OUR BABIES,

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 66

OUR BABIES,

Si Htqxia.

It is wiser to put up a fenoe ai ihs top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at th« bottom. LECTURES AND INSTRUCTION. The first of a series of free lectures and demonstrations at the Karitane Horn* for Babies, Anderson's Bay, was given on Thursday afternoon, sth met., by Dr Truby King, the matron (Mrs Gordon), and Nurse M'Kinnon. About 50 ladies were present. After emphasising the advantages of mothers nursing their babies, it was pointed out by Dr King that the composition of human milk must be taken as the basis upon which to found any rational system for the artificial feeding of babies up to nine months of age. It was shown that there was & reason for the definite proportions of each constituent of milk, and that any wide departure from these proportions was quite unjustifiable and always injurious. The composition and nature of different varieties of condensed milk and popular patent foods was described. It was shown how far they fell short of what was needed, and how utterly unjustifiable were the claims made for them in connection with the feeding of infanta. Samples of the various foods mentioned were shown, and the preparing' of humanised milk and other foods was demonstrated. At the close some questions were put and answered. BARLEY-WATER STARVATION. The meeting concluded with a visit to the. babies. It was mentioned that two very emaciated children who had juet come in, and who had been fed on milk and barley-water, weighed only some s£lb and 6£lb each, and that at over five inontha of age. The condition of these babies emphasised what had been said earlier— namely, thai .barley-water was almost devoid of nutritive qualities for babies, as it contained only about 1 per cent, of solid material, and that almost entirely in the form of starch; whereas human milk had over 13 per cent, of solid, and contained no starch. The second meeting of the series will be held next Thursday at 3 o'clock, and will be devoted mainly to practical work in connection with the proper rearing of babies. ALLEGED FAILURE OF HUMANISED &ILK. Readers of "Our Babies" column will recall that two weeks ago extracts wert given from the letter of a North Island mother, asking for advice ac to the rearing of her- baby, - aged about 10 months. Feeding has been for- the part by means of patent food. However, the baby had done very badly, and a few weeks before writing the mother had given, in addition to some of the patent food, a home-made preparation which she understood was named humanised milk. Referring to this rfc may be recalled that we commented as follows: — " Evidently, the Dunedin formula has been the basis of the preparation, because most of the figures coincide, but in transmission from one person to another remarkable alterations have crept in. When one calculates the percentages of the essential constituents they are to be found as follows, compared with human milk, or humanised milk:COMPASATIVI TABLE.

" It will be..seen~at s glance that the baby has been receiving only *64 per cent, of solid food in its milk instead of 12£ per cent. But this i* not the only mistake, because th« relative proportions of the constituents are wrong, the fat being present in lees than a third of the standard quantity, the sugar of milk in just over half, and ilub '&a£k-formxng X3aa4?&ri€kl in -two-i;Hircle. Fortunately the baby has been fed with more than - the alloiwanee of fluid corresponding to its age, and during the few weeks in which this food has been given there has been no loss in weight. Now that the mother has been instructed to make' the milk according to the formula given | in the society's sheet of instruction there is no reason to doubt that satisfactory progress will be made. The mother has been advised to work the milk up to full strength gradually on the lines laid down in last week's baby column." The result of oarrylnjr out the advice given is shown in the following letter since received from the mother : — ( MOTHER'S LETTER. North Island, February 27, 1908. Dear-Hvgeia. — On my own and my husband's behalf I thank you most heartily and sincerely for your kind interest in the oare of our baby. In thue helping mothers, the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children is doing an excellent work and one that will, I am sure, have a marked influence upon New Zealand's future. From our 6hort range of observation it is evident that the amount of ignorance concerning baby feeding is appalling. I shall have great pleasure in becoming a. member of the Auckland branch of the society, and shall at all times endeavour to pass on the useful information with which you have go kindly supplied me. At th« present time I have two friends waiting for copies of the sheet regarding " The Feeding and Oare of the Baby," and shell be much obliged if you oan let me have two, for which I enoio6e stamps. After writing you in the firet instance I learned that the nurse sent by the society was still in Auckland, and therefore took the baby to «cc her. On considering his case she advised me to try

