OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 70

OUR BABIES.

Bx Htgbia.

It is wiser to jpnt up a fence at the top of a pretipice than, to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.

CHANGING TO HUMANISED MILK.

One of the commonest remarks made by mothers in respect to their bottle-fed infants, when advised to change to humanised milk, is — " I shall make no change so long as what, he is getting continues to agree with him." No matter how de- ; znons&rably wrong in its nature and cotn- J ponents the food in use may be; no matter bow inevitable the imperfection of structure and development that may result in the long run from its continued use; and how grave the risks of debility and disease, the mother tends to hold stubbornly to her first decision — "I shall make no change as long as baby remains healthy/ She thinks this is unanswerable cohmon-sensb, though a moment's reflection shows the absurdity of such an attitude. It means nothing more nor less than this — until the mother has damaged her baby so greatly j that it begins to obviously break down, she will continue to use a wrong food even after it has been, shown to be wrong. There is / only one common*- sexsb way of feeding a baby, and that is the way of Mature — the Almighty's way. Failing this, the baby should be given milk conforming as closely as possible to human milk — viz., Humanised Milk. SEDUCTIVE. TEMPTATIONS. There are undoubtedly strong temptations in other directions. A seductive characteristic of moat patent baby foods, and of condensed milk, is the fact that they tend to be well borne at first, and the baby seems to thrive on, fchen^ for a time at leaai. Too late mothers come to realise, in a large proportion of cases, that it is not firm, healthy bone and flesh they have been forming-, but weak, flabby tissues jrbieib. cannot hold out against disease. Their j infants may take prizes at baby shows, but they will not prove winners in the race of life. For the long distance contest goad muscle, sound teeth, perfect digestion, and healthy active heart, lungs, brain, and nerves are of the first importance, and these things are not to be expected in babies fed contrary to the laws and provisions of Nature. Mothers give the digestive organs of the baby credit for being able to transmute almost anything — the milk of any animal, condensed milk patent vegetable foods, etc. — into sound flesh and blood. Indeed, there is much to support the fallacy. You can keep a baby alive, and even get it to grow and seem well, on an infinite variety of improper foods — foods that will" r.ot make perfect tissues — foods that will result in weak digestion, and tend to debility of body, mind, and spirit in the long run. BJtBEES HARD TO KILL. Mr Broadberft, Mayor Huddersfield, said, ft a lecture given in. Edinburgh 'and printed jbl last month!s Parents' Review: — It is a well-known fact that some babies ~yOn cannot kill. You can rob them of their mother's milk, feed- them with unsatisfactory millr through a long- tube, out of a dirty feeding-bottle, give them ill kinds of odds and ends, bread, chipped potatoes, fried fish, and even pickles and ftatent foods, yet they persist in living. But this regimen will effectually dispose I of most babies, and the few that survive j are ricketty poor creatures that will pro- j bably be of no use in the world to themselves or to anybody else, and will supply gaols and lunatic asylums and workhouses with inmates. Had the splendid per- i of the little mortal been backed by proper food and treatment, the child would have stood, a good chance of being a centenarian; with such an initial vitality, and such power of resisting adverse conditions, there is nothing that cuoh a child could not have done. The case is an extreme one, but it illustrates the connection that I want to establish between the life and health of children. Under the extremely bad conditions that I have hinted at, probably 99 out of every hundred wonld die. Improve the conditions and you would soon reduce the rate to 30 or 40 per cent., but .this would indicate that the 6C or 70 survivors had passed through a severe struggle to maintain existence, and would be eakh more or less subject. to fall by subsequent attacks on their vitality. Im■yarove the conditions again, and you would jpeduce the death-rate to, say, 10 per cent., and the 90 survivors would all be far better than any of the 60 or 70 survivors who have pulled through the- adverse conditions to which the 30 or 40 had succumbed. There is no question, that the ] death-rate of children indicates most clearly and definitely the health" conditions of child life. ... I take it that ♦very life lost points to many lives in- ■ jured, and I will for the present state as my assumption that every infant life lost is wastage of -life in itself, and indicates further wastage of health amongst j the survivors. ' .£JSrS-WISR TO COBBiBrcefDEST. "Cheviot" writes: — "I will feel obliged if you will insert in your next issue the receipe for making humanised milk." Answer.— The recipe you ask for has been firinted in the Ofcago Witness several times. i is now incorporated in the sheet of i»niiruetions on the care and feeding of the baby, which is issued by the Society £gr the Promotion of the Health of Women |id Children. Copies can be obtained from Mrs Carew, hon. secretary of the society, 8 neriot row, Dunedin. on receipt of 2d. A »peet was posted to you afc once to save time,