OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3806, 22 February 1927, Page 68

OUR BABIES.

By HraEiA. Published under the auspices ef the Reyal New Zealand Society for the Health ot Women and Children (Plunket Society). "It Is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC., DUNEDIN BRANCH. NORSES’ 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 Mondav and Friday from 2 to 4 p.m.; and at 99 Musselburgh • Rise, Wednesdays, 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, Anderson’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.

THE BABY BETWEEN NINE MONTHS AND A YEAR OLD. Last week we drew a little picture of a sadly common happening. This week let us consider what we may do to prevent any suggestion of “going off” in our beautiful babies. BABY’S FOOD. ' The first consideration is baby’s food at this time. Weaning. If he has been naturally fed, he should be weaned gradually. Sudden weaning throws a great strain on any baby—a strain which may be responsible for a more or less prolonged period of failure to thrive. There is no need for this. Substitute artificial for natural feeds one at a time, allowing at least a week for each change if possible. If it can possibly be avoided, never wean in the hottest weather, or if baby is not perfectly well. Consult, or write to the nearest Plunket Nfirse regarding full directions for weaning, ineluding the best milk mixtures to give. Bottle or cup and spoon ? If baby is over nine months old and has some teeth through, he may be weaned straight on to cup and spoon feeding. If he is younger, or it is difficult to get him to take his full allowance of milk from a cup, it is best to give a bottle for a time. It is most important to teach breastfed babies to drink water from a bottle in the early months, in order to avoid the battle which so often has to be waged at weaning time when a new food is presented in a new receptacle, both of which “His Majesty” strongly resents. All babies should learn to drink water or fruit juice from a cup and a spoon before they are nine months old for the same reason. Babies are little creatures of habit, and dislike change—a characteristic we may take advantage of in the implanting of good habits, but of which we should beware in allowing the formation of bad ones, or the too firm fixation of those which have to be broken sooner or later—for example, the habit of sucking. Does l>ahy need humanised milk after he is weaned ?

Babies under a year should always be weaned on to humanised milk, and should continue to have part of the day’s allowance of milk “humanised” until the end of the first year at least. The reason why: A few weeks ago we explained the uses of the various kinds of food—carbohydrates, fats, proteins, etc.—and made it clear that humanised milk is the next best thing to human milk, because it contains all the food elements in the same proportions as they are found in human milk. The main thing lacking in cow’s milk simply diluted with water is fat, and fat is absolutely essential for proper growth and nutrition. Humanised milk contains added fat either in the form of top milk or New Zealand Emulsion, and this is the chief reason for continuing the' use of some humanised milk throughout the first year. After the first birthday the baby begins to take an appreciable amount of butter, dripping, etc., and so his allowance of fat is made up in other ways. It is sometimes objected that it is too much . trouble to make humanised milk. This is not a valid excuse. It takes less than five minutes to prepare enough- for the whole 24 hours if New Zealand Emulsion is used, and if it is really in the best interests of the baby surely those few minutes should not be grudged. The Importance of the Daily Allowance of Milk. . Milk continues to supply all the essential food elements and by far the greatest part of the actual nourishment needed during the whole of this period. Therefore it is important that the baby should really take his full allowance of milk mixture every day. This factor regulates the number of meals given in 24 hours. Number of Feeds. Five feeds at four-hourly intervals is the greatest number which should ever be given, and if the baby drinks well and takes his full allowance in four feeds, the

last drink in the evening may be dispensed with, allowing the baby to sleep irom 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Teaching Baby to Eat. Food other than milk is mainly of IMPORTANCE FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF EDUCATING BABY TO THE FEEL, AND TASTE AND DIGESTION OF SOLID AND SEMI-SOLID FOOD. The essential thing during this period is that he should learn how to EAT. He should learn to eat from a spoon and drink from a cup, and, most important OF ALL, HE SHOULD LEARN TO CHEW his crusts and. bones, and reject solid objects which he cannot reduce to pulp by biting, tearing, mouthing, and chewing. Once learnt, this lesson will stand him in good stead throughout his life helping to protect him from indigestion* decayed teeth, ana many other evils which co m e , ln th ® train of these two. Also he will be much less likely to swallow foreign bodies off the floor or elsewhere than the baby with whom. the act of swallowing is almost automatically simultaneous with the placing of anything in the mouth. The Best Kind of Hard Food. r.-i Tw , ic ®' ba H, ed - bre ad is the best form of Tll r l taC i k , fo L tbe aby of tllis age. lhe bread should be about one day old and a slice about an inch thick should be cut in fingers and baked dry in a slow oven. Enough may be done for several days, and kept in a well-shut tin these home-made “rusks” are hard and yet not tough, and do not have the tenbreak off in the leathery, slithery, lumps which make ordinary crusts so dangerous. All the same a baby should never be left alone with any sort of crust. If baby’s gums are sore tor a few weeks, he may only be able to tackle the softer kind of crust but as soon as. possible teach him to eat the twice-baked bread. Cereal Foods. In addition to milk and crusts, the baby should learn to eat semi-solid cereal roods, the most important of which is well-cooked, strained oatmeal porridge—oat jelly. This may be varied by barley, rice, or wheatmeal, etc., but oatmeal is the main standby. It should be given as a firm jelly and unsweetened. Simple Things Are Best. We are very apt to think that foods are nutritious in proportion to their cost, and that something expensive “out ot a tin must necessarily be better than a home-made article which costs little or nothing. It is important to consider this point, and realise that the reverse is commonly the fact. Compare plain twice-baked bread with expensive bought rusks. These often contain a large amount of cane or other sugar, which is injurious to the teeth and digestion, and spoils the appetite for simple, unsweetened foods. Even supposing them to be unsweetened, which is rare, they have no advantages over home-made rusks” of good bread except in the imagination of those who buy them under the erroneous impression that the price and th? label makes them valuable. The same thing applies to patent breaklast roods and expensive, highly-refined cereals, which are not so nutritious as old-fashioned, coarse oatmeal at 4d a lb, well cooked and strained. The only place such foods have is in providing occasional variety. Why pay more for an inferior article? It is best to stick to simple things. Generally speaking, the farther we get from the natural state in which the food grows the less nourishment we obtain from it. Consult the Plunket Nurse about ali details of amounts and quantities of food during this or any period, or about any individual difficultes and. problems 'you may have with your baby.