humanised milk. I "began using this at once, and it suited the baby very well, for he. seemed entirely satisfied and quite comfortable, and he has been going on well ever since. His weight is increasing steadily and he is remarkably vigorous. He likes to feel hie feet and frequently tries to stand, but I feel that it will be best to let him advance ve*y slowly in this direction, as I want him to be thoroughly strong before he begins to walk. It m now 11 d!aya einee he began having humanised milk, and to-day, acting upon your advice, I added one ounce of new milk. As directed, I shall increase by an ounce per day up to five ounces and then put him on Humanised Milk No. 11. In reply to your queries, I may say that I always heat the ,whey to 155deg. F. before mixing with the other ingredients. . . . When I was nursing the ohild he had nothing but my milk. As you say, it seems remarkable that mother's milk should disagree with a child, but untoward circumstances must have caused this. The nurse, though highly recommended to me, did not seem to realise the importance of getting the milk to Sow readily, lor she did not massage the brevets, and they became very hard and knotty, so that, although the nipples were in good order, the child had great difficulty in sucking. He was ,born on a Tuesday morning, and it was not until the following Sunday afternoon that the milk oame easily, and then it was. only through my husband using warm compresses, carefully massaging, and using a breast pump. JPrior to that the nurse had to force the baby to try and suok, and it upset me a good deal to have him struggling and crying and making fruitless efforts to appease his hunger. I can understand now that it waß bad for me to be troubled in this way. Moreover, for more than a week I was unable to sleep, and I suffered greatly from constipation. During the whole time I was carrying th« child I was remarkably well in this respeot; indeed, throughout that peri«d I enjoyed very good health. I was able to do the housework and to keep active all the time. I lived simply, chiefly «n milk puddings, fruit, vegetables, and eggs. We have perfect ventilation. I was out of doors a good -deal, and did all I could to help Nature in the way of sitz baths, physical exercise, and massage, and I felt rewarded when the boy was so healthily born. The doctor stated that the birth was perfectly natural and absolutely clean, and that the l»aby was very vigorous. He must indeed have been possessed of a wonderful constitution, for, from the knowledge w« now have, we can see that he was .practically starved for six months. We • did everything w« possibly could, sparing • neither trouble nor expense ilp. doing what' -we-- thought was for baby V welfare, jtfo doubt you w"jlL understand what an exceedingly painful experience ours has been, with the weary months of anxiety, ' continual loss of sleep, and apparent hopelessness. However, brighter days seem now in store, both for our boy and for ourselves.-' and this we feel we owe to the ~ information which has been spread abroad by the society. - - Wishing your efforts God-speed, and again thanking you most sincerely, — Tours very truly, A feature of special interest in this case is the evidence it affords of the misery, expense, and ill-health that may be entailed on a family throWh the ignorance or inattention of a monthly nurse. Nothing can be more suggestive of the good that miut result from tne proper training of maternity and babies' nurses and the spread of simple, helpful advice throughout +JKe community. LADY- PLUNKETS VISIT. On Tuesday morning. 10th inst., her Excellency, acoompanied by the Hon. Kathleen Plunket, and Miss Kettle, paid a visit to the Karitane Home for Babies, and subsequently inspected the preparing of humanised milk at the Taien and Peninsula Company's factory in King street. A visit was also paid by ncr fixcellenov to a sick baby in a wretched home, who was being fed solely on a well-known cereal patent food and water. 'This baby was receiving mainly starch and less than a twenty-fifth of the proper quantity of fat. lie was in a lamentable condition and has sjnoe been removed to the Karitane Home to recuperate.

Jtf ij i I ■s i I (1) Human Milk, or StMMfotd Humaniied Milk « H 12* (2) Preparation given to baby under the name of H umanised Milk li «J