OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3610, 22 May 1923, Page 58

OUR BABIES.

By

HYGEIA.

Published under the auspice# of tfct Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children^ “It Is wiser to put up a fence at tho top cf a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.'’

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC., DUNEDIN BRANCH. KCKSE3’ SERVICES FREE. Nurses M‘Lean (telephone 9268), Mathieeon (telephone 3020), Scott, and Ellis. Society’s Rooms: Jamieson’s Buildings. 76 Lower Stuart street (telephone 116), and 315 King Edward street, South Dunedin (telephone 3020). Office hours, daily from 7 to 4 it.ui. (except Saturday and Sunday) ; also Lindon Oddfellows’ Hall, Koslyn, Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. Outstations : Baptist Church, Gordon road, Mosgiel, Tuesday afternoons from 2 to 4 p.rn. ; Municipal Buildings, Port Chalmers, Wednesday afternoons irom i. to 4 p.m. Secretary, Miss G. Hoddinott, Jamieson’s Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 116). Karitane-Harris Baby Hospital, Anderson’s Bay (telephone 1985). Matron, Miss Buiss jj. Demonstrations every Wednesday aftorn con from 2.30 to 3.30. Training Institution for Piunket Nurses and lvaritano Baby Nurses. Visiting hours, 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. DIGESTIBILITY AND INDIGESTIBILITY OF FOOD. When dealing with the question of he best food for the nursing mother, it is possible to lay too much stress on the so-called “digestibility” or “indigostibility" of food, based on their chemical composition, and the time ordinarily taken to digest, them—“the general assumption being that the more ‘nutritious’ and more easily digestible a food is the more beneficial it will prove.” Let us now see how far this latter assumption is true, and how far it is untrue and misleading. It is true in so far as there are in common use certain more or less good and certain mere or less harmful ways of preparing food. In general, foods are much damaged by any process which covers the inner particles with a coating of fat more or less impervious to the gastric juice. Ibis happens m the process of baking, pastry, shortbread, etc., in the frying of bread, the soaking of hot toast with butter, etc. No amount of chewing and insalivation will make such substances readily digestible, because, however much we may grind and insalivate them the minute particles into which we separate the food remain each still coated with a thin film of fat. The particles of food are virtually mackintoshes}, and commencement of proper digestion is delayed until the coating of fat has been turned into a kind of soap and washed off in the intestine. FRYING AND SPOILING. Partial coating of food particles with a film of fat lakes place when potatoes are fried. In this case the extent to which the individual particles are surrounded with fat depends on the temperature of the fat, the duration of soaking, and the size of the pieces. If tlhe potatoes aro left in largo pieces and the fat is very hot there may be very little penetration, whereas if they are minced up fine and the frying is slow every particle will be. fatty. The same applies all round. Fish* or fiesh directly submerged in boiling fat is damaged only on the very surface, and this need not be eaten, whereas as ordinarily cooked the inner particles of fried meats are more or less coated with fat, and digestibility is much interfered with. This applies with special force where meat is finely subdivided before frying, as in the case of rissolles —particularly if the meat has been previously cooked, and thus more or less dried. Sausages are much more digestible, on account of the covering of skin. The fat-soaked outside of baked meats is much damaged not only by the coating of its particles with fat, but also by more or less actual destruction of the food material through excess of heat. Twice-cooked meat and various made-up dishes tend to share such disadvantages, more or less varying with the extent to which the adverse factors mentioned above come into play. If women would get into the habit of cooking all meat as little as will suffice, and if they would effect this by grilling instead of frying, or by frying rapidly in deep, very hot fat (whenever frying must be resorted to:, there would be an enormous lessening of indigestion. Of course, roasting or baking, if not carried too far, is a good form of cooking and light boiling or simmering *s free from objection; but taking the whole community, most of the fish and meat used in small households is eooKecl in the frying pan—overcooked, and fried in the worst way. I have just been visiting a homo where a mother and a three weeks’ old baby are both suffering from indigestion and flatulence, due to fried bacon and eggs What single thing can be said in defence of such food? In the case of a steady labouring man with fairly good teeth a meal of this kind is a great tax on the digestive organs, and is a large factor —along with ‘bolting, overeating, and irregularity of meals—in causing many such men to be victims of indigestion by the time they reach middle age instead of enjoying the normal reward of an active, outdoor 1 fe. But. what is to he expected of sucih food used by the mother of a young baby when, as in the case T am referring to, the former has not a single tooth in her upper jaw FRIED EGGS. Bacon-fat is 'fairly digestible, hut the lean of bacon when fried is quite the reverse. However, it is (he egg that suffers most when fried. Compare the tough, leathery albumen with the “white” when _ lightly poached, or when cooked by placing thewhole egg in boiling water and drawing the saucepan aside so that the ' \vhite will set in'o a soft cream in six minutes. An egg cooked in the latter way is not only more digestible than when boiled, and in-

