OUR BABIES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144146, 16 July 1913, Page 8

OUR BABIES.

By HYGEIA.

Published under tho auspices of tho Society for tho Health of Women and Children. MASTICATION. A previous article on mastication showed the extreme importance of exercising the Jaws by giving babies and young children some food needing thorough chewing, instead of limiting them to “pap,’’ when they have got beyond tho stage of mother’s milk. This providing of food which" needs work to be done on it is equally important during the second year, and exerts a profound influence over the “manufacture and setting” of tho permanent tooth if continued until they have all come through tho gums and taken up their life-work—to say nothing of the value of proper , eating habits as aids to digestion throughout life. To the expectant and nursing mother, -thorough mastication is of special significance, and the importance of the whole subject can scarcely bo over-estimated. The following extracts from Dr. Harry Campbell will help parents to realise tho duty they owe to their offspring from first to last in this very practical field of true education:— (Adapted from Dr. Harry Campbell.) Mastication Promotes the Flow of tho Saliva and the Insalivairion of tho Food.—The more food is masticated the more completely it is insalivated. Now, inasmuch as starch is converted by the saliva, first into dextrine and then into maltose, it follows that the whole of tho starch of the food ingested may be transformed into maltose within the month if only mastication is persisted in long enough; and it is surely bettor for the individual to manufacture his maltose within the laboratory of his own organism than to have it administered to him in tho form of the artificially prepared “malt extracts” ; yet, strange to say, patients are often allowed these extracts when they aro forbidden the starchy foods which they could, by adequate mastication, quite easily convert into maltose for themselves. As a matter of fttet, starchy foqels, if sufficiently insalivated, are,seldom indigestible.

Mastication increases the amount of alkaline saliva passing into the stomach, and thus not only prolongs the period of starch digestion in that organ, but influences gastric digestion in other ways; it is probable that a deficiency of alkaline saliva in the stomach is inimical to normal digestion. [Memo.' by “Hygcia.”—Mothers should clearly understand that the salivary glands arc late in developing, and that therefore starch does not normally form part of the food until the baby is nine months old. After that-age, Nature provides for a stead-ily-increasing flow of saliva. .Hence the need for introducing rusks, broad, cereal jellies, etc., to keep pace with the growth of the child’s starch-digest-ing organs.]

Mastication promotes the flow of gastric juice, and thus prepares the stomach for the reception, of food. This effect is -probably produced chiefly through the medium of psychic influence, for the more" efficiently mastication is performed the more effectually is the. sense of tasto excited. Mastication stimulates the heart, and so promotes the circulation.

INFLUENCE OF MASTICATION ON THE JAW AND ADJACENT STRUCTURES.

Muscles of Mastication.—Seeing that all rhythmic muscular contractions stimulate the flow of blood and lymph not only in the contracting muscles themselves, hut in the neighbouring parts also, it follows that the exercise of the masticatory muscles, which are far more massive than is generally realised, influences, with their own nutrition, that of the important structures adjacent to them—i.c., the jaw-bones, salivary glands, mucous membrane of mouth, soft palate, tonsils, pharynx, and cavities of the nose, etc. All these parts arc, during mastication, copiously flushed with blood and lymph, their nutrition being correspondingly stimulated, and it is not therefore surprising that in these who from childhood upwards have been accustomed to masticate efficiently they should bo well developed—the jaws well grown and shapely, the teeth sound and regular, the tongue (for we must not forget that it, too, is a masticatory muscle) and salivary glands large, the nasal and naso-pharyngeal passages spacious, and the mucous membrane of the mouth and adjoining cavities healthy; and that, on the other hand, in those who have never adequately exercised their masticatory muscles these various structures should be correspondingly ill-developed and liable to disease. It should bo observed that some of the largest muscles which cause the movements of the lower jaw during mastication arise from th/s very region .whence adenoids spring. The Jaw-bones.—That the jaws do not attain normal size unless properly exercised is shown by tho overcrowded teeth of those brought up on soft foods, even in the absence of that peculiar deformity, of the jaws resulting from mouth-breathing, which, as we shall see, is itself the indirect result of inefficient mastication.

The Teeth.—But were there any doubt on these matters, it is only necessary to consider the teeth themselves to arrive at certainty. Who can contemplate ,the 'jaw-bones of a six-year-old child, so dissected as to display all the embedded teeth, without being assured of' the 1 influence of mastication in promoting their normal development and eruption? Pifty-two teeth meet the view; tho entire region from tho orbital rims to the inferior border of. tho mandible is, in fact, a mosaic of them, temporary and permanent, the latter in various phases of growth, and only by efficient mastication that shall ensure tho conditions necessary to it can their adequate development possibly be brought about. It is mastication alone that can stimulate tile circulation—in the toothgerms that they may grow, and in tho jaws that, when grown, tho teeth shall find room; and mastication, again, is necessary to onnhlo the permanent teeth to take up their normal positions, so as to secure a good “bite” i. 0., proper apposition of the upper and tho lower teeth. The pressure of the two rows of tooth against each other makes for a healthy condition alike of tho teeth, the sockets containing them, and tho surrounding tissues of'dlio gums, inasmuch as it stimulates tho circulation of tooth-pulp, tooth-sockets, and adjacent parts. ' Hence disease of the teeth and tooth-sockets (decay, abscess, etc.) is much more common' in inefficient than in efficient masticators. A few words may hero bo said regarding tho influence of mastication in wearing down tho tooth. Those who masticate well wear away their teeth considerably. This is duo not so much to tho attrition of coarse, hard food against tho teeth as to that of the opposing tooth against one

another, for it must bo remembored that in normal mastication these are riot merely pressed vertically one upon another, but also aro made to grind against ono another by a lateral and sagittal movement. If in a person, say, over 30, we find little or no wearing down of the teeth, wo may bo sure that ho does not masticate properly ; the information which this simple tost gives may often cause us to surprise our patients by passing an accurate opinion on their masticatory habits. 1 suppose it is because the English people, nurtured principally on soft food, do not wear their teeth down, and still more because, not using their teeth properly, these tend to grow out of their sockets, and thus appear unduly long, that our Continental neighbours regard us as being large and long in the tooth, and as such so frequently represent John Bull in their cartoons.