OUR BABIES

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 263, 10 August 1915, Page 2

OUR BABIES

(BY HYGEIA.) (Published by request of the Taihape Plunket Society.) FOOD. At the request of some of our correspondents our recent articles have been dealing with the first two essentials for health in the life of all animals —name?y, Air and Water. We now come to the third primary essential — Food. However, before going on to the general consideration of Pood, we must here state emphatically:— Mother’s milk is the best food for J the baby. It is created for the baby, and the first duty of every mother is to ensure by foresight a proper supply of the only perfect food for her infant. Mother’s milk is the baby’s birthright. What is Food. It is usual to think of food as the material of which our meals are composed—“what we eat.” We find practically that if we eat when we are properly hungry we are supplying what our system requires for its comfort and Avell-being. We seldom inquire further. We don’t ask for a definition of the word Food, and yet the answer to such a question would be specially helpful in the rearing of all young creatures. The following definition of “Food,” taken from a standard dictionary, may be accounted as scientifically correct: Food is any substance that, being taken into the body of animal or plants, serves through organic action to build up normal structure or supply the waste of tisue. We all know that certain plants do well in one garden, while in another they tend to be puny, and are not worth growing. The conditions with regard to situatiqn, rainfall, sunshine, and temperature may be similar; but one family of plants will not flourish in a. clay soil, while another kind will not thrive in peaty or sandy soil. Each class requires its own particular kind of f00d,,, as well as other favourable conditions, if it is to reach the highest standard. For example, rhododendrons and azaleas must have a large admixture of peat in the soil to attain perfection. while roses do best where Mv're is clay, etc. The same applies to animals. Some arc carnivorous and others are vegetaria.n, and each must have its appropriate nourishment if it is to attain to its best growth and development. Cats | and dogs cannot live on gross, while horses and cows natnraly turn aside from flesh of any kind.

The Earliest Eobd for Mammals —Milk. In the schemd of Nature all mammals provide the first nourishment —food — for their offspring from their own bodies. Soon after birth takes place nourishment for the young is secreted in the form of milk suited to the requirements of the particular creature. The milk for the young of each kind of mammal differs more or less from the milk provided for every other species, the difference being, naturally, very great in creatures so widely apart from' one another, as a puppy and a rabbit, on the one hand, or a human baby and a calf on the other hand. Milk provided by Nature for a rabbit would not suit any of the other three, and cow’s milk is wrong for a baby. We are far too prone to think of milk as just milk, and are apt to forget that milks differ in composition one from another, and that the difference between them bears a definite relationship to the building up of normal structure or supplying the waste of tissue of the creature for which it was designed. Composition of Milk. The main constituents of Milk are Water, Sugar, Fat, and Froteid. There are also some Salts. Each of these substances plays an important part in the life and health of the creature for which it was designed, and each provides more especially for some particular requirement. Let us take them in order: Water. —We have already shown the paramount importance of Water for the life of every living thing; therefore we need not dwell further on the point. Sugar.—The Sugar in milk provides especially the energy by which the young creantre exercises its powers. Fat, —The Fat is mainly concerned in maintaining the temperature of the body (the animal heat). Proteidj—The Froteid is the material used to build up the rapidly-grow-ing body, and to effect the repairs necessary to make up for the wastage of the working structures. Inxthe adult, of course, there is no general growth to be provided for. and the need of proteid is practically Hinted to the repair of waste and wear and tear. Tu the case pf- the baby the protcid (or flesh-forming material) is largely wanted for the purpose of enabling rapid growth ctq'dje made, not merely in building up what we ordinarily call "flesh,” but also in building cartilage, bones, teeth, hair, etc. The Most Important Difference Ee tween Mother’s Milk and Cow’s Milk, ‘ >The. most important practical difference between Nature’s: milk for the baby wh! that p:cvi;b:;il fair hie H'

that Cow’s Milk contains two or three times the proportion of flesh-forming material found in Mother’s Milk. This is due to the fact that the calf' is intended to grow three times, as quickly as the baby. The calf should increase from (iOIb at birth to 3601 bat six months of age; whereas the baby, in the same time, only doubles its weight. As we shall show next week, if a baby is fed on mere cow’s milk, this difference is a very serious matter, causing on the one hand a great tax on the baby’s digestive organs, through their being called upon to dissolve and absorb a large excess of tough, leathery curd, and on the other hand through the kidneys being over-work-ed in their efforts to expel from the system the excess of flesh-forming material that has been absorbed into the blood. The indigestion, diarrhoea, and other grave maladies of artificially fed babies are largely due to the ignoring of these simple facts. Unfortunately, the evil results are not confined to childhood. The kidneys are weakened for life through this flouting of Nature. There can be no question that a child so treated will be much more liable to break down in adult life and, suffer from Bright’s disease and other kindred maladies than if the baby had been fed rationally.