FEEDING OF INFANTS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23744, 16 September 1942, Page 4

FEEDING OF INFANTS

Use of Humanised Milk COMMENT BY “ BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL ” The use of humanised milk in the Truby King system of infant feeding is criticised by a writer in a recent issue of the "Britisn Medical Journal” when discussing the book "Mothercraft,” by Mary Truby King, and the annual report of the Plunket Society. Under the heading “What is a ‘Truby King’, Baby?” the writer in the “British Medical Journal” says; “This question is the heading for the first chapter in 'Mothercraft,” by Mary Truby King, now available in an eighth edition, and its answer contains certain important considerations for the medical practitioner. The simplest reply is, ‘A baby who is completely breast-fed till the ninth month and then weaned slowly on to humanised milk.’ “All honour is due to Truby King for his great insistence on breast feeding,” says the writer, "and for his attempt to organise a baby’s routine so as to secure ‘a joy from morning to night to himself and all the household.’ Where doubt and difficulties creep in is in regard to so-called humanised milk. This is made with something dangerously designated as ‘fresh milk,’ water (sometimes with lime water added), a product called ‘karilac,’ and another called ‘kariol’ “Recipes for humanised milk given on various pages of Miss Truby King’s book show a variable composition: milk 4£oz. water s}oz, karilac, 2i level teaspoons, is one; arid milk 20oz, water 15oz, karilac. two level tablespoons, is another. Neither would appear to conform exactly to the percentage composition of human breast milk, and the latter example, recommended for a baby of 10 months, is too dilute. The reason given for such dilution is the plain statement attributed to the founder of the system that ‘great excess of protein overtaxes both the digestive organs and the kidneys,’ but there is no piece of scientific evidence to support this. “Two serious objections may be raised to this whole business of ‘humanised milk.’ First, it is far too complicated, as set out in this book, for the ordinary working-class mother; and, secondly, the dilute milk feeds recommended have no support from the children’s specialists of the world outside a small circle of what y are called ‘the medical advisers of the Truby King (Plunket) Society.’ Plunket Society’s Annual Report “A study of the most recent annual report of the council of the -Plunket Society in New Zealand raises certain uncomfortable points. An essential feature of the Truby King system is the use of a special sugar (karilac) and a special oil emulsion (kariol), which are made by the Karitane Products Society. Now, in the accounts presented in this report, it appears that the Karitane Products Society contributed in the year 1940-41 a sum of £1156 6s 2d ‘towards medical adviser’s salary and travelling expenses.’ Other receipts by the Plunket Society over the same period include a grant of £2OOO and a donation of £2OO from the Karitane Products Society towards the salaries of the teaching staff. “No one can deny the immense value of the work done by the Plunket Society in New Zealand, and no small credit in that excellent record is due to the medical advisers, past and present, but it is clearly undesirable that any medical practitioner should be preaching and teaching a method of infant feeding which involves the use of products, profits from the sale of which contribute substantially to his or her salary. “The answer to the question posed at the beginning is therefore more complex than would appear at first sight. There is so much good in the mothercraft taught by the Plunket Society and kindred societies in other parts of the world that it seems a pity it should be linked with a method of using milk which has the support of only a small minority of paediatricians.”