FAILURE OF MOTHER'S MILK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 66

FAILURE OF MOTHER'S MILK.

Pne ia constantly hearing of cases where toother's milk fails to satisfy or agree witti the baby. In these instances the mothei opes not usually' blame herself or her habitt m any way. For tihe most part she blamei heredity, her own lack of health, or the eirouxnetanoes in which she happens to be pl&oecl. She recognises that it her mill fyeru of the standard composition it would piobaibly agree, and that the disagreement (nust be due to some fault in her bodilj processes, which causes the secretion in het base to differ from that of a normal health? another. She does not oonolude because hex own milk happens to be at fault that, therefore, all human milk is liable to disagree, And should, therefore, be replaced by con4ensed milk or patent food. Yet such if the attitude sometimes Assumed by a. mothei whose batrr does not at once thrive -when suddenly changed to humanised milk. FAILUBfi OF HUMANISED MILE. From time to time we find someone announcing that she doeß not in iiuxnanised milk, simply because she has heard of a case where it has failed to suit ixiij. She does not stop to reflect that •he has known half a dosen cases where vumsn milk itcelf— the mother's own milk— has failed to agree; or thas7 possibly, the very cause for resorting- to humanised milk Sn the case she has heard- 'of may ha>ye been jiome special defect or weakness of digestion An the part of the baby ; or that the mother herself may have made half a dozen mistakes in feeding or preparation. In our *nrn experience, where there has been any marked difficulty with humanised milk the trouble has been traceable, almost invariably, either to the use of too strong a jtoilk at the start or to advancing- too ipiioklv. or else to feeding- the baby on some preparation made in the home on the jbaais of imperfect instructions conveyed verfballv from one woman to another, without any attention being paid to accuracy in quantities or methods, and sometimes with She most absurd ei/ors in both directions. The following extracts from a letter revived this we«k from the North Island Ihow how far astray an attentive and carenil mother may be led in the absence of pefinite printed instructions, euch as - are Issued by &« Society for th» Promotion of fehe Health of Women and Children. A MOTHER'S LETTER. I feet impelled to ask your advice for our baby boy, He is our first child, and iB now alnwst 10 months old. At his birth ■' he weighed 6&lb, which the dootor pronounced a good -average weight, and Doth he and the nurse regarded the baby as a. strong and healthy infant. I was - nursing him myself, and all seemed to be going well, when at about %hre« weeks old he began to return a little of the milk after eaoh drink. The nurse said this ■ was, if anything, a good sign, but when ' matters became worse end' the child be- ■ gsn to vomit,! I saw there was cause for , alarm. . . . Then the baby began, to pine, and finally he was unable to keep *nythiner down, vomiting violently after eaoh drink. He got bo low that he could tab* nothing but sips of brandy and white O* egg, and the terrible worry and anxiety drove my milk away. . . . From laat May till October we tried to find something to suit him. Nothing would remain on his stomach, until at last we put hinr on 'a patent food. Then the vomiting stopped, and he has been making progress ever since, though very •lowly. He now wwighs about ll|lb, and though small Is wonderfully muscular and full of eneiyry. Re is »ble to sit up, but does not crawl yet. His face is filling out, but his limbs are very thin. (He went down to Sib.) No teeth have come through so far, although the gums are hard, and at times he seems to have a ffood deal^of pain in them. . . . Not feeling quite satisfied with his progress on — ■■ — 'a patent food, although it certaiulv has benefited him, I have lately put him on humanised milk. I have been giving him about Boz of this every three jnours during the day. (He sleeps as a rule from 8 p.m. till 5 a.m.) You will, I am sure, understand our treat anxiety regarding the boy, our great Mad being that he may grow up small ' aim) undeveloped. Certainly 'he does not ' eecin to be putting on weight, as he has " -Iteen at a -standiatill (or some weeks. ... One and. a-half pints of milk 'are sent up * «a soon as the cows are milked in the. ■ jnorninK, and "-after drawing oft 6oz to . use in the. humanised milk. I put the balance at once in & cool safe, standing the billy in a vessel of cold water. Thi« ie " to let the cream rise, as during our sum9Mr weather it is practically impossible to buy pure crea.ni. After six hours I make the humanised milk as follows: loz sugar of milk dissolved in a pint of boiled water, l^oz lime water, 60s new 4nilfc,~2£oz cream, aJout 3oz boiled water, #nd 15o* whey. I heat the whole up to 155decr and cool down suddenly, the vessel ■turfing for 20 minutes in running water. Yflil you kindly advise if the foregoing Method is correct? -- Jill answer to this letter has been sent Bl»«Oi to the writer, but there is one point of special interest to the readers of this cohMcn-^namely, the fact of the baby not making satisfactory progress on what the mother assumed to be humanised milk. Evidently, the Dunedin formula has been the meis of the preparation, because most of the figures coincide, but in transmission <r*3«Ht one pbrson -&£> Another 3*«m£Lrleal>l« alterations have crept in. When one caltalateß the percentages of the essential constituents they axe to be found &s follows, compared -with human milk, or humanised milk:COXPABATCVE TABLE. j

