OUR BABIES

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 161, 22 April 1915, Page 3

OUR BABIES

•.(BY'BY&GtA.) (I ; ui;riAhod : ;by--. request of the Tailiaj Plunket Nurse Society.) T..ihape.—Plunket Nurse Jones; Ho: Secretary, Mrs. Ari'owsmilh. Pltmkefc Nurses' Services Free.—Tl*»: Society's Book. The Society*s : book, entitled "Feeding and Care of Baby, -'' can be obta:.--ed from the Matron, Karitane Hospital, the Plunket Nurses, the honorary secretaries, and .the leading booksellers throughout the Dominion. . Price, -If-; posted, 1/3. -■ Fruit in Infancy. A letter reached mo recently from a mother asking ad vie ; e about the use of fruit in early infancy. The question being of general interest, I shall give extracts from the. lottery followed by"r> few hints in replvv, ».i The Mother's Letter. My baby, who is two'months and ahalf old, has been entirely bottle-fed for the last month. 1 did all I could to r.urse him, but my health was very poor, and.Jhe breasts "soon failed. He weighed Gvylb at birth, and now weiglis 01b. His gain in the last four weeks on Humanised Milk lias been nearly Hlb, and'he seems to be doing well. But he is troubled with .constipation, and a friend has re/onijiuended me to give some fruit juice every day. I notice that in "The Feeding and Care of Baby," it says fruit juice may be given from three or four months, onwa.rds, so I' have wondered whether now would be too early to begin. Another thing I should like to'know is this: The book says, "Carrot juice may., be used if fresh fruit is not procurable."" Would any other vegetable, juice do? I have been told by a frientf that fresh potato juice was tried an" found to do quite well at the Karitane Baby Hospital. Just now; I can get good apples reasonably,.but we are In a very out-of-the-way place, and potato is the only thing I could.be sure of getting fresh in the winter. Would it be safe to try potato juice, and would it act or the bowels as well as fruit juice? AHSwer. There is no objection whatever to beginnng the use of fruit or vegetable juice at two months nad a -half. One can go further than this and say thar the early use of such juice, is highly desirable where a baby is bottle-fed. in order to compensate , for the "living principles'"., of mother's, milk, which are always more or less impaired eye:', in the best • preparations from cow's

milk. Precautions. The great., precaution to observe when ftarting to. use fruit or vegetable .juice is io make quite .sure that the material is clean, fresh, sound, am! good, and that only about five or ten . drops are given the first day. If the juice agrees all right, the mother car. work up step by -step to a tea spoon f-il in the course of ten days, a dessertspoonful in the course of two or thrc-.-ireeke, and a tablespoonful in the

j coarse of a month or ix Weeks. This [would be .a t'jiiv average rate of proi« rOSS - ,--,-\v.. : ' So far.as the.provision of the viniripaired "living principles'* are: cOiic'crhed; the gradual audition tf a little : fresh unboiled cow's, fnilk n'.the mpriij ing feedings s to bo tiigjily recommended; but this ieiids.ii* cause constipation rather than tela nation of the bowels. The ideal to r.ini at is the daily use of from half a; ounce t; an t piup- t co of fruit juice. find 'so. the giving Yii \ from one to three ■-,:■ fon reprices daly, of good fresh milk abmg with .the pre-' pa red food. ■ . f ._ h ~ The reason for rocjcm.me?:t!ing* thai the raw milk be given with the raofii;, ing feedings is that tills is the best/way of ensuring that as little time r as may, be shall have elapsed between-the time of milking the eowsand the-use of the. raw milk by the baby. -,_ v ~-♦,,.,-. Potato Juice. ' . ' 1 ' \ • Our correspondent, is quite riglit.as/tp potato juice hv.ving. been tried at- the. Karitane Hospital and,, fqund ; satjsfu/;-, tory. Potato juice was not used ,at„the i hospital with the idea of.its' bejng.prc;.-. ferablc to fresh fruit. juiee ; . or . ove-i equal to it, but because they w;aated fcc arrive at a simple . substitute which :.■ o'".:ld be .procurable almost. . -.jyorywhere. . , p. ~.:.... . Regarding the question of. rolatv.e. efficiency for regulating the bowels t i cannot say exactly how .potato juice would stand as compared .with ..orange .. juice or apple juice, but I shoaild T say that probably the fruit, juice would be rather more effective. Miss,-Capip.hr-11,. the Matron of the Karitane ,J£pp*Wu 1. says she used potato juice .ior some ten practically normal babies, and it agreed with all of them; but this trial hn/l».not hiiTch bearing o:; the question, ,o£,eon-* siipation. as iht< babies n question W-jp'e, regular before the .potato, juice ._,\j;ris substituted for the fruit jujee.... .....