OUR BABIES.
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."
SUPER-HEATED MILK FOR BABIES.
Every year more or less conflicting report 9 appear in the medical journals and in the public newspapers is to the amount of harm done by heating to a high degree milk intended for baby feeding. The main point for mJthers and nursee always to bear in mind is this: The less milk is altered or tampered with in any way before it enters the stomach of the young being for whom nature has prepared it the better. There is not the slightest reason for supposing that any form of artificial feeding, whether We are dealing with babies or calves, will ever give as good results at normal natural feeding; but with due care and attention it iB wonderful what can be done.
Every departure from nature in this connection should be looked upon as a step in the wrong direction, except in so far as one Btep out of the proper course may force upon us another step in order to get back nearer to the right track. Thus normal suckling is undoubtedly best, and it baa often been suggested that i£ a baby could not be su kled by a human mother the next best thing would be to arrange for its suckling, say, by a goat. This has been seriously advocated and even carried out in practice, in the course of the last few years, and pictures of babies being so suckled have appeared in the illustrated papers. A bqby can certainly »e fed and reared this way; but it is obviously inconvenient, and the results on tha whole have not been satisfactory. The composition of goat's milk is ideal for one creature only—namely, the kid. When any milk other ihan human haß to be used for a baby it ought to be modified so as to make the proportions of it curd, fat, etc., correspond aB nearly as possible to those of human mlk. In other words, it ought to be properly modified or humar.ised. Further, if the milk has become contaminated with microbes to any marked extent a condition almost inevitable in the practical feeding of babies with ordinary dairyman's milk —it ought to be subjected to some process which will kill noxious germs. It may be objected that this very heating must be harmful to the milk if all departure) from nature does are steps in the wrong direction. But this is simply one of those steps that is forced upon us by having gone out of the proper course in the first instance. Pasteurising or even boiling milk is far less prejudicial to babies than the use of milk loaded with microbes which give rise to fermentation and poisoning. The course of wisdom and common sense is to do simply what is essentia], and if we are obliged to heat milk for baby feeding, to heat it as little as may be necessary to render it safe for use. The boiling of milk is not generally desirable unless the baby is suffering temporarily from some abnormal condition such as diarhoea. In general, heating to 155deg Fahr, which kills tubercle bacilli, renders milk otherwise safe, provided due precautions are taken to cool it quickly after heating, to keep it in a cool, airy pla<"e, and not allow too long to elapse before using it. Owing to the very great difficulties which exist in the Old World, especially among the crowded populations of the poor and submerged classeß in large cities, condensed and dried milks have come to be largely advocated of late years. But the health authorities generally recognise that this falling back on sterilisation by heat, in spite of i*s convenience, is a grave evil, and should only be recommeded where the losal circumstances make it more or less impossible to get any better substitute. WHAT LIVERPOOL IS DOING. Liverpool is a case in point. Dr King, when in England, paid two visits to the city in order to investigate practically the various agencies by which the municipality, including the Public Health Department, the University authorities, the medical profession in general, and private societies are trying to bring about an improvement in ihe health and vitality of children. In the meantime I shall deal simply with Dr King's account of what is an being done with regard to improving the conditions for rearing babies artificially. The Health Department issues a neatly folded cardboard "Memorandum on the Supply of Milk for the use of infants whose mothers are not able to suckle them." Thiß card contains the addresses of half a dozen depots for the sale of sterilised humanised milk. The depots are open daily from 11 a.m. till 6 p.m. The following are some of the leading instructions:— INSTRUCTIONS. 1. The milk for 24 hours is supplied in six or more bottles, each bottle containing sufficient milk for one feed, the quantity and composition being regulated in seven grades adapted for the age of the particular child. 2 The bottlea issued are used as feeders, and each mother using the milk is supplied free with two teats. These must be kept clean and brought to the depot for inspection once a week. Extra teats are charged for at the rate of 3d each. Long tubing must not be used. This is specially underlined in the card. 3. The person using the milk must guarantee to continue its use regularly during the needs of the child, and to send for it at the stated hours. 4. Mothers are asked to bring their babies to the depot once a fortnight for weighing, so as to make sure i whether or not a proper increase in weight is taking place. If the I mother concludes that the milK is not agreeing with the child at "any time,
she is asked to report at once to the superintendent of the central depot. 5. The coat of the full weekly supply of humanised milk for infants is Is 6d, payable in advance. If one day's supply only is taken the charge is 3d.
1 shall explain next week, the price charged is, of course, below cost, this modified milk for babies being dispensed to the poor as a municipal charity.
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King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 646, 25 February 1914, Page 6
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1,074OUR BABIES. King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 646, 25 February 1914, Page 6
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