MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 29 September 1915, Page 3

MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

{By Hygeia). (Published under the auspices of tLe Royal New Zealand Society for tiie Health of Women and Children).

HARD, DRY FOOD

Last week -we were dealing with the subject of hard, dry food for babies. This was done in response to a letter ot enquiry from a mother who was anxioua because her baby was inclined to take only hard, dry food, such as toast and crusts, for, breakfast. The mother feared that if he did not have some pap-food, such as porridge, bread, and milk, etc., his nutrition would suffer. We pointed out that the natural requirement of a baby after 12 months, as more and more teeth came, was1 an increasing supply of food needing the active use of jaws, teeth, and salivary glands; that at 18 months the normal baby has an ideal grist mill and that Nature intended it to be energetically used—not put off wTtk mere fluids and mush.

I quote the following from the Society's book, "Feeding and Care of Baby," in amplification of what I quoted last week:— FAR-REACHING EFFECTS OF MASTICATORY EXERCISE. Again we must insist that perfect capacious jaws and sound, beautiful teeth cannot be built without fulfilling all the | simple and universal requisites for | health throughout babyhood and childhood—especially ample daily exercise of the mouth organs. The( month is indeed a great primal] "driving-station/ whence the nervefibres carry impulses to the nerve-cen-tres, which quicken the life and activity of every tissue of the body. - When the jaws are doing natural, honest hard work-the whole of the rest of the organism is impelled to activity—the heart pumps quicker and more forcibly, the pressure of blood in the arteries" rises, and its stream flows more rapidly, even in the very finger-tips; at the same time the digestive juices are poured out freely, not only into the mouth, Imt also into the scrunch and intestines, as a result of messages transmitted from the moufh to the nerve-centres and out again when we are busily engaged'in masication.

Active mouth exercise essential for perfect nutrition, growth, and fitness. ' Apart altogether from the consideration of the building of the teeth and jaws, active ''mouth-exercise" is thus necessary for the nutrition, growth. and health of every organ of the body. "Feeding-exercise" is the most primitive,' fundamental, and essential of all forms of exercise.

A horse fed mainly on hard', dry food (and reasonably treated in other respects) becomes the ideal of strength and "fitness." Feed the same horse with soft mashes, made fromj similar food-materials, and he will become soft and "out-of-cohdition," simply because his whole organism will then lack the primary stimulation of daily, normal, active exercise which formerly he had to devote to crunching the oats^ etc.— activities which are not called forth when dealing with food provided ready ground and softened—food on which the work has been already done by millstones and mashing outside the animal! borlv. ' ]

_ The same applies to ourselves —particularly to the young, who are always nearest to Nature. We need the exercise of active mastication, and the only effective means of ensuring this is to start training at the dawn of life. Never let a healthy infant take a meal on which he is not compelled to do active work in the form of sucking or chewing. We must begin with the baby and foster his natural tendency to masticate, instead of doing everything to make the function die out by disuse.

Pap-ifeeding not Natural, but TJn-

natural

The mother should banish from her mind the idea that "pap-feeding" or "mince-feeding" is natural for a child who has -teeth. Even milk should be used sparingly after 18 months—a pint a day being ample, perhaps more than is desirable. Diluted with, water, milk should then be used as a nutrient drink at the close of meals, not as a fluid in which to soak food which would otherwise need chewing and insalivating. No doubt the children of the very poor are often unduly stinted with regard to milk, but children in general tend to be given too much milk and cream—too much ready-made fluid food which merely drains into the stomach— to the exclusion of cruder materials on which work would have to be done, suited to the natural tendencies and activities of infancy.

However, we have all of us been too much inclined to reserve our pity for the infants in the shuns because of their being given "what's going" in their second year, while we have, most of us, failed to notice that these very children often do much better than the pampered children of the^rich kept on pap and soft food for several years Of course, many slum children suffer greatly from being given indigestible food, such, as bits of fried bread, fried potatoes, liver and bacon, cakes, etc., and I am not excusing such folly; but parents ought to be brought to understand1 that as much harm may be done by pampering and spoiling a child through never letting him have the kind of food needed for developing his teeth and jaws, his salivary glands; and his digestive organs in general, and for building up firm hone, muscle, etc.

London Slum Children versus the West

Enders

When working in the lowest quarter of Bethnal Green two years ago I made special enquiries of the head teacher of the local school as to the state of the children's teeth, and I must confess I was rather surprised to be told that on the whole their teeth were excellent— much better than the average for the West End. Dr. King carefully examined the teeth of these children, and the result quite confirmed what the teachers had said. Further^ he found that the average of the children's teeth in this London skim was much better than the average for New Zealand, the main explanations being apparently as follow :—

1. A far larger proportion of children are breast-fed in the slums than in the West End, or even in New Zealand— the very poor mothers cannot afford to buy milk, so they have to fall back on themselves. / 2. Slum children, are given more simple, hard, dry ordinary food, and less milk and mush.

3. The very poor get fewer sweets than the well-to-do. Since we made these observations I have seen it stated that a definite comparison of the children of the London poor as compared with those of the rich has quite confirmed the conclusions we came to as regards the teteth, and I am glad to be able to quote the following from a lecture recently given in London under the auspices of the National Association for the Prevention of Infant Mortality, by Dr. Waller, physician to the North Street Pancraa School for Mothers.

Heavy Babies not Necessarily Healthy Babies.

May I here mention in passing one other point in connection with infant-

i * <* ' ' Mr n^ . —, 4-~, y r feeding:oft^^verlQok^.- Tliit'is.the .failure, of,>eVght a» gmdanqe, iinlesg carefully checked by the othfcr points which together count I for health. It ia» q\iite true that for the first few months of life it is extremely difficult for an infant to gain weigirc, 'if its food does not satisfy its main physiological needs. But after that, weight alone is a misleading guide, and must be checked by careful observation1 directed towards other, details of development, such as the condition of the bones and muscles, the capacity to walk, and so forth. Especially is thisi the case towards the end of lactation—from about the ninth month onwards. There is a type of child whose faulty management" at this age is' distressingly common, and it is a type by no means confined to the poor ciasses. The perambulators of i Kensington Gardens will provide a careful observer with examples of this type, which also crowd our hospitals hr large numbers. They are the children who are allowed to feed on milk and starchy foods "almost exclusively, and whose parents; content with avoirdupois, mistake massive bulk for health. . . There is an unwise tendency to quote wi^h scorn a frequent saying amongst the poor people that their infants have (!just what they have themselves.'? Instances are common where such children are admirable examples of lusty activity, walking sturdily at the age of 11. or 12 months, and with other evi--1 dence of satisfactory development.