OUR BABIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16610, 5 February 1916, Page 13

OUR BABIES.

Bi Hygbia,

Poblished under the aasploea ol tha Eoyai Now Zealand Society lor the Health o1 Women aud Children. "16 is wiser to pat up a fenoe at th» top ou f ■ preeipioe than to maintain an unbulaaos at the bottom." INFANT FEEDING AFTER BABYHOOD. We.frequently receive letters from parents and nurses as to the best food to give children from the time of weanmp; up to, 6ay, four or five years of age. It has been suggested that a definite table should be inserted in the nest edition of the Society's book, " Feeding' and Care of Baby"—a table comparable with the one on page M, which gives feeding up to tlio first nine months. Wo quite agree that it is just as desirotble that there should be method 'and system in the feeding of children after weaning as before; but it is not possible to lay down a single standard for universal use after the first year, on account of the variation in suitable food stuffs procurable _ in different localities or available for use in various circumstances. In the first nine months of life there is only one ideal food for the child (mother's milk) —only one perfect method of feeding— viz., suckling, and, practically speaking, only one proper standard as to frequency of feeding— every three or four hours, and no night-feeding. THE SECOND YEAB. When it comes to. the second year _ the choice as to food becomes wider and wider. It is true that for some months milk' is still the best main constituent; but there is no nccessary advantage now in Human Milk over Cow's Milk, though it is generally contended throughout the Continent of Europe that_ the child tends to thrive best who is partially suckled up to 18 months, and this is _ also the custom in most Oriental countries. However, it may be assumed that, among ourselves, Cow's Milt- will continue to be the main nutrient constituent of the baby's food up to the end of at least the first half of the second year of life; but an equally important matter for the future welfare of the child is the nature of the increasing allowance of eapplementary food required during this time. There are many preparations which will supply the necessary nutrient materials, and thus ensure satisfactory gain in weight. Unfortunately, this has been almost the sole criterion; hence the legion of nursery recipes for pap, and the host of patent baby foods. Indeed, these form the basis of the average modern woman's idea as to how a child should be fed in the second year of life. It has become so ingrained into us that a baby only needs milk and mush, that this is practically all he gets in many cases until ho is two years of age. Who doe 6 not know tire simple routine list —bread and milk, porridge, milk puddings, groats, barley flour, tapioca, sago, arrowroot, potato and gravy, etc.? Given in moderation, any of these tilings is all right; but the fate of the child as regards his teeth and jaws, his digestion, and his health depends more on a wise selection of a sufficiency of food that will ensure proper exercise for jaws, teeth, and salivary glands The main point is: What are we to dg to ensure the carrying out of Nature's design to have the child equipped at 18 months with what, the dentists tell us, should be the finest biting, grinding, and chewing apparatus he will ever have in proportion to his size? Sorely we axe not going to let slip the golden opportunity for preventing feeble jaws, decayed teeth, and indigestion Dy failing to ensure plenty of masticatory eier cise. EXERCISE FOB JAWS, ETC Dr Harry Campbell, who, along with Dr Sim Wallaoe, is the leading' English authority on this txanscemdently important subject, says:— , In order to secure the full advantages accruing from the use of the jaws and their appendages, it is, above all, necessary for them to be adequately exercised during the period of development. If this is done the masticatory instinct will establish itself as a permanent force, eo that the individual will tend for the rest of his life to subject even soft foods to thorough mastication. The tongue, the lips, and the jaws of the newly-born child find their natural exercise at the mother's breast, and we should therefore do our utmost to get the mother to suckle hex child. If, unhappily, wo fail in tiiis, we must see that the teat of the feeding bottle is so constructed as to compel the child to earn his manl by, at any rate, some exercise. Directly the disposition to bite hard ' things is manifested, the instinct (for instinct it is) shook! be gratified. This instinct is commonly observable before th® sixth month, and shook! become more and more pronounced as the time for the eruption of the teeth approaches. It" is now more than ever necessary to provide the child with bard substances on which to exercise his jaws and guns. After recommending the daily use of chopbonea, chicken bones, eta, from the sixth month onwards, Dr Harry Campbell goes on to say:— There is only one way to develop the masticatory instinct in a child, and that is to give him food which obliges Trrm to masticate. If this is not done it is mere waste of words to tell him to chew his food properly. To try to teach a child how to masticate by setting him to watch and imitate the chewing movements of someone else, in the absence of food needing mastication is almost as futile. The first essential is to give the child from an early period foods which compel mastication. Starch, then, should be given to the child in a solid and somewhat tongh (or dry, crisp) form, such as bread crust (or toast). A well-baked cruet, cat in a suitable form, and spread with butter, baconfat, or dripping, constitutes a very acceptable and wholesome morsel. When by such means as these the chad's instinct to masticate has had proper opportunity to develop, we may allow a certain amount of soft starchy food, such as porridge, boiled potatoes, milk pudding, and the like, and these he will now bo likely to subject to something like adequate mastication, which will tend to mitigate the evils associated with such food. In another place Dr Campbell says that once the masticatory instinct is properly developed, a child can scarcely perform the act of swallowing without subjecting even soft food to some mastication. Dr Sim Wallace (the eminent London dentist I have before referred to) speaks with equal emphasis on the same matter. He insists that the qualities of toughness, hardness, or dryness of food are almost as essential as what are called the nutritive properties for the child's health and proper development, especially for month, jaws, and teeth. I shall show next week that, while general indications such as lie above can be given for guidance in the feeding of children from the end of the first year onwards precise feeding tables which would be universally applicable cannot be given. The definite and precise feeding tables which apply more or less closely for the roaring of ail infants, so long as their, food is restricted to milk, have no place whon we come to the wide divergence of foods in different localities which become available from the end of th© first year onwards. The common sense, wisdom, and discretion of the mother are more and more called for as the child pasßes from the suckling stage towards the taking the ordinary food of the