OUR BABULS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12528, 13 April 1935, Page 10

OUR BABULS

By Hygela.

Published under the auspices of .the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society.) “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”. natural feeding. (Continued). IRE ESTABLISHMENT OF lactation. The importance of a right start for both mother and baby at this .juncture cannot be over-emphasised. ‘ As soon *as the mother Has settled down comfortably: after childbirth, and always within 12 hours of birth, the baby should he put to. both breasts for a few minutes, as it is the sucking of the baby which provides the stirmtluK jn bringing in the milk, and also because the fluid (colostrum) first secreted is an important food. The second .day feeding at sixyhourly intervals i<j usual, and after that three or four hourly intervals, which ever is decided by the doctor or nurse in charge. Care should be taken not to leave baby at tbe breast for more than a few minutes at first, for two reasons: (1) Prolonged sucking teaches baby bad habits, and is likely to end iri his refusal to take the breast if he is kept -it it when ernpty. (2) It is bad for the nipple. A strong sucker kept too long sucking at an empty breast may cause the skin to become sodden and crack. The time may be gradually increased to 15-20 minutes at a feeding, as the milk comes on, if the baby shows no sign of overfeeding. No definite rule as for the time needed to suckle can bo laid down. A quarter of an hour is a fair average, but some need 26 minutes, while others get all they ought to have in les s than 10 minutes, as test weighings hare repeatedly proved. . No night feed should be given from the first. This gives the mother and child a good eight hours’ rest. Whether the first feed is given at 5 or 6 a.m. the second feed should be regular —at the next three or four hourly interval. Should baby awake and cry in the night he should be changed if wet and warmly tucked up again in his cot, hut don’t talk to him while doing this. He soon, learns to expect such attentions ! Baby should never be taken into the nurse’s or mother’s bed. If the habit of night feeding be estab- : lished children are sometimes bad sleepers for years. A healthy breast-fed infant soon learns to take sufficient feed in the day if only the nurse or mother is . firm enough in the beginning, realising that a little crying at first is going to be for the ultimate good of the child. In the Karitane Hospitals all the normal resident babies have no night feed, and these babies are rarely heard after their lO p.m. feed till they are awakened for their next morning feed at 6 a.m. The wrong habit is<sometimes started to relievo the mother whose breasts are painful at night. A little milk should be expressed or drawn off with the breaot pump and the breasts firmly supported. To begin by giving a night feed even for this reason is wrong, as most assuredly the baby has to be broken of this habit later on. What ever intervals of reeding are decidaf upon must be strictly adhered to, as the regular emptying of the breasts, is very important iri establishing lactation. Many brothers think it is very cruel to waken a baby for a feed, and so live in a constant muddle as to meal tiiries, rest periods, and outings. This, is a mistaken kindness, and mother and baby should live by tho clock. The routine is established in a few weeks, and no. clock i~ needed—the baby himself acts as a clock. “The reasons for regular feeding may be given as they concern first tho riiother and then the child; (1) Regular, .feeding times make , sure of tho breasts being worked and rested so. as to obtain the best results from it, and to make tiie duty less irksome to the mother by the fixed hours, allowing her to arrange other duties so as to fit in with them. (2) Regularity of work secures the proper apportionment of work and reot to the infant’s, digestive tract. ,A baby differs from.the suckling animal or from the baby of the uncivilised savage in that as he grows up his meal., time, sleep tfme, play tiirie, and work time will be determined by. social circumstances. The careless, shiftless, and ignorant mother whose child brought up without method and given the breast whenever he cries for it is injuring both the health and character of. her child. Not only is he likely to .haye disturbed digestion arid irregularities in. the action, .of the;lkfweis, but he is acquiring the slipshod way of hjs parents,,and without, discipline and ..self-control he . grows up selfwilled and unable to adapt himself to our customs, and is neither, physically nor morally a credit to. the race.”— Extract from a text- .book. - for midwives by Dr Fairbairn. * This talk will be .continued in nextarticle.