Our Babies.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 16 April 1915, Page 4

Our Babies.

(By Hygeia).

Published under the außpices of ti»e Society for the Health of Women and Children.

"It is' Wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

Natural Feeding—(Continued)

A considerable number of mothers fail in nursing, not because they have too little milk, but because they have too much in the early stages. The baby is "egged-on" during the first month, by feeding every two hours, to take as much as he can stow away. Being overfed, he may grow rapidly for a few weeks, but then he begins to suffer from repletion and indigestion ; his appetite fails, and he sucks less forcibly. At the same time the mother, worn out by lack of rest day and night, and now worried by the added anxiety of a crying, fretful baby, finds har milk supply going off. She then omits one suckling altogether, giving a bottle instead; next two bottles a day are used, and so on; or she weans her baby right off, because she is told that her milk is injurious. A mother who has the capacity to supply enough milk for twins may thus fail to suckle one baby, simply because she starts by oyerfeeding him, and thus upsets both herself and her offspring.

The only way to stop these failures is to interest and train all women in the art of Motherhood and Mothercraft, and to make every girl realise, before she marries, the transcendent importance of normal maternity and breast-feeding for the livelong health, happiness, strength, and titness both of herself and her potential offspring.

The French Example

That the French are now becoming fully alive, as a nation, to the need for reform in these matters is forcibly shown in many ways, thus: — 1. A law has been passed making any doctor, nurse, or other person, who advises a French mother not to nurse her baby, liable to punishment, if it cannot bo clearly shown that the advice was really necessary. 2. In a book for schoolgirls, written by Professor Pinard, a distinguished Paris authority, appears the following:— "Comment Doit-on Pratiquer "L'Allaitement Mixte.

"Lorsque Ton duoit mettre en pratique" l'allaitement mixte, il y a une choses qu'il faut bien savoir et ne point oublier:

"Le lait de la femme facilite la digestion du lait d'un animal. "Je vais essayer de vous faire comprendre cette affirmation. "En observant attentivement, on a constate que quand un hebe prend une quantite quelconqse du lait de vache, illedigere moins bien que si, avant de prendre ce lait de v&che, il a deja absorbe une petite quantite du lait de Ba maman. "C'estce qui fait dire que le lait de la femme est le Digestif du Isit de vache." Summary and free translation: — "Pow can we best carry out 'mixed feeding' in practice? "There is one thing we must clearly understand and never forget—viz: "Mother's milk aids the digestion of cow'b milk. "It has been proved that when a baby is given some cow's milk he digests it much better if, previous to the taking of the cow's milk, he has been given even a very small quantity of mother's milk. "This is why we say that mother's milk is the Digestive of cow's milk."

Dr Pinard then goes on to explain that on no account must the mother replace any of the feedings by a complete bottle-feeding. The baby must first get all he can from the breasts at each feeding, then he can be given by bottle what is needed to make the meal up to the normal requirement. The average'that the mother supplies daily from the breast is to be ascertained from time to time by weighing the jpaby before and after suckling for a whole rlay (see the Society's Book, "Feeding and Care of Baby," pages 57 to 69). Further, Dr Pinard insists that the supplementary bottlefood must be prepared so bb to resemble mother's milk as closely as possible. ("Le lait de vache doit etre prepare aelon los regies minu-

tieuses.") No haphazard guesswork or patent foods! Karitane Results. What may be achieved by the carrying out of these simple principles—using humanised milk as the supplementally food as long as it is needed—iß exemplified by the following remarks taken from the report which appear* in th« Plunket Magazine by Miss Campbell, the matron of th« Society's Baby Hospital:— The most encouraging feature of the work is the ever increasing number of mothers who, coming into residence with their babies, under suitable hygienic conditions, treatment, and diet, find they are able, from a scanty': supply of milk, to develop an abundant flow. In one CBse in three weeks supply roi>e from 2£oz to 240z per day. In another the baby had actually been weaned for three weeks, and latest reports from the mother aftsr return to her own home tell of a full and abundant supply being maintained—sometimes actually more than the baby needs. It seems almost miraculous to the mother who has entirely abandoned brea3t-feeding for weeks to find that her milk can be coaxed back within a short time, until the flow may actually exceed what the baby needs. And this is brought about by simple measures available to all measures which are being carried out with the most gratifying success under the guidance and help of the Plunket Nurses throughout the whole Dominion.

The Main Essentials.

The main point to attend tc, in addition to what I have dwelt on in this paper, is reasonable attention on the part of the mother to the firet principles of healthy living (see page 6 to 10 "Feeding and Care of Baby"). In the way of special local measures for increasing the milk supply, we find nothing more efficacious than massage of the breasts, and sponging them morning and evening with hot and cold water—using hot and cold alternately at each sponging,—and finishing up with brisk friction with a rough towel and massage. Nothing gains the mother's confidence more readily and makes her a more willing co-worker than a few words of simple explanation as to the why and wherefore of what we want her to do. Ask her" what ahe herself does to warm her own hands when the circulation is feeble and the fingers are blue, chilly, and bloodless; tell her that there is no natural stimulant to the nerves and secreting glands comparable to the effects of applying sharp alternate heat and cold, followed by brisk surface friction and proper deep rubbing. Tell her that a free flow of blood to the breasts tends to bring about a free flow of milk; and tell her, finally (especially if she is a farmer's wife), that in Denmark cows are brought to yield 40s worth more milk a year by giving daily a few minutes of simple ina9sage to the udders. Discuss these all-important, elementary facts with the mother, and tnen she will work with you and noc against you. Women have tended to dub such simple com-mon-sunse things as fads, because no one has taken the trouble to go into these intimate matters with them or to explain the Bimple why and wherefor. The modern world needs stimulation of interest and rational, practical, sympathetic education in Motherhood and Mothercraft. It will be more than strange if the Plunket Magazine —run in a helpful, patriotic spirit by some of the most earnest women in our Dominion—does not prove a powerful incentive to further community of thought and action for the welfare of mother and child throughout New Zealand—and, let us hope, beyond our islands.