OUR BABIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 304, 21 November 1934, Page 11

OUR BABIES

(By Hygeia.) Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Chil-

dren (Plunket Society). “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. The “transitional period” is the name we sometimes apply to the stage following the end of baby’s ninth month. It is a stage of transition in many ways —transition from milk feeding to m(xed foods from suckling to eating and drinking, from comparative inarticulateness to possession of powers of speech, from complete dependence to the joys of free locomotion.

What stirring times 1 What rapid development! So rapid indeed that we are apt to forget the “transition” in the accomplished facts. Nevertheless all this development is accomplished by a gradual merging of one stage into the next, and it is very important not to lose sight of the fact that baby’s digestive and nervous system need safeguarding from strain during this period of rapid development. It is well to keep the ideal of “gradualness” always in mind. Remember the axiom “Never make sudden changes.” The digestive organs have so far been accustomed to dealing only or almost only with milk in some form. They need educating to deal with other foods by a process of “gradual transition.” Much digestive trouble at a later stage is attributable to too sudden and too early introduction of a large variety of foods. Somewhat the same thing applies to methods of taking food. Hitherto the baby has been accustomed solely, or almost solely, to obtaining his food by suckling, often at the breast. Sudden weaning throws a strain on the nervous system as well as on the digestion. Wise is the mother who lias trained her baby to drink water or his fruit or vegetable juice from a cup previous to this period (this applies to the artificially fed baby as well as the breast fed), as the few minutes spent daily at this task will have prepared her baby for the gradual change from sucking to drinking from a cup. The second nine months of baby’s life are supremely important from the point of view of education —the child is learning all the time. It is the bounden duty of parents to see that he learns to do things in a right way. The foundations of character a,nd good or bad mental health are laid down during this period no less surely than the foundations of purely physical health. LEARNING TO EAT. To come back to practical consideration of the question of food, a point which is often overlooked is the fact that a properly graded milk mixture continues to supply all the essential food elements and by far the greatest part of the actual nourishment needed

during tlie whole of the first year. Food other than milk is mainly of importance from the point of view of educating baby to feel and taste and digestion of solid and semi-solid foods. The essential thing during this period is that he should learn how to eat.

He should learn to eat from a spoon and drink from a cup, and, most important of all, should learn to chew his crusts and bones, and reject solid objects which he cannot reduce to pidp by biting, tearing, mouthing and chewing. Once learnt, this lesson will stand him in good stead throughout his life, helping to protect him from indigestion decayed teeth, and many other evils which come in the train of these two. Also he will be much less likely to swallow foreign bodies off the floor or elsewhere than the baby with whom the act of swallowing is almost automatically simultaneous with the placing of anything in the mouth.

THE BEST KIND OF HARD FOODS Twice-baked bread is the best form of “hard” food for the baby of this age. The bread should be about oneday old, and a slice about threequarters of an inch thick should be cut in fingers and baked dry in a slow oven. Enough may be done for several days and kept in a well-shut tin. These home-made rusks are hard and yet not tough, and do not have the tendency to break off in the leathery, slithery lumps which make ordinary crusts so dangerous. All the same, the baby should never be left alone with any sort of crust. If the gums are sore for a few weeks, he may only be able to tackle the softer kind of crusts, but as soon as possible teach him to eat the twice-baked bread. CEREAL FOODS.

In addition to milk and crusts, the baby should learn to eat semi-solid

cereal foods, the most important of which is well-cooked, strained oatmeal porridge—“oat jelly.” This may be varied by barley, rice, or wheatmeal, etc., but oatmeal is the main standby. It should be given as firm jelly and unsweetened. HUMANISED MILK.

Mothers often ask “Is it necessary to make humanised milk after nine months or after the baby is weaned ?” Without exception, babies under one year should be weaned on to humanised milk, and every baby should continue to have part of the day’s allowance of milk humanised (or modified) until the end of the first year or later. The additional sugar and fat used in making humanised milk is a necessary part of the baby’s diet. The small amount of mixed foods taken before a year ‘of age do not make up for the lack of these ingredients in the food if the milk is given simply diluted without suitable additions of sugar and fat. During this period properly modified milk is the most important part of the diet from the point of view ,of nutrition, whilst from the point of education various hard foods and cereal foods are specially important. Neither can replace the other. The child must have an adequate amount of milk, and also daily lessons in chewing and eating, if he is to reach his first birthday well up to the marK m every way.