OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 539, 5 February 1913, Page 7

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." '_ The folllowing is one of a series of letters received recently which opens up a wide question with regard .to the future well being of our children, and we appeal to all maternity nurses to ponder over it and consider che grave responsibility which they incur, especially when they undertake the care and guidance of the young mother with her first-born. A MOTHER'S LETTER. A mother in the North Island writes: — I have to thank you for forwarding me a copy of "What Baby Needs," and enclose herewith stamps for postage. The book arrived about three days after my baby girl was born, but no matter what I said the nurse insisted on night feedings, at such a time one does not feel strong enough to fight much against those who have care of you! and so baby always wakes and screams till she has a drink, though I have tried to break her of the habit. However, now I am only giving her six feeds during the twenty-four hours, as follows: —

She wakes at four in the morning for a feed—l; I bath her at half-past 6 and feed her by 7—2; she then sleeps, if left alone, out in the open air near the house in the pram till midday, and I then feed her—3; then at 3in the afternoon—4; bath at half past 5 and feed at 6—5: and when I go to bed at night, between 9 and half past —6. I have a great deal of work to do, and in my case I find the five hours that I get straight on end from, say, a Quarter past 7 in the morning till noon a very great help to me, especially on washing and ironing days. This is far better than battling away at four in the morning trying to keep the baby quiet till six o'clock so that the other eight people in the house may get their rest. When I was trying to break her from the night feeding the crying kept everyone else awake night after night, and so I now manage as explained. MEMO. BY HYGEIA.

The feeding hours —4 a.m., 7 a.m., 12 noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 p.m. —which this mother has arrived at by a commonsense method of adjustment Buited to the particular circumptances of her own life, are quite reasonable and proper though it might be supposed that an interval of five hours during the daytime would be prejudicial. However, this is not the case. The one thing essential in the feeding of a child is absolute clock like regularity of the feeding hours from day to day. But this does not mean, of necessity, that the interval between feedings should be all equal. We know that in the case of ourselves, as aduits, precise equality of intervals is not the main point, but that we should take each of our three meals as nearly as possible at the same hour every day, Whether we select 7,. 12, and 5, for instance, or 8, 1, and 7. One often finds that an extra hour's interval once in the day is a very great advantage to the mother. • Say she is feeding a young baby six times in the twenty-four hours at three hourly periods, she is enabled, by making one of the periods four hours —sav from 9 to 7 or from 12 to 4 to get a longer interval for housework, outing, etc., and this does not appear to make the slightest difference to the baby. People are inclined to be surprised that a little baby can with impunity remain nearly four hours without food during the daytime. This is merely because they have gat into the habit of thinking that a young infant should be fed every two hours or so. Not only is such frequent feeding unnecessary, but it has been abundantly been shown that it is actually hariqful to the child, and, almost equally harmful to the mother. With longer intervals both mother and child get better rest, and we find that the tendency is for the breast supply to improve where this has been unsatisfactory. On the whole. tor young infants, three hourly periods during the day are found to be the most satisfactory; but some leading authorities in Germany, especially Drs Czerny and Keller, have long contended that four hour intervals prove quite satisfactory from the start ot life. This method of v feeding was tried at the North Western Infirmary at Chicago, and the authorities found that the babies apparently did as well as when fed more frequently. I am not suggesting for a moment that it would be advisable in general to make the intervals between feeding longer than three hours, during the first few months of life, but all mothers should clearly understand that benefit rather than harm is to be expected from extending one of the day periods to four hours, provided that exactly the same timetable is kept every day not a four hour interval in the morning one day and in the afternoon the next day. To recapitulate:—l, feed only six times in the twenty-four hours for the first four months, and then only five times; 2, never feed in the night, say between 9 or 10 p.m. and 5 or 6 a.m.; 3, write on a timetable which will best suit the circumstances of your case, and strictly adhere to it. MOTHER'S LETTER CONTINUED. Baby weighed 81b when born, and has gained steadily each week, and to-day wan lljlbs just ten weeks old. She is thriving satisfactorily so far.

In connection with regular feeding, using dummies, etc., I think it is the maternity nurses and not the mothers who require most teaching. For the first fortnight in all cases, in some even longer, the maternity nurse is the "boss," and lays the foundations of the baby's habits, and the mother has to follow on very often, whether she wants to or not. The remainder of the.mother's letter will be given and dealt with next w«ek.