finitely more so than when fried, but the flavour is incomparably better. A fresh egg delicately set is tit for most invalids, winle a fried egg is an Tin warranted lav on the digestion of a strong man. Hk would bk stronger, healthier, and HAPPIER IF HIS FOOD WERE MORE SENSIBLY COOKED. On the other hand, many excellent articles of food —e.g., nuts, oatcakes, raw apple, salads, and such meats as veal and pork, are regarded as indigestible siinpiy because people will not take the time (or have not the teeth) to thoroughly masticate them. Veal and pork need extremely thorough chewing, because otherwise they escape proper subdivision, owing to curiously elusive texture of their fibres. However, if thoroughly chewed such meats are readily digested, and the same applies to tough meat in general. In a certain sense toughness is a wholesome quality, provided that the eater will take the trouble t-o do the requisite amount of work before swallowing. No one living under the conditions of modern civilisation geis half as much chewing exercise as he needs for the perfect carrying out of digestion and maintenance of health, and no one needs such exercise more than the nursing mother, because upon it depends to a large extent not only the quantity, but also the quality of her m ilk. HEALTH OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. The ordinary monthly meeting of tho Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children was held in tM Blunket office on Friday last, when there were present: Mcsdamos Johnstone (in the chair), Jos. M‘Geor/,e, Carmalt Jones, Arundel, Isaacs, CTai/perton, Hubert tUttray, Shund, M'KthCii, Callaway, Garth Galiaway and the Misses Lee, How, and the secretary. The matron of the K al ‘Dm e : Harris Hospital reported for month ended April 30, 1923: Patients admitted lor treatment —mothers 7, babies 10; dis*. a f S mothers 7, babies 14; in on April sC—mothers 2, babies 16; largest number of patients in on any one day—mothers 5, babies 20. One premature baby died halt an hour after admission, and cf the babies admitted two came from Seacnff, one from Port Chalmers, one from Mosgiel, one Horn Middlemarch, one from Burnside, one Irom Canterbury, and seven from Dunedin ami suburbs. There are 12 Piunket nurses and 11 Karitane nurses in training. i lunket Nurses Fanning, Butler, Jesson, Mitchell, Cameron, Thomson, Bror.ghan, an Hutchinson began training. Of the to Piunket nurses who sat for examination, 14 were successful. One Karitane nurse sat for iier examination ami passed. Visitors for ll« month totalled 201. About 20 interested mothers from Taieri visited the hospital on Saturday, April 21. Afternoon tea was provided by the ladies of the committee. Provision was made by the committee for the admission of babies under Id months who were victims of the flood. One baby was admitted and cared for, and was also provided with a set of clothes when discharged. The Piunket nurses for North and Central Districts sent in reports. It was decided that a special effort be made in October next to raise funds for the society on the lines suggested by Miss Lee, who was present at the meeting, and who briefly outlined a scheme by which an attractive fair might be arranged.