OUR BABIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 3 October 1925, Page 17

OUR BABIES.

By Hygei'a. TPubllsTiecl under the auspices of the Royal 3ST.Z. Society for the Health of Women and Children (Blanket Society.)] PREMATURE WEANING. How is it that even at this date, when one notices a bahy being fed by bottle, so many mothers say Tou see, I couldn't nurse him! hen one asks why. the usual answer is that after the first few weeks the natural milk dul not suit the baby. He cried, failed to gain in weight after the first three weeks or so, though previously he had gone ahead well. The natural supply began to dwindle, baby was not satisfied, and it was -concluded that now the milk was "poisoning" the baby mstead of nourishing him, -and instriictions were given that baby must be weaned at once. In a case of this kind it does not seem to strike the parents or their advisers that as the mother has been able to build up and bear a healthy child there should naturally be a supply of food to continue the building and development and nourish the child suitably that in such cases any difficulty with’regard to feeding is almost always due to some other cause than the unsuitability of the mother’s milk. Had the mother been taught as a girl leaving school from such a primer as was written by Sister Antonio Zerwer some years before the war, for use in the schools of Germany, she could never have doubted that soon after her baby arrived the breasts would be in readiness to supply the right quality and quantity of milk for normal growth .arid development. The little primer I Yhve referred to is written in the form ' of question and answer, and is profusely illustrated. The right way and the wrong way of doing things are both pictured, but the picture showing the wrong way has a large black cross ruled over it to" show that it is wrong. HERE .IS ONE OP THE EARLY QUESTIONS.

How Should the Little Baby be Fed? Natural feding is the best for him—mother’s milk, which .the good God gives with every mother! What, then, is really the main reason why natural feeding is so often abandoned in the early months. OVER-FEEDING. The main cause is over-feeding the baby in the first few weeks. There is usually a very ample supply of milk if the mother has followed the advice to the expectant, mother in the Government pamphlet. Now, the mother and the baby are in the hands of others, and too often the baby is over-fed, through being fed too frequently or allowed to remain at the breast over-long. At first there is often a rapid increase in weight after the usual initial loss has been made up in a week or so. Mother and nurse are full of pride, and it is only when the baby begins to cry frequently and suffers from wind and indigestion, seen also by the appearance of small curds in the' motion, that they begin to worry. They never ask themselves what they have been doing wrong, but they conclude that the mother’s milk does not suit the baby, and they give it some one or other of the vaunted baby foods. In order that the mother or nurse may be on special guard, we shall enumerate the chief symptoms of over-feeding, and they can be avoided at once, though some time may elapse and proper treatment must be given before the /baby gets over the indigestion caused ' \by overtaxing its organs. The chief symptoms of over-feeding are:—

1. Baby cries and evidently suffers pain from wind. / 3. The motions are not normal and contain curds, showing signs of imperfect digestion of the food. 4. After the primary loss has been regained, there is frequently a very rapid gain in weight for two or three weeks. 5. At this stage baby cries a good deal, does- not take his food so happily, is restless, and soon begins to lose weight. 0. Meantime the mother is worried, and, of course, as she gets little restful sleep, her milk begins to diminish in quantity, and as baby becomes more restless and miserable it is decided that the mother’s milk does not “suit” her baby. 1 . 7. Seales are now got, the baby is weighed before and after each nursing, and it is found that the quantity of milk taken by the baby from the mother is insufficient for his needs. The supply of good mother’s milk has been frittered away by over-feeding the baby and making him ill, while at the same time the worry caused to the mother by tho baby’s losing condition and rest make her milk supply become less and less. Next week we shall go into tho matter of what must now be done to give both mother and baby the best chance for the future.