OUR BABIES

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 66, 22 March 1929, Page 2

OUR BABIES

BY HYGEIA. Published under the auspices 61 the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). "It is wiser xo put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." FEEDING BAJ3Y IN THE FIRST MONTH OF LIFE. (Continued) This week we conclude the article, by Miss M'Millan, quoted from the Australian Women's Mirror:— SIGNS THAT BABY IS GETTING THE RIGHT AMOUNT FROM HIS MOTHER.. "The. chief signs that a young baby is getting enough breast milk are: (1) Normal sleep; (2-). gain in weight (about loz, a day after the first week of life, when the breast milk should be established); (3) one to three bowel actions each 24 hours. SINGS OF UNFEELING, "The chief signs of a young baby not getting enough breast milk are: (1) Failure to gain weight; (2) infrequent and lack of. bowel actions. '{An underfed baby may sleep quite well—in fact, be drowsy—during the first month of life. Sleeplessness in a very young baby is more often caused by too much breast, milk than too little. "If everything is not going smoothly, the only fair thing to the baby is to test weight before and after the breast feeding for 24 hours to estimate the amount of breast milk the baby is getting from its mother. The way to do this is told on page 57 of 'Feeding and Care of Baby,' by Sir Truby dving.

""If you discover the baby is getting too much breast milk you can shorten the length of feeding, and if) he is fed more often than fourhourly you can give fewer feedings. If the baby is unde/fed you can give extra food after each breast feeding to make up the necessary amount that the baby should have in the 24 hours. "There are methods for increasing the breast milk; but the main things to do are to put baby to the breast regularly t.o have proper rest and sleep, fresh air and (later) exercise, to be happy and not to worry—and you cannot help being a good nursing mother. There are cases where ihe breast milk has not been established till the third or fourth week, and evejri later than that; but do not give up putting the baby regularly to the breast, and give the artificial food only after the breast feeding, not instead of it." '

MEMO. BY "HYGEIA RE OVERFEEDING.

More or less overfeeding is a much more common and serious mistake in the first month or so than is usually ralised, and it is important for mothers to know the warning signs. Prolonged overfeeding produces a very serious condition, because the whole digestive system i s overtaxed, and if the overfeeding is allowed to go on there comes a nutritional disturbance from which it may take weeks for "the baby to recover fully. Whereas simple underfeeding is quite easily corrected, and unless the baby has drifted along for some time and has got into a very low state and has porary hall} in weight-gain when j the food is increased up to the full ' allowance. . SIGNS OF OVERFEEDING, The usual warning signs that baby is getting too much milk are these: (1) Rapid gain in weight; (2) restlessness, "wind," and disturbed sleep; (3) frequent or greenish motions; (4) some "putting up" of food. If these signs are disregarded, and the overfeeding goes on, the weight becomes erratic or stationary. Then baby may begin to loso weight, because the overtaxed digestion can no longer deal with the best of food. When this happens the only thing to do is to rest the digestive Organs. Keep baby entirely off food for, say, 12 hours. Then give warnx boiled water by bottle before the breast at each feed, only gradually working back the lull feedings. With regard to weight—unless he is "making up for lost time"—the baby of average size who puts on more than 10/ per day (say }ll> a week) is quite likely to have him "test-weighed" to find out just how much milk ho is getting In 24 hours nntl to regulate matters accordingly. Surely it is much better t„ have 6oz or Soz a week good steady gain than 10oz 0 r Minn which may be lost next week because of an attack of indigestion.