PROTECTION OF INFANTS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9064, 31 January 1908, Page 5

PROTECTION OF INFANTS.

Per Press Association,

Auckland, January 29,

Lady Plunket is endeavouring to establish in Auckland a branch of the Society for the Protection of Infant Life, and lias convened a meeting for the purpose, to be held next Saturday at Government House. In a letter to the press her Ladyship says:— “My attention was first ailed to this subject by Dr. Truby King, and also in the course of visits paid to homes, hospitals, creches, and other similar institutions in different parts of the Dominion. I constantly observed infants which had been received into these institutions in a deplorable condition, mainly owing to improper feeding. I will not describe the harrowing condition of these little mites, but I desire to be allowed to combat the argument frequently advanced that ‘a mothre’s instinct’ will teach her how to feed her baby. If all mothers were able and ready to feed their children by nature’s method much could be said for such an opinion, but this, unfortunately, is not the case. In the artificial feeding of babies there is at present no practical teaching easily available, although it is a vitally important subject, and the art of treating cows’ milk in order to make it as similar as possible to the natural food represents the result of many years of scientificp"research, whilst this preparation demands the greatest care. “Under existing circumstances a mother cannot possibly consult a doctor concerning the daily ups and downs of She is therefore dependent upon unskilled advice, and has to experiment upon her infant, often with disastrous results. The scheme is not an untried one. It is working successfully at Home and abroad. Dunedin already supports several nurses, and distributes 330 bottles of humanised.milk daily, and the appreciation of the nurses’ usefulness is shown by the number of babies that they are asked to visit. ’’