OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 652, 18 March 1914, Page 7

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 tjaan to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

FAILURE IN NURSING.

(Continued.) At the close of last week's article I referred shoith ■■•:> a case where the failure in was due solely to the mother bting misdirected. I shall now give the particulars of thin case in more detail, because I am satisfied that a lnrge number of mothers, who would be perfectly cap able of completely nursing their babies if properly guided, fail to do so owing to supplying the baby, not with too littl°, but with too much, milk in the first month. Apart from the human mother, there is no instance where the offspring is tempted and urged to suckle beyond its requirements. The most casual observation of what goes on in tne fields a nong our domestic animals shows on all hands the tendency of the mother to prevent too frequent or prolonged suckling. With ourselves, on the contrary, it has been the almost invariable custom to try to induce the babv to nurse nearly twice as often as he should and to fill himse f to repletion. In this connection I have some very naive and interesting notes, made by a professional nurse, shuwing perfectly clearly thstthe baby was suffering fr"m overloading and indigestion at the vpry time when the nurse was jotting down in her daily record such remarks as: "Baby restless and peevish to-day; Beems to be going off his food; very sleepy towards the end of each nursing; could not get h'm to take any mors." These notes were made in a case where, under instruction, the baby was being weighed before and after each nursing, in order to ascertain how much was being drawn from the breast in the 24 hours. The nurse had r-nt taken the trouble to add up the figures, which would have proved to her that the baby's trouble was due lo overfeeaing—not, as she supposed, to underfeeding—that he was actually getting as much as eight ounces beyond his Droper allowance, as given on page 34 of the Society's book, "Feeding and Care of Baoy." ILLUSTRATIVE CASE. A mother, who had given birth nearly six weeks previously to a strong, healthy baby weighing over 81b. wrote in great distress to say that the infant had been doing very badly latterly—bad been steadily losing weight, and now weighed rather less than Shd had just been ordered to entirely abandon breast-feeding on the ground that her milk was at fault, and even poisonous. The family were in comfortable circustances, with every advantage as regards the home and assistance in any the way of servants j and nurses. The mother herself was I a well-made woman, well developed, J and the type of normal motherhood, ' not only physically but by temps re-j ment and inclination. She was domeß- j tic, devoted to her children, and. of all things, anxious to do evervthing ] she could for them. She had failed to nurse her first two children, but felt that this ought not to have been the case if matters had been managed properly. She had had the Society's books long before th 6 last baby was horn, and felt sure that all would be well if she could only get the doctor and nur9e to allow her to follow the general course advocated. However, when the time came she found that they were tied to tne usages of the "Victorian Era," an would not hear of feeding only every three hours, "no night-feeding," etc. The baby was born plump and healthy, and weighed B|!b. At a fortnight she weighed 91b, and, as the mothe* said, "was doing splendidly." Tho milk supply was ample, and the baby wa? suckled with alternate breasts every two hours, there beirg 10 feedings in all, including the night feeding. For the next week things were not bo satisfactory. Baby was fretful an irritable, and suffered from flatulence. She gained only a quarter of a pound in the week, and the mother became worried and slept indifferently. The next week there was a loss of a quarter of pound, and marked constipation set in, which the nurse treated with a daily dose of Castor Oil, without consulting the doctor, who highly disapproved when some weeks later he discovered what hud been done. In the fourth weak a bottle feeding was given in place of one of the bre ast feedings, and by the end or the fifth week baby was getting four bottle feedings. Towards the close of the sixth week the weight had - one down to Slbs lOoz, there was extreme constipation, baby was flabby, dull listless, dissatisfied and irritable, and always cried after being suckled. Complete stoppage of breast feeding had been urged earlier, but was now insisted on, the parents being told that the violent crying of the child aftpr the breast feedings and not after thu bottle feedings showed that the mother' milk was poisonous. However, the mother held out, and got a weighing machine, which showed that at this stage the baby was petting from the breast unrier lOoz in the 24 hours, being rather less than two-fifths cf its rormal requirement, while the bighlv-diluted artificial feedings did not supply more than another fifth. The explanation of the satisfaction after the bottle feedings and the yellng after sucklings was very obvious, the 4cz or more per feedim; riven by the bottle fillinrr the s'onmch and relieving thirst, which tho 2oz breast feedings failed to do. THE NEW REGIMEN. The cause of failure being not quite clear, the mother was given the following instructions—1. Feed only six times in the 24 hours, and give no night feedings.

2. Suckle the baby at each feeding time.

3. Immediately before suckling balance the baby, clothes and all, and at the end of suckling find out and note w< at weight has to be addsd to balance again. This shows how much milk has been drawn off from the breasts.—For details as to weighing before and after suckling pages 57-59 "Feeding and Care of Baby." 4. Supplement with the necessary quantity of humanised milk, beginning diluted, and working up to full strength in the course of a week. The mother had been usirg only one breast at ea"h feeding, but as the supply was short she was told she must give both breasts each time, as explimied on pages 6 and 7 of the Society's bouk, "Feeding and Care of Baby." ': The result of this regime was that the baby started straight away to gain formally, ami in the course of the next month the mother's supply, instead of continuing to dwindle rose to nearly 17oz a day. THE RESULTS. When baby was nearly 11 weeks old, the mother wroto, saying: "I enclose the weighings and will send the ones for this week later on. Baby is doingsplendidly. She is getting fat, and her cheeks are quite a nice colour. She is looking very bonnie now, and I'm sure you would be please j with her. The doctor is delighted. . . I tell him we are going by the book. "I had baby photographed on Friday, and will send you a copy when we ger them. 1 Her motionß are quite good now, and she ia getting \ very regular in her habits. We use the rubber enema when necessary.—The enema referred to is a tiny soft-nozzled rubber bulb, holding only an ounce. Simple pure water as 70 degrees is used—no snap. Just before leaving England we received a telegram saying that baby was going on splendidly and that her weigh-: on December J7th was lOln llfoz. This showed that =he gained exactly a pound ig the fortnight. Last week the photograph of a plump, happv looking baby arrived from the Old" Country.