PLUNKET NURSES, ETC., DUNEDIN BRANCH.

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 68

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC., DUNEDIN BRANCH.

NURSES' SERVICES FREE. Nurses O’Shea (telephone 2348), Isbister (telephone 7566), Thomson, Scott, and Ewart (telephone 116), and Mathieson (telephone 3020). Society’s Rooms: Jamieson's Buildings, 6 Lower Stuart street (telephone 116), Office hours, daily from 2 to 4 p.m. (except Saturday and Sunday) and 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 315 King Edward street. South Dunedin, 2 to 4 p.m. daily (except Saturday and Sunday), and 10 a.m to noon on Fridays; also 125 Highgate, Roslyn—Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m.; and at Kelsey-Yaralla Kindergarten, Monday and Friday, from 2 to 4 p.m. Out-stations: Baptist Church. Gordon road, Mosgiel, Tuesday afternoons from 3 to 4 o’clock; Municipal Buildings, Port Chalmers, Wednesday' afternoons from 2 to 4 o’clock. Secretary, Miss G. Hoddinott, Jamieson’s Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 116). Karitane-Harris Baby Hospital, '<erson’s Bay (telephone 1985). Matron, Miss Fitz-Gibbon. Demonstrations given on request every Wednesday afternoon from 2.30 by Plunket Nurses and Karitane Baby Nurses. Visiting hours: 2 to 4 p.m., Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. FOOD: IT'S USES AND ABUSES. The subject of the artificial feeding of babies, including the reasons why cow’s milk must be modified to suit the human baby, has been dealt with several times iu this column, and the Society’s nurses throughout the country go into the homes as teachers of the fundamental truths underlying the successful management of natural and artificial feeding. However, for the sake of those who have not come in contact with the Society’s teachings, or who have not appreciated the underlying truths, we shall this week give some questions and answers which will throw us right back to l the beginning, as it were, and lay the foundation for a real understanding of the principles of milk modification for the feedings of babies. Question: Is whole cow’s milk a suitable food for a baby so long as he is thriving on it? Answer: No, decidedly not. Q.r Why is that, when baby is well and gaining weight? A.: Because in cow’s milk the various food components are not present in the right amounts and proportions to properly nourish all parts of his body and brain, without seriously overtaxing his system, in one direction at least. Q.r What do you mean by “the various food components ” ? . A.: All foodstuffs contain varying amounts of one or more of certain food elements or components, all of which are necessary, in certain proportions, for complete nutrition. Each has its own part to play in the marvellous, complicated processes by which we live. Each requires to be digested and absorbed into the blood stream before it can do its work, and the waste products which are left over from each must be thrown off from the body in one way or another if it is to remain healthy. Many foods are rich in one food element and poor or lacking in another, and some contain them all. Milk is one of these. Q" What are the names of these food components, and where do we mostly find them? A.: These are their names: 1. Carbohydrates (which rather alarming term simply stands for sugars and starches). Sugar is present in all milks. It is extracted from cows’ milk and sold as the commercial product known as “Sugar of Milk.” All the cereals (wheat, oats, etc.), fruits., and vegetables we largely composed of carbohydrates. 2. Fats. Fat is found in all milks, but the quantity, and especially the quality, varies in the milk of different animals. For instance, the fat of cows’ milk is in the form of large, coarse globules, and it is very difficult for young or delicate babies to digest sufficient fat for complete nutrition in this form—that is to say, in the form of butterfat. The fat of human milk, on the other hand, is in minute, finelysubdivided particles, suited by Nature for the digestion and nutrition of the human babv. Other sources of fat in our food are butter, fat of meat, and the various animal and vegetable oils. 3. Proteins. Protein is found in all milk, but in widely varying proportions and amounts. Lean meat, fish, white of egg, and cheese are rich sources, and there are small amounts in various cereals and vegetables. These are the three main food components, but in addition all foods contain more or less water, and some contain those vital, though invisible, substances known as vitamins, and also mineral salts. The vitamins we now know to be absolutely necessary for life and normal growth. They are present in varying degree in most, but not in all, foods. Fresh milk contains sufficient to maintain health; but some of these vital substances are affected by heat, and may be destroyed when milk is heated to make it safe from harmful germs. (We shall refer to this point again). Water is absolutely essential for the health of the body, which must be saturated with it;

it also is necessary to enable nourishment to be taken to all parts of the body and to carry off waste products.

Q.r What are. the chief uses of these food elements?

A.: Carbohydrates (sugar and starches) are chiefly needed and used to give us energy for all our work and play of every kind. Fats are principally required and used to keep us warm. Proteins are used to build up all the tissues of the body—to make the children grow and to repair worn-out cells.

0-" Then why is it not right to give children as much protein as possible? IV e want them to grow. A.: You remember we said that the waste materials left over from the digestion of each food component had to be got rid of from the body. Now the waste materials from sugars, starches, and fats are simple and easily got rid of in various ways; also, a surplus over and above what is required for immediate needs can be stored away in the body for future nn e ‘ t protein it is a different story, lhe body can only make use of a certain amount of protein day by day—simply the amount required for growth and repair,— and it cannot store up any which is not required for immediate use. All waste products of surplus protein must be got kid of. Now these are not simple and easily thrown off, like those of sugars, starches, and fats. They are very poisonous, and dangerous if not completely got rid of—eliminated, as we say,—and they are eliminated by means of a complicated process in which the kidneys have a great deal of work to do.

Q.: Can the kidneys deal with the waste products of more protein than is really required for growth and repair? A.: The kidneys are very marvellous little organs, and Nature has provided them with a reserve supply of strength m order that they may be able to deal with emergencies (such as certain illnesses may bring), as well as with the demands of every day, without breaking downunder the strain. The baby’s kidneys are delicate, and growing fast, like all the rest of him, and they are designed to deal with the amount of protein found in the human mother’s milk; but they have this reserve strength, too. That is why babies may seem to be perfectly well and thriving "6n food which contains between two and three times as much protein as is found in human milk (for example, cow’s milk). They are dealing with it by using their reserve strength—they are being overtaxed. Q.: But does this do any harm in the long run?

A.: There is a terrible risk of more or less permanent weakening and lifelong damage, although there may be no apparent damage at the time. The weakness may not show itself for possibly 20, 30, 40 years, or until serious illness or the stress of later life causes extra strain, and the kidneys which wpre taxed to their limit during the early months of life give way under the strain —their reserve of strength gone, frittered away in the quite unnecessary work of getting rid of more protein waste than that for which Nature designed them. Some may apparently escape all noticeable ill-effects, but all are damaged more or less, and no one who understands the matter is justified in exposing any child to such easily avoidable handicaps and grave risks. To quote some analogies given when writing on this subject previously: “Is it wise to work an engine to the extreme limit of its powers? Do captains run their steamers up to the maximum or keep a reserve? Do wise people keep a bank balance for a rainy day—even though that day may never come? Why overstrain the whole organism and tax the baby’s kidneys up to their limit? What about the “rainy day”? What reserve is left if the child takes scarlet fever, which is so often followed by kidney trouble?

Next week we shall go on to speak of the essential differences between the milks of various animals, and to draw our general conclusions.