MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 3 September 1915, Page 2

MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

(By Hygeia)

(Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children;.

I FOOD. We hope that after what has been said in the preceding articles on i-ilk none of our # readers will have any doubt as to the best food for the rearing of young babies. No other form of rourishment can compare with ,nilk drawn fresh and pure direct from the .-. other's breast. We showed how the milk of each mammal is specially designed for. the young of the particular species; and if & baby has the .nisfortune to be deprived of its birthright, the miik used as a substitute ought To be so modified that it will approach as nearly as possible to human milk. The recipes for modifying cow's milk to make it suitable for a baby, are given in the Government pamphlet "Baby's First Month," and also in th c Society's book, "Feeding and Care of Baby" (pages 23 and 25); therefore they need not be repeated here.

Advice and instructions with regard to natural and artificial feeding "are given in "Feeding and Care of Baby." This book should be in the hands of all those who are entrusted with the care of infants.

We have been asked to draw up a short summary with regard to the feeding of a normal, healthy child in the first two years of life. I give the following merely to remind the mother of some addition or change which ought to be made at a particular month. She is supposed to have read and studied the Society's book, and we shall refer to the pages dealing with the various points so that she may l»e able to look them up without trouble. All references in the summary are to the book, "Feeding and Care ©f Baby." SUMMARY. _ First Few Days—Follow carefully and intelligently the instructions on pap^s 6 and 7 and 29. From Third Day On.—Mother's milk or properly adjusted and graded liumanised milk every three hours in the day time. Giv© no night feeding, and six feedings only in the 24 hours. (See pages 34 and 35).

At Three or Four Months. —If baby is artificially feel, a change' may be made to humanised milk No. 11. * (Sco page 25). Every artificially-fed baby

should receive some fresh fruit juice daily. (Page 40). At' Four * Months. —Commence fourhourly feedings—i.e., feed five times in 24 hours. (Page 34). At Six Months.—Baby should be given a. bone to gnaw at, m order to give exercise to mouth, jaws, tongue and developing teeth. (Puge 38). At Nine.Months.—Give baby crust or toast, or "pulled bread," which h,i d , been slowly crisped in the oven, before • giving milk. «j IV e this fir-t at ono, and I later at two or more feedings. This 1 must form part of the meal, but a ; reasonable time should be cllowed so . that baby may take it slowly, say, 10 or 15 minutes. -On the other hand, it -i& a great mistake to get baby into the j bad habit of dawdlin« unduly. Th« J mother must he warned against ever , allowing any form of food except at the appointed time. Never feed between meals.

'If baby is artificially fed, 3oz. of ,oat-]elly or barley-jelly ivay now h« mixed with the day's supnly of food: or loz may he given plain' by spoon, first, at one feeding and later at two of the feedings at which no bread is given—the remainder of the jelly bein<T nuxed with the milk. (Page 38). , , & . If baby is fed naturally, the same quantity of oat or barley jelly should be introduced at this time, 'and baby ought to be gradually weaned. (Page 15).-

At Ten Months.—The feeding shoftld be somewhat as follows:—Mix 30oz of humanised milk No. ]1 and lOcz. of cow's milk*

At G a.m.—Give Boz of mixed milk, -yitli. which 2oz of oat jelly has been plended. • .: , : .'

At 10 a.m.—Give a crust about 10 minutes, beforp feeding time, and Bojs fer-the jmixed»«iiJk. •. « •-.^- S ~.*.-•'^»:---^

, At 2 p.m.—Give "crust 10 minutes berore the hour, then loz of oat ielly y AS?2° n ' Rndf° z- «f the mixed iniik. At b p.m.—feame as 10 a.m. nui- P-^n—Same as 6 , a.m.•%• ; This is only approximate. Some babies may be able to get more food trom the crusts than others, and then they would not., need quite so much milk more °thers Would need The following .table shows approximately the quantities of humanified milk cow's milk, arid cereal jelly required from nine to 18 months: — Oat-Jelly Humanised 8t Number Milk * New Barley of Month. No. 11 . Milk. Jelly Feedings Ozs. Ozs. Ozs. Tenth ... 35 5 3 k 'Eleventh - 30 10 5 5 ; Twelfth ... 20 15 7 5 Thirteenth 15 15 10 X 'Fifteenth 10 ]5 10 5 Eighteenth 0 20 10 ;' 4 Warning.—As the baby comes to take more starchy or cereal food, don't rail to replace more and more of the humanised milk with pure cow's milk tas shown in the table. Mothers and even nurses have been known to keep on using humanised milk at this stage and by so doing have deprived the baby of its due proportion of fleshrormmg material. . After Eleven Months.—A thin scraping of butter may be spread on bread °T toast and given instead of the crust. If baby will not take enough dry food the meal may be completed by*bread or toast over which some of the milk, made hot, has been poured. N.B.—-Dry food should be given first, and if enough is taken no "mush" shpuld be allowed. Once habituate ' a baby to "pap-feeding" and he will become too lazy to make his jaws and salivary glands work for a living. No baby should be left-alone with a crust, on account of the risk of choking. Fruit juice should be given daily. Year to Fifteen Months (pages 47 and 48).—Decrease the daily allowance of milk, and give more solid food. (See table above.) At the third meal introduce some chicken or mutton broth, thickened with a little ground rice or semolina. The rice or semolina may be given in the form of well-boiled milk pudding, as a variation.

A small quantity of baked apple, slightly sweetened and with a little cream, may be* give* occasionally at the third meal.

Raw Ripe Apple. If good ripe apples of the right sort are procurable—the kind of eating apples which readily break down into a soft, friable pulp when rubbed off with the little teeth, lips and gums aiot the kind that remain in tough, elusive lumps— we may begin to allow baby a little uncooked apple at any time between 12 and 15 months of age. However, it must be clearly understood that, while raw fruit is wholesome and beneficial in infancy, if great care is taken and the baby properly trained to chew and break down this form of food, only harm can result if the mother is careless and allows the child to bolt such material, swallowing lumps of it instead of acquiring the invaluable habit of thorough mastication. .

A properly-trained baby enjoys thorough mastication, and, once the good habit is soundly established, the baby tends not to let anything pass his throat that is not fit to swallow.