OUR BABIES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLII, Issue 12822, 14 April 1916, Page 1

OUR BABIES.

By Hygeia. Published under the auspices of ;lic Royal New Zealand Society ! for the Health of Women and Chili dren. I "It is wiser'to put an a fence ! ml the top of a precipice than to I maintain-an ambulance at the bottom." LEAVING WELL ALONE. When a mother, speaking of her baby, proposes "to leave well alono," she generally means that she intends to continue in a wrong course so long as her baby is contented and seems to be thriving. Our nurses arc often confronted' with ahe "leaving wpll alone" fallacy when they try to ensure,plenty of fresh air and exercise, or to bring about such reforms as - the giving up of the long tube-feeder, or the dummy,, or to effect •a change from a food known to be incapable of giving the best results with babies (even though they may uppcar to do satisfactorily for a time) for-a diet more perfectly in accord with the nature and necessities of the young human being. —A Mother's Letter.—

A mother writes asking me tho oftrepeated question: "Do you think it is -advisable to make any change _in my baby's food, so long as he is doing well on* it, simply because the PJunkct Nurse says it is unsuitable for the perfect nourishment of an infant. The nurnc tells me I should make a x change at once, and not wait for the child to become upset. She says the Patent Foocf 1 am giving is starchy and sterilised, and -does not contain enough flesh-forming material. Yet baby is looking well on it and growing well. What do vou advise?"

The stock plea in these cases is: •Don't you think it -would be a shame to make" any change when we have hit on a food that agrees so well, and which enables baby to put ou weight satisfactorily ?"

The temptation to make no change in such circumstances is, of course, a very strong one; but it is a temptation to "which no sensible mother would yield if she had any idea how much the constitution and future development of her child would' be liable to suffer tlirough the prolonged use oF a food not having the right nature and composition. —A Lesson from Littlo Tigs.— A flood of light has been thrown on the feeding of all young creatures by widespread investigations into the rearing of pigs. One can experiment freelv with a litter of pigs in order to find out what foods give the best growth and development—what kind of feeding produces the strongest and most roNist stock.

Many people suppose that so long as young pigs grow quickly and look well that is all the farmer needs to attend to. As he is fiyiing to kill them in six months, they say, what matter whether the nature and composition of their food is right or wrong? The answer is best given in the following extracts from "Feeds and Feeding," the masterful and authoritative book written by the Director ot the Agricultural Experiment Station of tinUniversity of Wisconsin. After a full consideration, of feeding experiments made on the Continent of Europe and in the United States (experiments proving that, in spite of young animal* appearing to do well for a time on im-properly-balanced foods, they fail in some direction later on) the writer proceeds:—Tlie experiments on the nutrition .of pigs, made in widely-separated States and countries, show that the ' frame of the growing animal and the vital organs can be greatly modified' by improper nutrition—the muscles produced "by such, feeding being lews than normal in size, the bones rol>bed of their strength, the vital organs, such as the liver and kidneys, modified, and even the blood reduced in quantity. —Broad Lessons for Breeder ami Feeder.—

The observant feeder and -breeder of swine studying these trials must \>o impressed with the plastic character of the body of the growing animal. Ho learns that the bones and muscles, as well as some of the internal organs of the body, can.be thrown out of their normal relation ono to another through an unbalanced or improper food supply. He sees it possible for immature animals to live a long time without showing disease, -while being dwarfed in form and made prematurely fat. Ho learns that Nature's plan is to grow the framework first and lay ou fat- afterwards. ... He concludes, rightly, that if a pig or other young animal is raal-nurtured so as to modify its bones, muscles, and vital organs ever so. little, and the animal so affected is later tiscd for breeding purposes, the descendants likewise being anal-nurtured, the cumulative ill-effects may in a few generations become very marked. - . By the judicious use of feed mixtures he secures animals of great vigor, and, selecting the best of these in framework and constitution, he holds his nerd l to a liiglt standard'. In conclusion, let me quote the following from the Society's Book, "Feeding and Care of Baby," page 61.

—Patent-food and Condensed-milk "Bottle-feds." —

However attractive these may appear as babies, they don't develop into the best men and women, and even as children the fact of their 'having been built out of -the wrong stuff shows itself directly they become ill. Such babies "catch whatever*s going," and readily succumb .to any illness. Even wlßtre they don't die, they pick up slowly, and' tend to make imperfect recoveries. This is in. striking contrast to the baby who is properly fed throughout on the best air and the best food. If such a child does chance to get ill. he "throws off the germs as the bow of an, ocean liner throws / off the spray —he is pretty well germ-proof." Tho reason for this is obvious to anyone who will take the trouble to contrast the two sections of young pigs shown below —.the one having been fed on what would- correspond- to its mother's milk, or the closest imitation of it, and the other on sugary or starchy compounds, analogous- to the patent foods, etc., which our }mman mothers are so fond of giving to their babies. >

But Chapin says: "Many psople feel Jhat after something that 'agrees' and causes gain in Weight is found, the problem of successful feeding has been solved; but the future of the infant may be complctelv wrecked by such a method of feeding." An" infant is receiving as much fat and sugar as is found jn human milk, but only, a quarter t<> a,half as much proteid (flesh-form-ing material). Baby is fat, gaining weight, and may look healthy, yet probably he -will get rickets or succumb to the first serious illnes. Extensive experiments, made" "on the above lines with little pigs anil other young stock, show that the wrongb"-fed animal may grow as fast and look as well from the outside as one which has been properly treated; but when the two are cut across, the body of the one is found ■to be built principally of fat, while that of the other is mainly good bone and muscle. "A food that causes gain in weight may not be .1 good food for an infant. The scales alone are not a snfo guide."