OUR BABIES

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 2 May 1925, Page 15

OUR BABIES

[Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society).] A SOUTH AFRICAN FATHER’S LETTER. The following letter, notes, and a chart were forwarded to us by Messrs Macmillan and Co., the publishers of “Feeding and Care of Baby’’: — THE LETTER. “My wife and I feel very grateful to your Society and to Dr. Truby King for your publications, and while we have been unable to follow the methods indicated continuously, we realise the lack of skilled advice has no doubt been the cause of the forced resort to artificial food rendered necessary in our case by the alarming failure of our infant to put on weight. “We acknowledge with pleasure the obvious good derived from humanised milk, as well as the many valuable suggestions contained in ‘Feeding and Care of Baby,’ and are forwarding the following notes in case they may he of service in other cases. .From them you will see that we tried very hard to adhere to humanised milk throughout. Trusting the accompanying notes will lie of some service to your Society.” Some notes on the diet, of E — K . Born noon March 2, 1924 —Breast. March 2 to March 1.0- —Partial breast feeding, due to abcesses forming on mother’s breast. Cow’s milk and water given. March lo to 30 —Breast. March 30 to May 11—Lactogen. May 11 to June 22 —Humanised milk No, 1. June 22 to July 18 —Low diet, on account of diarrhoea. June 27 to July 18 —Whole cow’s milk. July IS to August 13 —Humanised No. 2. August 13 to September I—As1 —As above, with one tablespoonful of cream added. September Ito November 16 — Humanised, modified by test to average 3.8 per cent, butter-fat. November 16 —Reverted to Lactogen, plus a local product called Nutrine. “(|n the 11th May we first heard of humanised milk. Previously_ the child had been progressing admirably on Lactogen. “On the 13th August, on medical advice, we started adding cream to each 'bottle, but as it was apparent that we soon rea'ched the point when the child began to refuse food, we started to stand larger quantities of milk to bring the resulting mixture up to 3.8 per cent, or thereabouts. “Normal humanised milk as the result of following your recipes only averages 2 per cent, in Johannesburg. This is the’ result of many analysis and much research on onr part, and can he taken Ufe quite accurate. Tt probably is due to Friesland cows being much favoured "by the dairymen; their yield is high in quantity, hut poor in butter-fat. “At the same time, the remedying of the low fat content did not altogether effect the improvement hoped for, and, as we could not obtain skilled advice, we reverted to Lactogen with a few modifications.”

Remarks by Mother in Reference to Rearing of Baby. “Weight at birth. 61b 3oz. “During baby’s thirteenth week we went for a holiday, and continued the humanised milk diet until the sixteenth week, when baby had an attack of diarrhoea. At the first symptoms I cut off the food and took all the precautions outlined in your book for 36 hours. “On resuming weak humanised nnlk diarrhoea occurred, and was sufficiently alarming to justify calling for a doctor. This doctor prescribed three day’s albumen and barley water only, and then whole milk sterilised in a sealed jar (i.e., under pressure). This had the desired effect, and was continued for three weeks, when a return was made to humanised milk No. 2. “About the twenty-fifth week, being dissatisfied with baby’s appearance, which, while generally healthy enough, undoubtedly appeared to be undernourished, :v doctor was again called in and ordered the addition of cream to' each bottle. For a week or two this procedure gave encouraging results, but resulted at length in the refusal of the food. “My husband then suggested standing greater quantities of milk to raise the fat content of the resulting humanised recipe, which was conscientiously followed until the poor results in the direction of weight-increase led me to try feeding jelly, barley jelly, and cereal gruels for one or two feeds. Baby liked it at first, but soon rejected it after several feeds. She dislikes spoon-feeding intensely. “The child is admitted by doctors t-o be healthy and normal in every respect but‘that of weight and size. No teeth have been cut as yet, and for the last three months her appetite has been very small. AH normal motions (i.e. except in the case of illness) have been most regular and satisfactory.” A reply was begun regretting that the mother had not had the advice of a Plunket nurse in the early stages, when, no doubt, breast-feeding could have been re-established and carried on throughout the whole nursing period, etc. This with the South African letter, notes, and chart were submitted to Sir Trnby King, who wrote to our correspondent as follows :

SIR TRUDY KING’S REPLY. “I have just been shown a letter from yoiivself concerning, your baby, and a partial reply, which is quite m accord with my opinion, though there are several points not drawn attention to which have an important bearing on vour difficulties —e.g. : —- “The chart that showed yom baby gained no less than lib 6oz in the first fortnight on Lactogen.—lOoz a week. Such a gain would be excessive for a normal, full-weight, breast-fed baby per week in its second month, and would be a proof of overfeeding. In the case of an artificially-fed baby, the overtaxing of the system would be still greater if such a gain in weight were induced. The gain in the latter case should not exceed lOoz in a. fortnight. That the ‘limit of tolerance’ exceeded at the end of the first fortnight on Lactogen is shown on the chart by the slight fall in weight (instead of a gain on the fifth week of Lactogen). What follows is quite characteristic of the aftermath of overfeeding-—viz., several months oi digestive disturbances, including diarrhoea. “However carefully the feeding had been conducted, you would have had some difficulty once the digestive and assimilative powder of the child had

been seriously overtaxed; but the duration of disturbance would not have been long if you had had the advice and help of a Plunket nurse. “It was quite n mistake to change suddenly from a super-heated dried milk to any unboiled fresh milk preparation, such as humanised milk. A few weeks’ restriction to super-heated milk makes the average baby quite incapable of dealing satisfactorily with an unboiled milk," and in such cases we make the change very gradually, boiling the milk for at least a quarter ■of an hour at first, and feeling our way very cautiously for fear of causing a further upset. When the baby’s digestive organs first struck on account of i overwork, they should have been given a complete holiday (no food, only boiled water) for a day K and then humanised milk (made with wellboiled milk) diluted with at least twice ,'ts volume of water could have been made to make baby gain .weight for a week or two at least.”