OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 517, 13 November 1912, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia).

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. " It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

MOTHER'S INQUIRY AS TO NINE-MONTHS-OLD BABY. The following letter has been received from a mother in Ashburton: — "I have gained much valuable help from 'The Feeding and Cars of Baby,' but should be glad if you will kindly give me advice on the introduction of some solid food into baby's food. ]. He is nine months old, entirely breast-fed. My health is good. I should like to continue breast-feeding. Is this wise? 2. When ia barley jelly to be given? Just before the breast-feeding, or instead? 3. How many times a day and what quantity? Should it be given plainer with cow's milk? With or without sugar? ANSWERS. 1. Before answering one would have to know more about the baby. Is he satisfactory? He should be putting on an average of about a quarter of a pound a week, though some weeks he might gain little or nothing owing to teething, etc. However, he should be gaining about a pound a month. this is the case, and if he is a bright, happy, laughing, firm, chubby little cherub, you may be sure he is getting enough from the breast, and that your milk is still the best main nutriment for him. On the other hand, if he seems unsatisfied or if he shows signs of falling off in any direction you ought to ascertain the difference in his weight before and after each feeding for a whole day. in order to make sure as to the quantity of milk he is drawing off in the 2 hours (see "Feeding and Care of Baby," page 51, or "What Baby Needs," pages 5 and 6.) If a child is getting too much from the breast, the remedy is obvious; but if he is getting too little several courses are open. As you say you are in good health and nursing seema to have agreed with you,the best plan if the breast supply is inadequate would be to supplement with humanised milk No. 2, giving at each feeding the equivalent of a fifth of the quantity that your supply is short in the day. Thus, assuming the baby's normal ration to be 42 ounces in the 24 hours (which woald be met by giving five feedings of ounces each), and you found that you had been supplying only 37J ounces, you ought then to give in addition an ounce by bottle after each suckling, or more probably baby would need nothing additional with the first three feedings, but, say, two ounces and three ounces respectively with the evening feedings. The proper course of procedure and the reason for it is clearly indicated in the following extract from the society's pamphlet "What Baby Needs":— "Ideal Feeding. The ordinary routine advice given to mothers is that the baby must have only one breast at each suckling, the breasts being used alternately. This iq right where the mother has an ample supply of milk—where the breast supply tends to fall short of what is needed, and one breast does not supply enough for one feeding—the baby should certainly be put to both sides at each suckling, the right breast being used first at one feeding time and the left first at the next. This is the best means of stimulating the secretion of milk, from eight to ten minutes being allowed for each breast. In any case, the breast first suckled should be emptied; but with an increasing supply less and less time should be allowed in regard to the second breast, and if the supply becomes ample only the one breast should be used at each nursing." In giving the above instructions I have assumed that you want to continue at least partial breast-feeding for a considerable time longer. How to Wean Quickly.—lf, on the contrary, you want to get your baby completely weaned in the course of a month, the best means of drying off the breast supply will be to replace first one feeding a day by Humanised Milk (diluted at first with an equal quantity of boiled water), then two bottle feedings, then three, and so on. The lessened stimulation of the breasts causes the secretion to slacken off much quicker than if you were to continue with a partially breast-feed-ing five times a day. Prolonged Suckling.—The pros and cons of weaning at nine months or continuing to partially suckle up to 12 or eighteen months, where feasible, and are adequately dealt with in an extract from the forthcoming edition of the "Feeding and Care of Baby," which will appear in next week's columns, 2. Fluids are generally best given just after suckling; solids on the other hand, such as dry crusts, etc., should rather be given before suckling, as the baby then tends to work more vigorously at them. Barley jelly or oat jelly should not be given as the sole food in place of any ordinary feeding, because its food-value, hulk for bulk, is less than a third that of human or humanised milk, and it is not in itself a complete food. Commencing it an ounce or so a day, the use of barley jelly may be gradually increased up to about a quarter of a pint in the 24 hours by the time a child is a year old. At that age, if milk were the only fluid food given, the ordinary allowance of milk would be rather less than a quart, assuming that the baby was then taking a fair quantity of dry food in the way of crumbs and toast. A suitable allowance of fluid food in these circumstances might be as follows: —Mother's milk or humanised

milk No. 2, 20 ounces; cow's m!k, 15 ounces; barley or oat jelly, 7 ounces. It cannot be too strongly insisted on that every baby should be trained to masticate a progressively increasing allowance of hard, dry, resistive f ood from the age of nine months. But if for any reason the baby took very little solid food, he might need a quarter of a pint more human or humanised milk hant is shown above. 3. The jelly may be given mixed with the milk as shown above, or may be given just before or after the supplementary milk, either plain or rendreed more appetising with a little salt or sugar. Salt is preferable. If sugar is used allow very little indeed. Next week I shall deal with the desirability of training the baby, even earlier than I have hitherto recommended, to eat raw apple and other solid food.