OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 738, 20 January 1915, Page 6

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."

THE PREPARATION OF HUMANISED MILK FROM UNSWEETENED CONDENSED MILK.

Last week I explained the circumstances under which a mother might be compelled to reßort to condensed milk or dried milk for feeding her baby, and promised to give a simole practial recipe by which she could readily prepare the nearest equivalent to human milk. At the same time I emphasised the extreme importance of suckling for the first nine months of life, and, failing this, the superiority of standard humanised milk, made with fresh cows' milk, to anything that could be prepared from tinned milk in any shape or form. However,, babies have to b9 nourished even where nursing is impracticable, and where no cows are kept in the neighbourhood: it is for mothers striving to do their best under such adverse circumstances that the following recipe is given. RECIPE.

1. Take an ordinary tin of Ideal brand unsweetened condensed milk. The tin and contents weigh about lib, the contents weighing just 12ioz. Any good unsweetened condensed milk of the same composition would do. The Ideal brand is recommended because the Home analyses, checked by a careful local analysis kindly made for the Society by Dr Donald. These show practical uniformity of composition. Of course, if condensed milk varying from this standard of concentration were used, the figureß we give would not apply. 2. Pat the unopened tin into a saucepan of quickly boiling water, deep enough to cover it completely. Keep it therefor five minutes: the milk will not be hot enough to spurt up in a risky way when the tin is punctured. If the tin were kept in boiling water for longer than five minutes, a thin jet of the hot milk might spurt up into the face on making a puncture. 3. Remove the tin from the saucepan, and making two small holes in the top bv stabbing with a clean scalded spike or the sharp end of a file.

The position of the punctures is an important practical point. They should be mai?e as close to the rim as possible, and should be on opposite sides of the top of the tin. If made both on the same side, the milk may scarely flow at all, and what does come tends to squirt out jerkily. The best Bized holes are such that a slate pencil would just enter. 4. Into a clean, scalded, thoroughly hot auart jug put 3£oz by weight of sugar of milk. Instead of weighing the sugar of milk, it is simpler and easier to use a proper "sugar measure." The standard measure recommended by the Society holds just half a weighed ounce of sugar of milk when filled loosely, not pressed down in any way, and scraped off level, with the buck of a knife. On no account should ordinary tableHpoons be used for measuring the sugar; a medicine measure for fluids would be eqally at fault for this purpose. If a sugar measure is not available, procure a chip-box—used for ointments—from a chemist and pare it off till it just holds a weighed half ounce of sugar of milk, when loosely filled and scraped off level as described. Seven measurefuls would, of course, give the required 3£oz. 5. Take a clean, scalded fork and stir into the sugar a measured ounce of oil. The oil should have been heated beforehand by standing the oil bottle in hot water: hot oil blends more readily with the dry BUgar and helps emulsion —that is, subdivision of the oil into tiny droplets. Good cod-liver oil, olive oil, or linseed oil may be used, according to circumstances. I shall deal with this next week.

To form a well blended, creamy paste pour in a few ounces of the hot condensed milk and beat thoroughly. Then pour in by instalments the rest of the contents of the tin, beating up the emulsion vigorously while doing so, for fully five minutes. .Now stir in an exactly measured pint and a quarter—2soz —of boiling water, and stand the jug, loosely covered, for five minutes in a warm place, say, on one of the cooler parts o£ the range or on the hob. This will scotch or kill any germs that may have gained entry. At the end of the five minutes, to ensure thorough blending, pour the milk briskly backwards and forwards half a dozen times, using another clean, scalded jug which has been standing cool and covered ready for the purpose.

How to Keep and Treat the Prepared Milk. —We now have nparly a quart —about 38oz—of concentrated humanised milk enough to form double the quantity of Standard humanised milk, as used for feeding the baby. Ali that needs to be done to beep the milk safe is to cool down the contents of the jug as rapidly ub possible, and keep cool. This is effected by standing the juu, loosely covered with a saucer turned upsidf down, in cold water —preferably running water —for half ah hour Then transfer the jug to a cool, airy aa^e. Thus treated, the mixture will keep quite well for two days, in fairly cool weather; but, if the weather is sultry, any which remains unused after 24 hours shojld be again heated, stirred, cooled rapidly, and'kept as directed above. If not stirred and blended from time to time, some of the oil tends to rise up and float on the top. To prevent this keep the two quart jugs always ready, and pour the milk briskly backwards and forwards from the one to the other half a dozen times at each feeding period, jußt before pouring out the allowance for the baby's meal. Both jugs must be kept covered with inverted saucers in a cool, uiry safe; but there is no necessity to wash and scald either jug more often than every twelve hGurs. HARD TO EXPLAIN—EASY TO DO.

To carry out the whole of the instructions for preparing the milk from start to finish should not take longer than a quarter of an hour, or, at the outside, 20 minutes. It is difficult to describe and explain shortly in detail, but the recipe may be summarised thus: —3Aoz of sugar of milk, loz of heated oil, 1 heated tinful of Ideal milk, 1£ pints of boiling water. Blend thoroughly, cool rapidly in running water, and then stand the jug, looßely covered, in a cool, outdoor safe. To form Humanised milk from the above, mix, before using, with an equal volume of boiling water.

WARNING. Never start using the above, or any other form of artificial food, of the standard strength—the baby's stomach' should be habituated more or less gradually to the use ot any unaccustomed preparation. It may be desirable to delay reaching full strength Humanised milk fof one, two, or three weeks, or even longer, according to the age, health, and digestve power of the particular infant. The mother will have little difficulty in judging how to proceed if she carefully reads page 30 of the Society's book, "Feeding arid Care of Baby."

How Much to Givu Baby at Each Feeding.—The mother may be guided as to the quantity of the diluted milk to give at each feeding by the "Table for Feeding" on page 34, "Feeding and Care of Baby." So long as the food is below the normal strength, the baby may be allowed to take a little more than the quantity down for each meal, if he continues to he unsatisfied; on the other hand, if he continues unsatisfied witn the quantities specified in the feeding table, after full strength has been reached, he is probably thirsty, not renlly hungry, and a little boiled water between meals should be tried, rather than risk over-feeding. In any case, weighing the baby once a week will soon show whether he is getting enough or nut.