INFANTS' FOOD.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 71, 21 September 1905, Page 2

INFANTS' FOOD.

ITS PROPER CONSTITUENTS. CAUSES OF EXCESSIVE MORTALITY. . TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — In his very interesting and able lecture on Japan delivered before the Agricultural and Pastoral Conference in Wellington, Dr. Troby King dealt with the use of cows' milk in infants' food. He pointed out -that improper food was a potent cause -of- -infant mortality, ■ and said that the use of prepared foods Often lead to the death of infants. He stated ,that by a simple process cows' milk -could bo made suitable for infants' food. I felt that the information ought to be widely disseminated " The tdeath-roil of infants under five years of age is very heavy in New Zealand; and if modical experts like Dr. Tuiby King say that one of the causes is improper food, it is surely necessary that the mother of children should know how to preserve the lives of their infants. I -nroto, asking Dr. King to give the requisite information, and he has kindly done so. I enclose jus letter, and would respectfully ask you, in the interest of humanity, to publish it. 1 am sending a duplicate of this letter and v a copy ot Dr. King's letter to your contemporary. The wider the circulation of his statement is made, the better. I need not state that Dr. Trilby King is one of the ablest of r our medical men. No New Zealander had a more distinguished career as a student at Edinburgh. Ho "was at the head of the graduating class of his year ; and since he left the University ho has not ceased to be an able and continuous worker in Science. — I am, etc., ROBERT STOUT. Judge's Chambers, Napier, 9th September, 1906. Hh Robert Stout, Wellington. Dear Sir Robert, — The information for which you ask involves, 1 find, a good deal of explanation. The modification of cow's milk for infant feeding by Professor Rpteh's method is very simple in principle and quite easy to carry out, but unfortunately any description of the process tends to mnke it appear lather complex and difficult. Roughly speaking, it may bo said that normal , human milk contains only about one and a-half per cent, of proteids, whereas cow's milk averages over four per cent. In sugar, on tho other hand, human milk is much richer than cow's milk, containing as it docs savon per cent., as compared with four and a-half per cent. ; the proportion of fat is 'about four per cent, in each dase — rather Jess in human milk and rather moi'e in cow's milk. It follows from this that" the necessary adjustments entail a reduction in the proportion of proteids (popularly the flesh-forming matoiial or curd) and an increase in the proportion of sugar. The proteids can bo reduced to one-third by "setting" the milk, and when the cream has risen drawing off the lower two-thirds of the contents of tho vessel ; in the remaining upper third we have the proper quantity of protfiids and most of the "fat, but we have drawn off two-thirds of the water and of the sugar, which was initially deficient. To compensate for this it is necessary to add tho Required quantity of dry sugar of milk dissolved in about the same bulk of water as we have drawn off of skim milk. The only other change needed is to make the reaction neutral or faintly alkaline instead of acid, and this is effected by adding a little lime water. The instruction for humanising a pint and a-lialf (30 ounces) of cow's milk in tlii3 way may ba uoiKlenued as follows : — 1. "Set" on« -and a half pints of new milk in a.wkle-montlved bottle, and draw off a pint (20oz) of eki-m milk. 2. Make up the contents of tho bottle j to the original bulk by adding 2oz of Jime water and 18oz of a 9 per cant, solution of -isug<*r of milk (prepared by dissolving li?oz of dry sugar or milk in 18oz of boiled water).. Normal cows' milk thus modified is a hut oh 'better food for infants than any patent preparation, but it is not identical with human milk. It cannot bo too strongly insisted on that there is no means Dy which a fond having the precleo nature and qualities of human milk can be artificially prepared. Tho protoids and the fats ot cows' milk are different substances Irani tho p rote-ids and fate of human milk. They are infinitely

preferable to any vegetable substances, but they are coarser and more difficult to digest than the proper constituents. As a consequence, scrupulous caT© ought [ to be exercised in the process of gradu- ' ally accommodating the 'human infant to ; digesting food elements not specially designed 'by nature for its nutrition. In artificial feeding it is not safe to give at first neaVly so much proteid nor even so much fat as human milk contains. Fot a day millPsugar is .the only solid that need be given ; then » Htfcle proteid and fat are added, and gradually as ■w«eks and months pass by i'he proportions of proteids and fats <are increased. This sounds very- formidable and complex, but dn practice it is founds that mothers are perfectly capable of grasping all that is needed in half an hour, and when they have carried on systematic feeding for a few weeks they invariably say that it-hey find it much less troublesome and puzzling than the usual guesswork with cows' milk, cane sugar, and water, or with patent foods.- This refers to the actual process. The saving of time and labour throngh the amproved health and contentment of the child aTe incalculable. However, it would be very wrong to mislead any one into supposing that artificial feeding can by any means be so perfected as to compare favouTably with natural feeding. On every ground a child should, if possible, be- nurtured by its mothe*. Disability in <tfliis direction would be rare if women i-ealised the importance of fresh air, ! exercise, and rational feeding and 'habits in relationship to maternity. The presumption is always against a child reared artificially na regards health, stamina, capability, and resistiveness to disease. However well individual children may thrive ot seem to thrive in spite of inferior feeding (and "the- beet of artificial feeding is inferior feeding), the results with dhildTon in general are- disastrous. Thus, among the poor of a London suburb it was recently found that during the first year after birth only one child in five lived where the feeding was artifioial, whereas only one in five died where the infants were 6ucklcd. This is an extreme case,' but how unfavourable the average is may /be realised from the fact that ths Mayor of Huddersfield, in recently ouering to eveTy mother in ihe flown a reward of £1 if she would keep her child ■alive for twelve months, 'had the lollowing notice printed on the formal promissory notes which he issued :—: — " Golden Rule for the Life and Health of the Baby. — ' Feed with ths mother's milk; the mother's milk is the natural food and the best.' For every baby led on its mother's milk who dies before tho ago of three ' months, 'fifteen babies die who hay© been fed by other means." Another argument against artificial feeding, • ami one only second in importance to the- < effect on ■the- child, is Me effect on the mother hereslf. The intangible mental, morail, and affebtiye- considerations involved are too obvious to need dwelling' on, but there- is an equally important physical fact which should be universally known. In die- natural course of events a new being, nourished up io tha time of birth by organs situated in the abdominal cavity, draws its food supply after birth from another Get of organs distant from tha firet. The effect of this 5s to divert the ihlood supply and functional activity into a new region, and the -temporarily enlarged organs quickly 'shrink to their normal weight and dimensions. Not so, JioweveT, when suckling is evaded. In -such cases the internal organs remain enlarged, and when tho mother reeumea her ordinary life various distortions and displacements aro liable to occur. To this 'ona departure from nature our raco owes a very large ■proportion of .the epeoial diseases of women w-hich are so characteristic a feature of modern life. (Concluding portipns will appear in an early number.)