OUR BABIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 68

OUR BABIES.

Bi

Hygeia.

Published under the auspices ot th* Royal New Zealand Society lor the Health ot Women and Children (Plunket Society). “It Is wiser to put up a fence at th* top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom."

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC.. DUNEDIN BRANCH.

NURSES' SERVICES FREE. Nurses O’Shea (telephone 23-348), Isbister (telephone 10-866), Thomson, Scott, and Ewart (telephone 10-216), and Mathieson .(telephone 23-020). Society’s Rooms: Jamieson’s Buildings, 6 Lower Stuart street (telephone 10-216), 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, Jamie son’s Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 10-216). Karitane-Harris Baby Hospital, Anderson’s Bay (telephone 22-985). 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 COST OF FEEDING BABY ARTIFICIALLY. Since there seems to be a fairly widely accepted idea that humanised milk is an expensive preparation, and this argument is sometimes brought forward against its use, we are publishing this week a statement of the actual cost of each article used and the total weekly expenditure on humanised milk for a normal average baby of three months old, hoping this may be useful to mothers and others interested in the correct feeding of babies. Standard Recipe and Cost of 1} Pints of Humanised Milk. Milk .... 13oz, at 3d per pint, say 2d Sugar of Milk loz, at 1/7 per lb, say Ijd Lime Water . IJoz, say id N.Z. Emulsion loz, at 2/6 per lb, feay 2d Water . . . 15Joz Amount 30oz Cost s|d Cost per day . . . 54d Cost per week ... 3s 2-ld From this it will be seen that 3s 6d per w eek covers the cost of humanised milk for a normal healthy baby up to three months of age, even including the cost of the essential daily fruit or vegetable juice. Since no baby needs more than 40oz of milk mixture daily, the maximum cost for any baby would not exceed 4s 6d or 5s per week.

Humanised’ Milk No. 11, which is made with top milk instead of New Zealand Emulsion, works out at a slightly higher cost per day than the No. 11l recipe, given above, as it is necessary to procure just over two pints of milk daily in order to obtain sufficient top milk for a 30oz recipe. Naturally the cost is reduced if the under milk can be used in the household cooking. With Humanised Milk No. 11l the fat is in a more easily digested form. Also it is a great advantage, especially during the hot summer time, to be able to make the food with the new milk early in the day, instead of waiting for the setting to obtain the top milk. The No. 11l recipe, given above, is the simplest, thus reducing mistakes in the process of preparation to the minimum. obtain the top milk. The No. 11l recipe is the simplest, thus reducing mistakes in the process of preparation to the minimum. MEABUKEM ENTS. Naturally, wasteful or inaccurate measuring sends up the cost,,, and both for this reason and to guard against up-

setting the baby in one way or another the greatest care should be taken in measuring. As a guide and check against inaccuracies, it is interesting to know that when making the recipe given—11b of sugar of milk should last 16 days; also 11b of New Zealand Emulsion should last 16 days. Ounces and Tablespoons. One ounce of sugar of milk is equal to two tablespoonfuls— scraped off level with a knife. One ounce of New Zealand Emulsion is equal to one and a-half tablespoonfuls—scraped off level. (Four level teaspoonfuls are equal to one level tablespoonful.) When using teaspoons care be taken that they are the standard size, ’neither eggspoon size nor extra large. The average household tablespoon is fairly uniform and accurate. Heaped spoonfuls are quite inaccurate, and should never be used.

To save waste from spilling it is best to turn the sugar of milk out of the 11b carton in which it is bought into a wide-mouthed jar or tin, from which tablespoonfuls can be measured neatly. New Zealand Emulsion can be kept in the tin in which it is bought or be emptied into a glass jar, but the total amount required for the day should be measured out into a " Mannite ” jar or similar small receptacle when the milk is made. Dipping spoonfuls out of the tin or jar at each feed is inaccurate and wasteful, and is the usual cause of so-called failure of a baby to digest this form of fat. Liquid Measurements. A reliable measure marked in ounces should be used for milk and water, using the same ineasure throughout. A graduated medicine glass is best for very small amounts, such as the Ijoz of lime water; but if this is not available, a bare tablespoonful roughly equals loz. It is best to measure out each feed in the same graduated measure as is used tor making the milk. The best way of all is to have as many bottles as. feeds, measuring out an equal quantity into each when the food is made—say, 6oz into each of five bottles if the baby, three months old, is being fed every four hours. All that is then necessary is to set aside the bottles, standing them in an inch or so of cold water, covered with a damp muslin dipping into the dish of water all round. After each feed the bottle is washed and set aside, and all five boiled before the food is made again next day. Time.

The standard recipe for humanised milk given here may be prepared in less than five minutes. The subsequent pasteurising and cooling, etc., needs only intermittent attention—say, half an hour’s work, more or less, once in every 24 hours. Surely this is not impossible even for the busiest mother.

The Average Cost of Patent Baby Foods. Just in passing it is interesting to note that the approximate cost of feeding a baby of three months old on commonly used .patent foods, made according to directions on the tin, is from 7d to 10 Id per day. And, as we pointed out last week, these do not build baby sound and strong right through. ~W ll- V Pay more for an inferior article? That is the thought which strikes one. apart from all other considerations. dll, why pay anything at all? B hen the best of all baby food's, fresh, pure, living, right, is free —“the milk the good Hod gave with every mother”