OUR BABIES.
Bt Htgeia
It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to mamtain an ambulance at the bottom.
HOW TO CHANGE TO HUMANISED MILK FROM ORDINARY COW'S MILK, OR FROM OTHER FORMS OF BOTTLE FOOD. Ac we have already pointed out, it is a matter of the first importance not to start with too strong a preparation. Whenever a change i 6 made from one food to another, the new food should be given weaker, for a few days at least, than the one it is to replace. The strength to use is fairly well indicated in the printed sheets of instructions issued by the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children, which will be sent to any address on receipt of twopence in stamps forwarded to the hon. secretary, Mrs Carew, 8 Heviot row, Dunedin. However, unless instructed by a doctor, the mother must use ber judgment according to the circumstances of the case. Thus if a baby of three months of age has been receiving and doing well on equal parts of cow's milk and water with a little cream and sugar added, it would be safe to change at once to two parts of humanised milk to one of sugar of njilk solution. "The proportion of sugar solution would ■then be lessened day by day until, at the 'end of a week or 10 days, the humanised milk could be given pure. In such a case huniani6ed milk No. II would probably agree just as well as the No. I preparation, and as No. II is eaeier to make the mother would naturally choose it if she had to prepare the milk in her own home. On the other hand, if the mother were making the change to humanised milk because her three-months-old baby was ailing at the time, it would be unwise to start with humanieed milk No. 11. Further, the No. I preparation should be given with an equal quantity of sugar of milk solution, and the latter should be reduced more slowly and cautiously than in the case of a stronger baby. In the course of a week or 10 days, three of humanieed milk No. I to one of sugar solution might be given. At this stage it would be well to pause for a few days, and then, if all continued well, to gradually work up towards full strength. At any stage evidence of indigestion or disagreement would be met best by at once giving the baby a single meal of 6iigar of milk solution alone, followed by equal parts of humanised milk and sugar solution for one or more moale. Dilution with a larger proportion of 6ugar of milk solution than the baby has previously needed should be continued for at least a few daye. In this way the digestion of delicate babies can be humoured and kept from becoming markedly deranged. They will then grow much more quickly than if the mother tried to force them on by the us© of too strong- a preparation. If the baby is more delicate than the one we have been describing, it would be sa-for to start at first with, say, two parts sugar of milk solution to one of humanised mik ; or to use equal parts of humanised milk, curdless milk, and sugac M milk
solution ; or. if this proved too strong, to use one part of humanised milk, two of cardlei-s milk, and two of «ugar of nnlk iolution. The lasl-named mixture ropresents the extreme of digestibility ; from it a gradual incron.se of tstinnrtli jnaj Le made according to citLiiiiiataiH'(.>>. Such <t mixture-, which i^ about h.-'f a-s 4iO.ii; a-s human milk or ordinary humanized milk, is not intended for long-continued i;?i\ but merely to enable tho ir.othei- to supply Ikt baby with ,i food v. hich it can digest and from which she can build up its strength by reducing first the «u?ar of milk solution and then the curdless milk.
Any of the above mixtures are supnlied roadv made and graded by the Taieri an.l Penm-ula Dairy Company. Where -a. baby ha* been fed on condensed milk, or whore patent foods have oeen u<=rd. the humanised milk first given. should always bo decidedly weak, because the digesthe oigans are liable to be less developed than where tho baby has be.^i accustomed lo cow's milk and water.
Mothers sometimes a.sk whether the change from condensed milk or parent foods to humanised milk should bo ma.le suddenly or gradually. Generally it is wiser to change gradually, leaving off so much of the original food day by day until, at the end of a week, it may bo given up. On the other hand, when changing f:cm cow's milk and water to humanised milk, the change should be made at once, following the lines indicated in the earlier part of the present article.
If- a baby has diarrhoea at the time of changing to humanised milk, the advics of a doctor should be sought, aud in any case the general directions given under the heading "Diarrhoea" on the theet of instructions should be strictly complied w ith. Remember that to start giving pure humanised milk to a baby suffering from diarrhoea would be utterly wrong. The baby might do well on humanised milk kept at the boil for 10 minutes mixed with an equal quantity of unboiled curd.ess milk, but it should never receive ordinary humanised milk.
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Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 74
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917OUR BABIES. Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 74
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