OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 32, 1 November 1919, Page 5

OUR BABIES

18/ Rtgku.l

Published under the auspices of the Royal Now Zealand Society for the •Health of Women and Ciiildrtd. ' "It is wisor to put up a fence at the top of a precipice thau to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." WHAT DO WE MEAN BY "SUITING" A BABY How often, I wonder, have I'lunltet nurses and others engaged in the work of the society heard such remarks as "Baby is on milk and water for one of the patent, foods'], and as lons as it is suiting her so well, I shan't make any change." Has a parent ftho thinks like this any idea ol' looking beyond the immediate present with regard to a baby? I think not; so in this and the following article I want to point out the necessity, not enly ol considering tho present, but of looking to the far future a3 well.

NATURE'S FOOD. The only food that really "suits" a babv in the proper epiiso of developing his body, his brain and nerves, his teeth, and all his functions in the best, possible way is his mothor's mill;; but the results? produced even by this, the baby's own God-given supply, can bo lowered if the mother does not know how to take caro of her own health, and does not understand tho great, 'mportance of perfect regularity in feeding baby and of all the other essentials fo; flis health.

It used often to be said—l think it is lesa often said now, after years of hard work by tho society—"! liau .to wean baby bocause my milk did not suit him"; uome even goiug.su far.as «i,tay, "iiy mill; scemeit to poison him.'V-Let mo say at-' once that Nature, or f!od, -which is tho oauia thing, does not prepare poison for littlo babies. He does not oven put food there that will not "suit" them. We may, ■by our ignorance of the consequcnces of bad habits (such as lack of exorcise or faulty diet) damage tile quality of the supply; "but usually trouble in breast-feed-ing is due to baby Betting the wrong quantity. He is cither underfed or overled, and the latter in the case far ofionor than peopie think. However, faults either of quality or fluantity are generally easily set right under the Guidance of a I'iuuket nurse, and the lime is past. lor -any such reason to be given, for weaning a baby.

NATUIIE'S MtiTflQM The wife arrangements of Kature in making eaoh. animal's mills provide exactly 'what is required for the graivth ami development o£ its youug one are so marvellous that if they were tetter kuowu much ranuoni talk wou_lu come to mi end. 'vhsso metiioas c-iri be studied at greater length in two of the society's smallor publications, viz., "Natural IVnriißs" and -The Component l'artc ol Various' Milks," ob tainable from booksellers or the i'lunkct luu'sts. 'those who grasp the plain teaehlnlS conveyed in these pamphlets will "realisu from the minute euro Hint A'aturo takes the folly ol supposing that human beings can "duita baby as Mature would; ami they wilt see that, a, calf could 110 more develop properly on human milkman a, bully can on cow's milk. Nature works by law, a.iit! sho docs not stop !•< ask whether a chil-a's nioaier infringed her laws in ignorance or not. If they aro habitually iuirmged ihe consequences follow, although lltey may not. i.'b iuuueuiately visible. To some llio cousequeuces never are visible, though tliey may bo lilain enough to the wjemx eye; but tin.t is because our average standard of health is far below; wnat it might be. As loiuv an a child is fairly up to tins sundriM wd are satislitxl; or, if lie is obviously bolow it, we are apt to fall b; s .clt on saying, "Oh, well, he always was dalicate"—not realising, thai, in the vast majority of eases he was perfectly strong when he was bor/i, though be may have been delicatu from his lirst month, or even from luu nrst week.

In some tmurtti'S the idea utii'l persists that, the eluol' w-.rK of tile society and its nurses is to teach people to feed tieir babies on humanised milk. It ie aluioct incredible that such should be the ease, since, from its esrlieat beginnings, the pociety has striven by every means in its power to make the public untterslnml that mother's milk is tl'.e one and only foc<l for a baby. This wrong conception of it a work arose partly because people aro very apt to seize upon Home convenient watchword to describe activities which aro new io them, not realising the inaccuracy involved in dolus £»; and also because the society began its work when breast-feed-ing was at ». very low ebb. Indeed, il was called into action by Hint very 1 act. and the i'luuket nui'Jes were faced with it very large number of urlifieially-I'ed babies for whom there was nothing to be (lone but to put them on to the best form ol' artiiicial leodlny. Now, however, iviiere the nurses have been at work for any length of time, breast-fording is becoming the rule inr.lead of the exception, and in this fact lie* the heu hope lor the continued grtadies-, of our race.

;\Yxt week ) hope In 1 with tho Mliealion of •■.uiilias" ira'jy ivlio is drprircii of his mothers milk.