OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3443, 9 March 1920, Page 53

OUR BABIES.

By Htokia. Published under fne ampleee cf the Roytl New Zealand Society lor the Health el Wemen and Children. "It le wiser to put up a ten to at the tep of a preciplee than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." DIGESTIBILITY OF FOOD. (Continued from last week.) First of all we shall recapitulate what was said last week. Excessive so-called " digestibility" of food, -whether achieved by partial predigestion or not, is the reverso of beneficial in the case of healthy normal people. To make this point clear I have drawn up the following table: — POODS POPULARLY RE- POODS POPULARLY REGARDED AS "DIGES- GARDED AS RELATIBLE." TIVELY "DTDIGESTIBLB," . IF COMPARED WITH THE FOODS PLACED OPPOSITE. Peptonieed milk, pep- "Bread and Cheese"— tonised milk gruel; say cheese—eaten with Patent malted or pre- a crust of wholemeal digested foods; bread, or with plain oat cake or biscuit. Milk, milk puddings, custards, etc. (dear soups, beef tea, calf's foot jelly, etc., might be placed under the same category, but they contain so small a. proportion of nutrient material that they should be regarded as ..■■•■« appetising or mildly stimulating drinks or relishes, rather than as supplying appreciable food. Thus the nutritive, building, or sustaining powers of the food stuffs contained in a whole bucketful of beef tea or good clear soup are • not equivalent to those of a single quart . ' . . of milk.) White bread. Wholemeal bread. Well boiled rolled oats Plain oat oake; nuts or oatmeal. or almonds. Delicate white fish; Groper (hapuka) or schnapper; Sweetbread; trips; Ordinary roast mutbreast of chicken; or ton, or roast beef, not very tender mutton. specially tender. Baked apple, stewed Kaw apple, other raw fruits, cooked vegetables, fruits, salads. In'order to understand the meaning and full significance of the. above table, read at this "'. stage tb;e section "Far-reaching Effects of Masticatory Exercise" in the Society's book "Feeding and Care of Baby," pages 146 to 148. ■ The foods in the second column are not really indigestible, but for the most part they need thorough mastication. Provided this is carried out they are, in a sense, really more digestible, as a whole':-than the foods in the first column, because the latter do not ensure enough work,. especially on the part of'mouth, jaws, teethy and salivary glands; and most of theni" do riot leave enough 7 unabsorbable debris 'to ensure proper action of the bowels—the common result of these two defects being constipation, fermentation of the contents of stomach and bowels, flatulence, -and, in a word, "indigestion." It is not suggested for a moment that a nursing mother, however strong, should confine herself to' the class of foods given in the right-hand column, but that she should take a considerable proportion of food needing thorough chewing and insalivation. A reasonable choice from both columns would form a good diet. The most questionable articles mentioned in the second column are cheese and salads. A little plain, good cheddar cheese (not strong or very rich cheese, such as Stilton) Is regarded as beneficial to the nurs-ing-mother, especially if she has been ■ in the habit of taking cheese, and it has been found to agree. Of course it should be avoided if any tendency to disagree has been noticed, Cheese does not agree with some persons, owing to special idiosyncracies on their part. It should be well masticated -with crust or brown bread. Tender salad, taken with little if any "dressing,", is generally beneficial, if used in moderation .and thoroughly masticated. Here again previous habits and experience form helpful guides. VEGETABLE MARROW. Where does marrow come in, and how is :'t that our correspondent has found this vegetable indigestible? If marrow is eaten in the very young, green state —ir. the stage at which we cut cucumbers, the stage before the seeds have properly formed and while the flesh is free from fibre—if used, then, marrow is quite easily digested. . True, ttie direct nutritive value is almost nil (only about a tenth that of an equal bulk of potato), but such foods are valuable on other grounds. To those who like ihom, young marrows 'afford the stimulus of enjoyment common to all pleasant and palatable changes of food. Further, they tend to prevent over-eating, and supply a certain amount of soft, unabsorbable residue for the bowel to work on. Finally, they are a sourje of wholesome salts similar to those present in the growing tissues of all green : young vegetables. . It :'s not probable that the marrow which disagreed with our correspondent was eaten at trio early stage. I assume it had been allowed to ripen to the yellow, more or less mealy condition, in which there, is liable to be. a good deal of firmer, more fibrous tissue, and the whole vegetable has become "stronger" in taste and coarser m texture. In this condition there would be mJuch more chance of disagreement. This might arise from the simple need for. more thorough mastication, or it might be due to the development of chemical substances, not trying to specially affect certain individuals. The first difficulty • would probably _ be overcome by more thorough mastication,, and the second would also tend to be minimised by "paying strict attention- to allround hygiene (mastication, fresh air» exercise, etc.), but there are pases where people cannot take with, impunity certain articles

of diet which are quite innocuous as regards the great majority of human beings. Common examples are tomatoes, rhubarb, stone fruits, strawberries, potatoes, honey, oane sugar, shellfish, game, etc. The practical question whether our oor» respondent should give up eating vegetable marrow or try to habituate herself (and indirectly her baby as well) to its use, lit one which could only be satisfactorily determined by taking Into consideration' au the facts noted above. :.

If, in spite of all precautions, full-growßJ marrow, oaten In moderation, still tends to disagree, it would -be - wise to cease taking it, especially while nursing, because the baby m?flkt have a similar idiosyncrasy to the mother. In this particular case, some substance derived from the marrow, finding its way through the mother's" milk into the blood and tissues of her child, might upset both in the same way. On the other hand, where fruit and vegetables are scarce, it is a pity to give up one which is relished and which may be disagreeing simply because it needs more mastication (a form of exercise which" would greatly benefit the mother in other directions as well), or because the vegetable needs gathering at an earlier stage,' or. perhaps requires cooking differently. Many people bake marrow under meat, and thus saturate it with fat instead of boiling it. Finally, there is a very potent reason, for a particular food disagreeing, .which may obtain in our correspondent's case —namely,, "worry" and what is. called "auto-sugges-tion." If a person form a conclusion thai anything is going to disagree, and' thinkw or worries over the point, the probability is thni Hie-ostion l->~ ur..<s«+ w 1 the particular viand which gives rise to' this anxious expectancy is taken. Many oases supposed to illustrate the Raying "One man's food is another man's poison"" are reallv due to this factor. DON'T WORRY.