OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3012, 24 February 1917, Page 5

OUR BABIES

TBY HTGEU.I ' Published under the auspices of tho Royal New Zealand Society for tho ...Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."PROFESSOR BUDIN'S TJvSE 01' WHOLE COW'S MILK FOB BABIES. Its Unfortunate Results. Last week we pointed'out-the unsuitability of whole cow's milk for the artificial rearing of babies, and we promised to show how unfortunate were the (ultimate results of its use as advocated by Professor Budin- towards tho close of, last century. How did it come to pass that Professor Budin's confident advocacy of sterilised cow's milk and his erroneous views gained such wide acceptance? The answer is simple. Budin kept alive the class of babies that came under his care more successfully than his pre-' decessors, or than most of his contemporaries. This also is easily explained:— (1) The vast majority of Budin's babies were suckled by members of a wonderful organisation of trained wet-nurses, and were not artificially fed at all, until they had grown to the stage, of being able to cope more or loss successfully with pure sterilised cow's milk. .Professor Budin says expressly in "The Aursling," published just before 'his death:

' &? regards artificial fowling from birth, my experience is as yet too limited to warrant any dogmatic statement as to the most advisable method during the first fen- weeks of life. As I always- endeavour to insist on breast-feeding, my cases aro not numerous enough to base any definite opinion upon. (2) Budin centred his attention on keeping down the death-rate—that is, sustaining: the life of the baby, not onsurlnF,T?o™al growth and, development. Health and vigour," not mere existence, should be the. goal of every -rational system of rearing infants. One may search in vain'through the pages ot The NursliDg" for any reference to the fate of the baby after leaving Professor Budin's hands-indeed, his remarks are confined for the "most part to mere increase in weight of infants while under his immediate care and supervision, not to evidences of health and fitness then or afterwards. .Professor Marfan, of Paris, is to-day the greatest authority in Prance on" the rearing of infants. The 1 following is a tree translation from his great work (of ?™™ 450 bages), devoted solely to the Milk-feeding of Babies." Prom his first communication in 1592 isudin advanced the idea that young babies (les nouveaux-nes) are capable of dating pure cow's milk when it is well sterilised: He has renewed his assertion more or less formally.in his later works. Obviously it was a statement calculated to attract lively attention. .Fancy, what a simplification it involved for all doctors charged with directing creches and dispensaries, or dealing with collections of babies, not to need in the future to bother themselves with modifying or preparing cow's milk in any way beyond mere sterilising!" "The babies (healthy babies) who have been fed , with sterilised pure cow's mill before the fourth or fifth month may be divided into tlvree (categories :— "(1) The first present evident signs of chronic inflammation of the stomach and bowels with _ emaciation and cachexia— i.e., malnutrition: and general .bad health, onaiacterised' by a' jwaxy or sallow complexion, as in cancer and consumption. - "(2) Others present no apparent, anom--7," t "(3) The greatest number, and; particularly those who have received pure cow's milk from birth, have an appearance of comparatively good health; but if one examines them closely on? finds among them the following anomalies:— "There- is more or less obstinate constipation—say a motion once • a day, sometimes "every second day, sometimes only once in three days. Prom time to time the constipation gives place to diarrhoea. The diaTrhoea is accompanied.. by vomiting. Very often these infants a.ro ravenous;' Nevertheless' their ' weight increases (sometimes it increases greatly), the child' becomes fat,'and one' would be satisfied if one passed unnoticed tie fact that the flesh is soft and very pale. ■ v ""Usually the belly is somewhat protuberant and flabby. The baby suffers from a special form of infantile dyspepsia, which it. is legitmate to name 'the .dyspepsia of pure coir's milk,' because the malady cannot "be attributed' to microbes 'in the milk, seeing that it had been sterilised. There is apparently a slight inflammation of the stomach and bowels, the large, flabby belly being associated with elongation of the- intestine, and an abnormal state of the gastrio juice. • ' "In addition, to the above thero is ■ often present prurigo—an itchy affection of the skin—nettle-rash, or eczema. Sometimes these babies have rickets; the 'soft spot' in the head is liable to bo late in closing, the cutHing of the teeth is usually delayed. "In the majority of cases the baby reaches the eighth or ninth month without showing any other symptoms specially calling for notice. Prqvid-ed-this is so, the troubles to which I have referred • tend to become less marked, and one may- regard the child as out of danger. .But this is not always so. What I have already described may be succeeded by the typical signs of chronic confirmed inflammation of stomach and bowels. "The above assemblage of ailments is attributable to the composition of the milk of the cow. The proof that this is so is to be found in the fact that these troubles do not occur—or," 1 in the few cases met with, are present only in a very minor degree— when one gives cow's milk modified in such a way as to approximate its composition 'to that of woman's milk." . •'

In' other words, the grave affections*described by Professor Marfan may be avoided by using "Trumanised milk." It is the old story. The milk of the cow is the only proper food for a calf, but it is. quite unsuitable for a baby unless carefully and properly modified. I shall have something further to say next week about the effects of pure coir's milk, boiled or otherwise sterilised—l mean regarding the effects attributable mainly to proteid being present in gross excess. ' •' i ' •