OUR BABIES.

Grey River Argus, 21 April 1909, Page 4

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia).

'Published under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of the. Health of Women and Children.

WATER AND BARLEY WATER. I have already shown that, practi caJly speaking, ordiary fl&ifley-waite, contains no nutriment, and thait tih< tra-uj it does contain consists ajmos .' entirely of starch, whc'ch should no cnt;r into the food of early infancy How is it, then, the mother ma] well ask, that my sick baby improve< w&rn I stopped miJk altogether am gave pure barley-water? The answer is of the simplest, When a baby has. an attack of stomach or bowel derangement its digestive organs have more or less completely struck work for the time being, and the best plan is to give them a rest at once. To effect this we may refrafn from giving beyond pure boiled water for half a day or even for a whole day or longer. This means more than a mere holiday {or liie tired digestive organs; it means also the starvation and getting rid of injurious microbes whiich have been growing apace in the . alimctary canal and causing the fermentation of any food the baby has been taking. To make this point more clear, I may quote what Dr Robert Hutchison says as to the essential treatment of diarrhoea. BOILED WATER FOR DIARRHOEA You must starve the child because you do not wish to furnish \ any further food for *ho growth . % f micro-organisms, and milk in particular you must withhold (even mother's milk), lor there is reason to believe that milk in such cases is actually poisonous (cspecie.Hy the curd of ordinary unmodified cow's milk). In a case or acute darrhoca, Avhatver you do you must ston milk. Wtih regard to elimination, your idea should be, in the first place, to remove as far as you can those organisms whicn are still g.rowang in >lhc ■•alimentary canal and, in the second place; to get rid of their poisons. How are you to carry out these indications in practice? Starvation is easily carried out toy withholding food : but infants only bear starvation well if you keep them warm and at the same time supply them with plenty of liquid. . " At this stage I can imagine the mother saying impatiently i._"Oh, yes, that's" all very well for diarrhoea, but my baby was suffering from dyspepsia" and vomiting." Again the answer is simple. The essential treatment is similar for all serious digestive disturbances, whether they, are attendoj by vomiting, fliprrfioea, of even seveiv. wind and colic — viz.,: "Withdraw rood . supplies mpic or;lcss comoletelv for a longer or shorter perioa.^accordinK; to the urgency ol the condition, \ but i keep up; the supply; -of wsjt|h^ ; \ .'■'' ■■ ■",''■ '|rla£-' what; Hutchison ' says on "Dj^sp^psiaisand Vomiting, in .ttabie|*|r' v ■■•;■■.; ■• .-.',- BOIkED:S&TJvR FOR ACUTE 1N- ... DIGESTION. •' ■■•■•■■ f . '■ \ *-\ ■■■." ■; ■■ • - "The proper t treatmont of acute von:itinf£'is by .starvation. You need nev:r be;afraid!to starve young.children in, -the matter of solid food. It is said.~tb.at, infant's bear, starvation badly. That may be true of chronic underfeeding; but .will-',, stand the csnrpjete withdrkwai' of all nour- i ishm.enUJfQr two or three, or even wore, days without any disadvantage, and, indeed, often with great benefit, pfovided .always that you fulfil two conditions. They first of thiise' is that the child is kept warm; ; children staad starvation badly simply because they .lose so much heat from theic surfaces, a fact which is true of all young animals. And the second condition is that water must on no account: be withheld. Children stand the Withdrawal of fluid very badly in- ' deed. So wheu I"; say that they are to be starved it means that they are to be givph which can he. described as, nourishmentj but they must have abundant liquid; and jn such cases .'as we'speak bf.tftis may take the form of boiled water, or, if you like, and in ordei: to satisfy the mother, one may administer a thin iecoction of: barley." "VMOURINC,. THE MOTHER AT. THE EXPENSE OF THE .BABY. Note that- the proper thing to give

