet weather set in, preventing the mother's out-door exercise. The above factors are the very ones most potent, not only in causing the rise and fall of milk Eccretiou, but in affecting its composition for good or ill (see society's book, pages <i to 10). If anything wore wanting to clinch the argument, it is suplied by the sentence, "Alter tlie first two or threo feedings in tho day baby seems satisfied"—in other words, the later feedings in the day fitil to satisfy him, for the very good reason that by that time tho How of milk is falling short. lam merely offering the most probable explanation, and, jmiging from a number of similar cases, I should say that this amply accounts for the baby's growth and condition being nu'satisfactory. Certainly the first thing to do in such cases iH to balanco the baby before and after nursing, and compare the Quantity taken from the breast with tho amount advised in the table of feeding, page 34, "Feeding and Oaro of llaby." A couple of such weighings, say in conuection with two consecutive nursings in the latter pan of the day, would scttlo the point; but neither the books she has had at hand nor other availablo authorities gave tho mother auy hint whatever on tnis very simple but all-important matter. .If ono were hand-rearing some kittens or a litter of little pigs, aud they did not fatten aud thrive as young things should, one'a first impuse would be to question the sufficiency of tho food supply. Further, if there were tcside one a table showing exactly how much milk each little animal should have in order to ensure proper growth and development, one would naturally weight or measure tho allowance on had been giving so as to ascertain whether it was sufficient or uot according to the table. ( That would bo the flr?t step; and if wo found we had been, giving only half, or two-lhirds, or three-quarters of what careful weighing and feeding, recorded in thousands of other cases, had proved to on necessary, we should feel satisfied at oiicr that wo had solved the problem aud should make up futuro feedings to the required standard, Dealing with animals different from ourselves 1 say, Hub is how wo should, all pf us, act—unless wo pursued the more ordinary course of giving a littte more food, on the general assumption ihat probably wo had not been giving enough to sustain life aud energy and provide for proper growth as well. This is' what w« all do when dealing with our furred or feathered pets, and it is what the farmer does, as a matter of rouiine, in order to keep his live stock in condition.

Yet it is onJy during the last 15 years or so that the conimon-scnso practice ot weighing babies before and after feeding has been employed in Europe in respect to iiurslingß wno are not thriving, aud ono does not find, oven now, any mention of the praelico in the long series of books for mothers which have appeared in iMiglaud (luring recent years. Instruction of women in this simple and all-important matter would not only prevent much Bickuess in infancy ana ssivo many lives, but it wouid prevent hundreds of babies -every year, in our small Dominion alone, from stunting of development during the most important epoch of their physical evolution—the period of main growth for teeth, brain, and nervous system. I The following extract from the society's book, "Feeding and Caro of Baby," page MS, makes tho above point Quite clear;--.. "A check sustained in early life always loaves a permanentiimpress on the organism, whether plant! or animal. Farm crops which have been blighted in tho seedling stage may flourish afterwards'and give a good yield, but not so good as if the plants had gone straight ahead. Trees which have been transplanted or diseased in infancy though they may afterwards grow; 'remarkably well.' do not attain tho ultimate stature or perfection of trees whose progress has been subjected to >»o bucli temporary interruption." MAKE UAr IVHIIiE TUB iSUN SHINES. "Tho mother should never forget that the destiny of her baby (bodily mid mental) iB mainly determined in the first years of lifo. "(1) In the first year the baby's brain should gain more than a pound m weight —actually moro than it will gain in the next 20 years.

"(2) During the early months the baby's daily increase in body-weisht should bo as much as, tho weekly increase a fow years later.

"(3) Tho baby should treble his weight in the first year, yet when lie has reached two years of age it actually tal;e,s four more years to only double his weight. "Naturo has specially marked out the first twelve monthi of lifo as the appointed time for growing the body, and even more emphatically lor growing the brain, or the human being. If the mother fritters away tins one golden opportunity instead of making tho most of it and doing tlto best possible tor her baby, no after caro can make up for her mistakes or neglect. 'Make hay while *.he win shines' —it never shines again for the baby as it shines in the first twelve months of life. Everything in after years depends on uninterrupted healthy gsjowth during infancy."