has been receiving only of per cent, o solid food in its milk instead of 12£ pc cent. But this ie not the only mistake because the relative proportion* of the con ftituents ore wrong, the fat being preseo in lees than a third of the standard quantity the sugar of milk m just over half, an< the flesh-forming material in two-thirds . Fortunately the baby has been ted wit] more than the allowance of fluid corre sponding to its age, and during the fei a weeks in which this food has been givei l there has been no loss in weight. Now tha r the mother has been instruoted to mak B , the milk according to the formula givei s m the society's sheet of instruction ther< j ! is no reason to doubt that satisfactory pro ; greos will be made. The xnother has beei c advised to work the milk up to ful I , strength gradually on the lines laid dowi b '. in last week's baby column. r FAILURE IN FEEDING AFTER NIN3 f MONTHS. ■ A mother who imagines that 'she has fol r lowed the advice tendered by the societ; " ! brin£B her baby, aged 15 months, foe > medical advice, because, although he ha ; , continued to increase rapidly in weight, hi : s is pale, flabby, «nd lacking in robustness r On inquiry it transpires that up to the «g< I . of nine months, during whicn the ,bab: j was fed On humanised milk according t< : instructions, he flourished exceedingly . For the following three ifnonths there wai t less close Adherence to. |he course recom , mended, and by the time a year wai t reached it was thought that all presoribe< i. rules for feeding could ~be disregarded , Thenceforth/ irom the twelfth to th< . month, the ' baby was fed ai t ■ follows: — " c Breakfast.— Half a pint of bread witl , boiling water poured on it, and svga; t added; the excess of water drained of and mixed with half a teacupful (3oz '. of new milk ; the baby given the whol< of the above, r 11 a-.m. — 7oz oat jelly. > 1.30 p.m. — 7oz new milk. 4 o.m. — 7oz oat jelly. k 6 p.m. — Same as breakfast. , 10 p.m. — 3oz whole milk. i Biscuits were given from time to t!m< t between meals. ■ I The baby did not always finish either th< ; solid or liquid portion of this food, and ai i the full quantity of milk allowed woulc i come to only lftoz one may assume that th< average quantity taken would be undtei three-quarters of a pint instead of one pin* and a-half, the latter being the quantity recommended up to two 1 years of age. Ox the other hand, the starchy food given in i the form of bread, oat jelly, etc., is full) 1 three times as muoh as a baby should re ceive at a year old, and fully twice &* much as one would allow at 15 months (See instructions issued by the Society foi i the Protection Of the .Health of Women and Children under tha headings "Feed ing after Nine Months " and " Feedini from 12 to 15 Months," eto.) It la safe to . say that if any hotelkeepei were foolish enough to offer his customer? beer or cordials made with anything approaolhincr the extreme disregard for system and accuracy which many mothers display in preparing 1 food for their babies, or ii he allowed his cook to be as reckless in the making of soups or sauces, he would , ruin his business in a week. Babies cannot go elsewhere; they have to take whatever their mothers choose to give them.

i v I 5. 4 n n i 'i "S I 0) Human Milk, or Standard Humanised Milk .„ ... m |S) Preparation given to baby under the same of Humanised Milk 6i l*-wiU be seen at a glance that the baby