OUR BABIES

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3234, 3 April 1917, Page 3

OUR BABIES

1U Flygela.

Published under the auspices of the Socie'J (or the Health of Women and Children. "It i* wiser to put up a fence, at the top of prccipic than to maintain an amoniance at the bottom e .

A YOUNG MOTHER'S LETTER. A young mother writes from the country:— My baby i« fed on Humanised Milk, which [ always make myself. She doubled her weight in four months instead of six, in spite of the fact that she did no good' at all for one of those months on- 's well-known patent food, and had a bad attack of diarrhoea for a week. Siie is going to cut her teeth very early. She is the picture of good health, and so very bright and happy. She sleeps all night, and is a model in. every way. If you have a. picture gallery for your babies 1 must send little Annie's pho.ograph for it. My only trouble is that the mi'k 1 set is so rich that 1 thin kthe cream is too stroii','- if I follow the recipe. 1 nave been using 2oz less top-milk than is given in the recipe, skimming as thinly as 1 can. The cow. is a young Ayrshire heifer. I make up the quantity with loz of whey and loz o r boiled walei'. The milk seem-- to suit lier very well; but. <>f course, 1 should be glad to know if i could do lietiei-. 1 found the treatment recommended for diarrhoea—viz., boiled water, etc. most excellent, etc.. COMMENT OX MOTHER'S LETTER. Here everything teems to have gone well, and one only wishes that such interest, care and attention to detail were attainable everywhere. In 1!) cases out of 20 where a child is apparently all right the mother will continue any course of feeding she may have adopted, in spile of the most, convincing arguments that, in the long run, trouble is likely to arise if a change is not made. The stereotyped answer one receives is: "Oh, I'm not going to make any change so long as o-iby is doing well. Besides, Mrs fed her babies the same way, and there is nothing wrong with them." The average mother does not use her higher reasoning faculties in these matters, and she can scarcely be brought to realise the folly of pursuing a course of feeding proved by world-wide, careful observation and experience to be likely to cause a break-down later on. If ttie baby is apparently doing well on a wrong or indifferent method of feeding, the mother migut rest assured that it would do better still if fed in a better way. However, the average woman has no anxiety until actual disease arises, and even then .she often turns in flurried despair from one patent food to another, instead of looking the situation fairly and squarely in the face, and then calmly and patiently following out some simple, rational course of treatment based upon first principles and experience. If mothers

would only look ahead and treat tne:r children rationally from, the start there would oe few sickly babies, and infantile death would bo a very rare event. The grandmother in many cases tends to be opnosel to all this, and savs that what "va< u"iotl enough in her dav shoiil 1 :>e good enough now. If she 'referred 1.1 normal suckling by healthv mothers she would, of course, be right: but the present generation of young mothers has not, for the most part, had the advantage of l.e:ng breast-fed themselves and their education, habit*, and subsequent lifetraining have not been such as to make them, as mothers, the equals of the mothers of earlier generat:ons. Unfortunately, too, from one cause or another, they have lost the guidance of any reliable maternal instinct, and have not. yet learned to replace it (to the degree to which it can he replac)< ed) by reason and intelligence. BEPLY TO YOUNG MOTHER. Let us now return to the practical question submitted Wy our correspondent. Recipes should, not be changed unless for 'some clear and distinct reason, ana'lam of opinion that if you try the standard Humanised Milk aga : n you will find it agree all right —indeed, you do not say that itdisagreed. Firstly, let us consider the .-upposed overrictiness of the milk. If the cream has risen well you really have nearly all the fat in the top Soz. which you are at present removing, and the layer immediately below that would be little, if at alii,' richer in fat than ordinary milk. The topmost ounce would contain from 20 to 2"> per cent, of fat, whereas the tenth ounce should not contain more than Lor 2 per cent. You will realise from this that the fewer ounces you skim oil. the richer, proportionally, you make your Humanised Milk in fat relatively to protcid or flesh-forming material. It would be better to skim off ICoz of the top milk from the 40oz set, and to use 12oz of whey. If your milk is really too rich in fat. this can be reduced by setting 3.V>/. instead of 40oz of milk, and taking off the top 10oz a< before.

Tt is better to use a conical dipper for removing the top-milk (see page 21. "Feeding and Care of Baby"). Ynii do not say how you arrived a! •lie conolus'on thai yon:' milk wn< too rich. There mivrlit lie too much fai; it. is very improbable that there would be appreciable excels in pro'.eid or llesh-forming material. Your iiest plan w-.ul(l be to send an.ounce o f tlie Humanised Milk you prepare, and an ounce, of the cow's milk from which you derive your top-milk, addressed to the Plunkel Nurse. Jamieson's Buildings, Stuart street, Duneiin, and marked "For analysis." tn both cases make sure that the specimens are taken from thoroughly-rmxed samples, so as to be fair averages. Add three or four drops o'" formalin to eacn phial to prevent decomposi ion. We will let vou know the result. By 11-:>ilt niily Sty. of top-milk you reduce the allowance of llesh-l'orminy i, :].(.••;.•(' hflun- the best standard. Eviden.ly y. u ■ baby is doin.'.' we!'; but increase of weight Ls. of course, v.o r the. only criterion, and i: : .- ; safe:' to keep un the proteid. When a child is ine: easing so qu'cklv in weignf* one w uld oe inclined' to srive less food rat iter Hum mora Where growth is very rapid the digestion so'.:e'imes ;:c-n e o'. e - taxed,. It is <a f c-' to ke -i> enliven the short side, with re-a." 1 to foo.i rathe.lo srivei ton nni/i. The li/' P o"essor Budin. fie e:i;i ictit French authority u:i baliies. always iu-istcu ihat '•underfed babies tend not to suiter from indigestion." Halves tend to be overfed in toe great inajon y oh-ase*. y, ;i must try to attain tiie happy mean.

FREE-TO EVERYONE WHO LOVES A BABY. Our ofTer--a free present of the splendid G.axo Baby Book containing Uli illustrated pages of just that information a mother needs to know about Baby. A Nurse writes:—"All mother, who desire to bring up a really strong and thriving bonni'e should pay strict attention to the simple advice and rules of health given in the Glaxo Babv Book.' A postcard to Glaxo Department 20, Palmerston North, will bring a free copy tc you.