OUR BABIES. (By Hygeia.)

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1909, Page 15

OUR BABIES. (By Hygeia.)

Published under tho auspices ol tho Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children. HOW LONG AND HOW OFTEN SHOULD BABY BE FED. Even in cases of breast-feeding, socalled ''maternal instinct" gives little or no indication to the human mother as to how long or how often she should suckle her baby. Yet the prevention of overfeeding on the ono hand or underfeeding on the other, is a matter of supreme importance. FIRST DAYS OF LIFE. It is imperatively necessary that the baby should be put to the breast as coon as the mother has comfortably settled, down after childbirth. This, can often be done within six hours, and "should never be delayed beyond twelve hours, unless under instructions from adoefcor or for some other equally good reason. In most cases the baby obtains very little food from the breast in the firet twenty-four to thirty-six hours of life. If during this period he is restless ajtid evidently thirsty, he may have a little boiled water from time to time, or from one or two teaspoonfuls of 5 per cent, sugar of milk solution (an ounce to the pint) mixed with an v equal volume of boiled water, may be given at intervals of four hours — that is, after each attempted suckling. If the mother's milk is delayed still longer, something additional must be given ; but persistent efforts to establish at least partial breastfeeding, in spite of failure, should not be given up for a week' or more. In such cases throughout the first week continue feeding with sugar of milk solution, which need not be diluted after the second day, but must have humanised milk added in gradually -increasing proportions, so that wlieij a week old the baby may receive equal quantities of sugar solution and humanised milk. By the end of the second week two parts of humanised milk may be given to one of sugar solution, and by the end of the third week three parts of humanised milk to one of sugar solution. If premature, use weaker/ Under ideal conditions a healthy mother with good digestion, and taking regularly the right quantity and quality of food, should have available for her baby from the start just what is needed. The infant put to the breast during the early months for about a quarter of an hour every three hours in the day-

time, and at first once during the night, should secure jusb what is needed for perfect health, growth, and development. The regularly repeated act of sucking supplies to the nervous mechanism regulating the secretion and flow of milk precisely the stimulus essential for ensuring the proper quantity and quality of milk for each stage in the first nine months of life. The milk secreted should accord exactly with the normal demands of the young organism, and this may be expected if the mother's health and habits are as near as possible what they should be. Further, the efforts and exercise involved in regular, active sucking should bring about sound sleep, from which the baby tends to wake up refreshed, invigorated, and hungry or thirsty a,fter three or four hours, according to age. under these natural and thrice blessed conditions the undisturbed quiet of the house, the rosy colour of the child, its lively and vigorous condition when awake, its looking around and active kicking, the firmness of its flesh, and its reg^ular gain' in weight, x are certain evidences that we are on the right road toward a thriving growth. With judicious directions on the part of the physician and their proper comprehension on the part of the mother (although, indeed, the directions frequently have to be carried out only after a tiresome conflict against the various influence^ ruling in the nursery), everything goes" -svell, and, with a few exceptions, still to be spoken of, the dangers of overfeeding are avoided. ' NEW FEEDING TABLE. A series of patient, careful investigations made by leading authorities on the Continent during the last few years, with a view to ascertaining precisely how often and for how long a baby should be suckled, or fed artificially, leav© no room for doubt on the subject. Hitherto the baby has undoubtedly been fed too frequently, and very* often he has been allowed to suck too long as well. The table given below shows at a glance the conclusions arrived at, but it should be mentioned that even during the first month of life the majority c^ babies do best if fed only every three hours, and not every two and a-half hours, as shown in the table. However, it is perhaps too much to expect mothers, grandmothers, and nurses, to immediately give up their preconceptions as to frequent feeding being best, so we show feedings every two and a-half hours during the first month, with a footnote pointing to the fact that threehour intervals may be substituted with advantage. Of course, the quantity allowed at each feeding must be increased if the longer intervals are adopted.

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