MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 15 November 1913, Page 12

MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

(By Hygeia).

(Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health ot \\ omen and Children)'.

EVIL EFFECTS OF EXCESS OF if JROTEID IN BABY'S MiLK.

In dealing recently with (xlaxo and ! other forms of Dried or Condensed Milk in connection with baby-f eeciing, I left oft: at the point of turning to the injurious etfects on the digestive organs and system generally which have been found to accompany the use of sterilised cow's milk, especially when not properly modified in accordance with the needs of the young human being. Twenty years ago the late Professor Budin, of Paris, commenced to advocate the use of pure cow's milk, sterilised by boiling; but otherwise unmodified, for the feeding of infants. This procedure, so extremely simple, and backed by the authoritative name of Budin, soon gained many adherents in the medical profession ; and the use of pure, sterilised cow's milk spread throughout France, but not without marked attention being drawn by impartial observers to it-3 injurious* effects on the ultimate welfare of the babies. However, protests were in vain. Many years had to elapse before the evils incidental to the feeding of babies with pure cow's milk were clearly demonstrated by the publication of classified records of infants so treated. It must be borne in mind that this course of events has been repeated over and over again in the disheartening and humiliating history of the artificial ■ rearing of babies. Ordinary Condensed [ Milk,, dozens of Patent Baby Foods, Peptonised Milk, and Pure Cow's Sterilised have each been hailed during the last 40 years as solving the difficult question of "How best to bottle-feed a nursling?" Each preparation in turn has won the confidence of the public, each has had its run, its enthusiastic advocates, and its multitude of victims, and each has been ultimately discredited or relegated to its proper place, only when time and experience had shown the sacrifice of life and health incidental to its continued use. There is no reason to suppose that it will be otherwise with Dried Cow's Milk (the panacea of the moment), or with any other form of nutriment which departs widely from Nature's standard (Human Milk) in composition and fundamental properties.

Indeed, a considerable number of the so-called "Baby Foods" which have been patented during the last 15 years have consisted mainly, or almost entirely, of Dried Milk, with or without the addition of sugar or milk. But though" the medical journals have teemed with references to the injurious consequences observed on the extended use of such preparations, each new competitor coming heralded with new pretensions is virtually sure of a good sale, especially if it be well "got up" and easy to use.

Now let us return to Professor Biidin and his confident advocacy of Sterilised jCow's Milk. How did it come to pass that erroneous views gained such wide acceptance? The answer is simple. Budih kept alive the class of babies t|iat came under his care more successfully than his predecessors, or than most of his contemporaries. This also is easily explained:— (1) The vast majority of Budin's babies were suckled by members of a wonderful organisation of trained wetnurses, and were not artificially fed at all until they had grown to the stage of being able to cope more or less successfully with pure Sterilised Cow's Milk. Professor Budin says expressly in "The Nursling," published just before his death:

"As regards artificial feeding from birth, my experience is as yet too limited to warrant any dogmatic, statement as to the most advisable method during the first week of life. As I always endeavor to insist on breast-feeding, my cases are not numerous enough to base any definite opinion upon.".

(2) Budin centred his attention on keeping down the death' rate—that s, sustaining the life of the baby, not ensuring normal growth and development.

I "HEALTH AND VIGOUR," not mere "existence/ should be the goal of every rational system of rearing infants. One may search in vain through the pages of "The Nursling" for any reference to the fate of the baby after leaving Professor Budin's hands —indeed, his remarks are confined for the most part to mere increase in weight of infants while under his immediate care and supervision, not to evidences of health and fitness then or afterwards. . Professor Marfan, of Paris, is to-day the greatest authority in France on the. rearing of infants. The following is a free translation from his great work (of some 450 pages), devoted soleelv to the "Milk-feeding of Babies" :— EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR A. B. MARFAN'S BOOK. ("Traite de L'Allaitement," page 315*. "From his first communication^ in 1892 JBudin advanced the idea that young babies (les nouveaux-nes) are capable of digesting pure cow's milk when it is well sterilised. He has renewed his assertion more or less formally in his later works. Obviously it was a statement calculated to attract lively attention. Fancy, what a simplification it involved for all doctors charged witu directing creches and dispensaries, or dealing with collections or babies, not to need in the future to bother themselves with modifying or preparing cow's, milk in any way, beyond mere sterilising!" MARFAN ON THE FATE OF BUDIN'S BABIES. "The babies (healthy babies) who are j fed with sterilised pure cow's milk bej fore the fourth or fifth month may be divided into three categories:— j "1. The first present evident signs of chronic inflammation of the stomach j and bowels with emaciation and cach- | exia—i.e., malnutrition ans general bad health characterised by a waxy or sali low complexion, as in cancer' or consumption. "2. Others present no apparent anomaly. I "3. The greatest number, and particularly those who have received pure cow's milk from birth, have an appearance of comparatively good health; but if..one,examines them closely, one finds among them the following anomalies: "THE STATE OF THE MAJORITY. "There is more or less obstinate constipation—say a motion once a day, sometimes every second day, sometimes only once in three days?—the infant expelling with pain a great quantity of firm, pasty matter of very pale color, almost white, resembling gum mastic. From time to time this constipation gives place to diarrhoea, with liquid yellow stools, spotted with-white and ! green. The diarrhoea is accompanied by vomiting. Very of ten these infants are ravenous. Nevertheless, iheir weight

increases (sometimes it increases greatly), the child becomes fat, and one would be satisfied if one passed unnoticed the fact, that the flesh is soft and very pale. "Usually the belly is somewhat proturberant and flabby. The baby suffers from a special form of infantile dyspepsia, which it is legitimate to name 'the dyspepsia of pure cow's milk,' because the malady cannot be attributed to microbes in the milk, seeing that it has been sterilised. There is apparently a slight inflammation of the stomach and bowels, the large, flabby belly being associated with elon- ■ gation of the intestine, and an abnormal state of the gastric juice. ! SK.IK DISEASES AND RICKETS. ! "In addition to the above there is often present prurigo—an itchy affection of the skin —nettlerash, or eczema. Sometimes these babies have rickets; the 'soft 6pot 5 in the head is liable to be late in closing, the cutting of the teeth is usually delayed. "vi- the majority of cases the baby reaches the eighth or ninth month without showing any other symptoms specially calling for notice. Provided this is so, the troubles to which I have referred tend to become less marked, and one may regard the child as out of danger. But this is not always so. "What I have already described may be succeeded by the typical signs of chronic ; confirmed inflammation of stomach and bowels. "The above assemblage of ailments is attributable to the composition of the milk of the cow. The proof that this is so is to be found in the fact that these troubles do not occur—or, in the few cases met with, are present only in a very minor degree —when one gives cow's milk modified in sucha way as to approximate its composition to that of woman's, milk." In other words, the grave affections described by Professor Marfan may be avoided by using "Humanised Milk." It is the old story. *The milk of the cow is the only proper food for a calf, but it is quite unsuitable for a baby unless carefully and properly modified. I shall have something further to say next week about the effects of pure cow's milk, boiled or otherwise sterilised—l mean regarding the effects attributable mainly to proteid being present in gross excess. Finally, on the ground of their being "devitalised," I shall go on to consider the undesirableness of all forms of dried or sterilised milk as food for nurslings, except where good, fresh cow's milk cannot be procured, or where prescribed, by a doctor, with a special purpose in view, to meet, say, some abnormal condition of the organism present at the time.