MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 57, 23 October 1914, Page 2

MOTHERS AND CHILDREN.

(By Hygeia.) (Published under the audioes of the Society for the Health of Women and Children). THE WAK AND THE BABIES. Complaints are reaching the Central Council of the Society from all over the Dominion regarding the excessive price that mothers are asked to pay for sugar of milk owing to the war. .Nine years ago the-retail charge in New Zealand was from 2s 6d to 5s a lb, according to locality. Owing to the per-astent efforts and representations of the Society, the ruling price during the last six years has been is a lb, ;though in some country places as much as Is 6d a lb has been charged. At the present fcin-o mothers in certain localities complain that milk sugar is costing them 2s fid a lb, and the Society is asking if it can do anything to limit the rise in prices. The complaint is a [natural one, because sugar of milk is •;>} essential constituent of the food of :-.i young babies who cannot he nursed, at is highly beneficial even in the case of mckled babies for a considerable time after weaning.

HOW MUCH MILK SUGAR IS THERE IN MILK?

An ordinary kerpsenetinful (say, a large bucketful) of cows' milk contain;-, about 21b weight of solid sugar—the pure white powder extracted, and sold untl t the name of "Siigar Milk" or "Sugar of Milk." The same quantity )f human milk would contain about 311) if this special form of sugar. Nobody so-enis to grasp the fact that more than iqlf the weight, of nutrient material ■ontained in mother's milk is sugar oi ailk. Every baby who cannot be uvast-fed is entitled to have the accessary quantity of this essential •OMstitxient added to his daily ration, in as to make it up to Nature's standard. How would "grown-ups" like to be _•' :ced? There would'be a great outy if wo cut down the meat ration or he bread ration of adults, even in,our ;aoh; but few people realise that it is

!. much more serious and injurious hing to cut down a baby's proper raioi of sugar of milk. Cane sugar is n entirely different substance, and Ss cheapness should be regarded as no ocommendation at all. The following paragraph from the society's book, "Feeding and Care of 3ahy," clearly explains the position Tdm another point of view: — WHAT IS MILK SUGAR ? ) Tiiis is the natural sugar of milk, iiom which it is extracted in the form if a white powder. This substance is jasily digested, resists' injurious fernentation, and tends to check putrefactive processes in the contents of .he intestine. The reverse is the case ,vith cane sugar, which readily ferments prejudicially, tends to set up decomposition, and is a leading cause of indigestion and diarrhoea in infants, deuce one evil of condensed milk. . .larches are open to similar objections. Ihij affords one of many reasons again-' :;■ the use of patent foods and condensed milk. Milk sugar is the principal solid constituent of human milk, and is the only form of sugar admissible for the ordinary feeding of infants. ,'tf a baby has to be bottle-fed ' for 'nine months, how much milk of sugar - he entitled to have added to his •cod? The answer is a quarter of a hun-dred-weight—in other words, four times.the birth weight of the average child! It a suckled baby is weaned at nine months, how much sugar of milk would ho beneficial for him in the next six Tionths—supposing cows' milk to be his principal food up to 15 months of age ? The answer is about 101 b. Taking these data, it will be seen that a baby, if entirely bottle-fed, 'should have nearly 401 b of sugar of milk? added to his food in the first 15 months of life, but if he were completely suckled for nine months he would need only 101 b. Under the most ideal circumstances, we might arrive at a position in which most babies would be solely breast-fed for nine months: the rest would be suckled, say, from three to six months ; but even for these the average need of sugar of milk up to 15 months would not fall below a stone (141 b.) Taking the average number of babies born annually in New Zealand at 25,000, we find that, itnahwnwamwsn-sistentifel find that, with an ideal regimen prevailing, they would be entitled to receive at least 150 tons of milk sugar; but, considering bow unnecessarily prevalent bottle-feeding still is, our babies ought certainly to be consuming over 200 tons of sugar of milk a year, if I they get their rights.

How much would it cost to give our 25,000 babies their average rights at the present time a.s regards sugar of milk ?

To provide 200 tons of milk sugar, at an average cost of a shilling a pound, would involve a total annual expenditure of about £20,000 —deducting for the baliies who do nofc survive. The lump sum seems a lot of money, but it means an average of only about 17s 6d for each baby for 15 months. Surely no one would grudge this, or seek for cheap substitutes, especially if it were known that a New Zealand company has just started to work to extract sugar of milk from the whey of cheese factories which were turning most of their whey as a waste product into tho nearest stream. A PATRIOTIC PRODUCT. NOT MADE IN GERMANY. At present the main seats of manufacture of milk sugar are Austria and Germany, but from this time forth there will bo no importing, I am told

that the local company will be able to burn out some : hundreds of tons ol' the highest grade annually. Further, they promise to ensure that, as regards price, we shall be at least as well off in New Zealand as at the seats of prod notion in the Old World—no middh men, no import charges. Owing to the war the supplies from Austria and Germany arc now cut off and sugar of milk has risen in London co nearly double the usual price; but u) .such rise should lake place in New Zealand, because, before the wave reaches here, the local product should be, >n the market. A GENEROUS COMPANY. In spite of the .fact that the wholeale price of sugar of milk is now £IOO a ton in England, the Taieri and Peninsula Dairy Company, of Dunedin, 'which has been a large importer from Holland, and uses two tons a year' in making humanised milk for Dunedin), •ins kept on selling, as heretofore, at 73s a hundredweight (that is, £75 a -,on). However, their disposable stock '.'i now cleared out; they have just sent •he last hundredweight they could (pare to Gisborne.