is water, and If you allow barley-water to be used it is merely in order to satisfy the mother's feelings not because barley-water is the best thing for the baby. Of course there may be some special reason for giving- barley-water in a particular case, but that pure water is generally better is shown by the fact that the routine early treatment of acute diarrhoea, etc., in the best modern baby hospitals, is by withdrawal of everj trace of food for a period suited tc tho. necessities of the case. GIVING THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS A HOLIDAY. If you are going to give the digest ive organs a holiday, why__riot let i be a complete one ; and if you are go luor to starve the microbes, why no starve them completely for a shor time ? . Further, wJien you do wan to give the baby some food why pre tend to do so ley giving somethinj such as barley-water, which looks lik food but . which is really mere watc and a trace of stareh — why not giv sugar of milk solution, which .eon tain? seven times the amount of nul riment, and then work in whey, etc so aa to bring the baby by safe stag es back to its normal food again? HOW LONG CAN BABY LIVE 01 PURE WATER? There is no more important lessoi to impress on the mother than the fac that an ordinary baby could live fo a whole month on water alotie withou beinj? allowed a trace of . food. Giv en water alone, a baby loses only i few ounces a day, and a sick bab; wh-2n so often treated often gain strength rapidly, whereas if food 0 .any kind is given it may lose weigh twice as quickly, and may die 0 exhaustion and poisoning by microbe at the end of 24 hours. WORN-OUT' WEAKLINGS. Dr Hutchison says that babies win have Been chronically underfed ma gtta* tEe withh"oiding_ of food badly even this 15 only true in a modifle< sense. Babies exhausted and woii to mere shadows by weeks of mdi fKestion, diarrhoea, and - vomiting brought about by improper feeding etc., will pass their first night ii ship and comfort on being givei inotking but boiled wafer. However in such cases it would be unjustifi ab.'c to continue the use of water 0 lone for more than 12 hours, excep under a? doctorfe instructions "shrdli under a doctor's directions. Indee* it is obvious that a baby in such-i condition should be kept under th> observation and care of a physiciai from day to day, if one is available but there are many cases in the bacl country where the mother is throwi oa her owa resources and it is for he specially that I am writing at the mo menl. BARLEY-WATER AND CURD. Barley-water may be used in th< preparation of baby food in order t< prevent the curd ot whoL cow's milk from forming ii coarse, tough lumps. Thi softening of the curd does result t< some extent, but~it is much better foi the baby if the. mother modifies anc adjusts the composition or the cow's mi!k so as to make it really resembl< human milk as nearly as possible, in stend of merely adding something sui.h as barley water in order to en> able the organism to tolerate and absorb .what- i§ essentially unfit food foi a baby and will tend sooner or latei to damage its digestion and overtax the liver and kidneys. During whole of the period in which babies weie kept at Karitane not a single iufant under nine months of age was given any other food than humanised or modified cow's milk, and not a single pne failed to thrive. This showed conclusively that starch, patent foods, and condensed milk are absolutely unnecessary in the feediug of young babies, though one knows that mothers tend to give them in the vast majority of cases. However, there are certain forms of diarrEoea, etc., in which barley-wa-ter- or other starchy fluids may be used temporarily with advantage, but .those come strictly within "che domaia of the physician, and therefore I need not dwell on them. Thousands of babies have been s'owlv starved to death owing to the mistaken ideas of mothers regarding the value of barley-water as a food; but, on the other hand, the sama mistaken notion has undoubtedly proved beneficial in many cases, because mothers have been prevented from overfeeding their babies by counting the barley-water taken as so much food, whereas it is practical! v mere water. Again, in sickness, babies have been saved by- the fact that restriction for a time to barley-wat-sr alone is almost equivalent to the temporary use. of pure boiled water, the beneficial effect of which, in the majority of infantiie digestive troubles, has been clearly provea. It should always be. borne. iri mind that overfeeding- is the commonest mistake with babies, and that it is a mora kfenous evil than underfeeding.