OUR BABIES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144359, 25 March 1914, Page 8

OUR BABIES.

Published -under tho auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at tho top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom. FAILURE IN NURSING. (Continued.) At the closo of last week's article I referred shortly to a' enso where the failure in nursing was due solely to the mother being misdirected. 1 shall now give the particulars of this case in more detail, because I am satisfied that a large number of mothers, who would ho perfectly capable ot completely nursing their babies if properly guided, fail to do so owing to supplying tho baby, not with, too little, but with too much, milk in the first month. Apart from the human mother there is no instance whore the oCtpjing is tempted and urged to suckle beyond its requirements. The most casual observation of what goes on in the fields among our domestic animals shows on all lianas the Tendency of the mother to pM*\cnt too frequent or prolonged sucKling. VSith ourselves, on the contrary, h has been the almost invariable custom'to try to induce the baby to nurse ready twice as olten as he should and to fill himself to repletion. In this connection 1 have son.c very naive jjik! interesting notes, made by a picfessional nurse, showing perfectly clearly that the baby \\as suffering from overloading and indigestion at the vrrv time when the nurse was •otMng down '-n her daily record such remarks ns: “Baby restless and peevish to-day: terms to be going off his food; very sleepy towards the end oi each nursing; could not get him lo take any more.'' Those notes were .made in a case where, under instruction, the baby was lining weighed before and_ after each nursing, in order to ascertain how niin-K was being drawn from Iho breast in tho 2t hours. Tho nm;fe had not taken the trouble to add up the figures, nliicu would liavo proved to her that the hahv's trouble was duo lo overfeeding—not. as she supposed, to under-feeding-"-that ho was actually getting a? much as eight ounces beyond his proper allowance, as given on page .3-1 of the Society’s book "feeding and Caro of Baby."'

ILLUSTRATIVE CASE. A mother, who had given birth nearly six weeks oreiiously ti, a strong, healthy bal v weighing over 811; . wrote in great distress to say that the infant had been doing veiy badly latterly had been steadily losing weight and now weighed rather less (ban at- birth. She had just been ordered to entirely abandon breastfeeding on the ground that her mill: was at fault and" even poisonous. Tho family were in comfortable circumstances. with every advantage as regards the homo and assistance in the way of servants and nurses. The mother herself was a well-made woman, well developed, and tho typo of normal motherhood, not only .physically but by temperament and inclination. She was domestic, devoted to her children, and, of all things, anxious to do everything she could for them. She had failed to nurse her first two children, but felt that this ought not to have boon the cast) if matters had been managed properly. Sho had had the Society’s bonks long before tho last baby was horn, and felt sure that- all would bo wed if she could only get tho doctor and nurse to allow her to follow tho general course advocated. _ However, when tho time came sho found that they wore lied to the usages of the Victorian era. and would not hear of feeding onlv every three hours, "no night feeding.’’ etc. The baby was born plump and healthy and-weighed BJIh At a fortnight sho weighed fi11.,, and. as the mother said, "was doing splendidly. ’ The milk supply was ample and the baby was suckled with alternate breasts every two hours, there bein’; ten feedings in all, including the night feeding. For the next week things were not so satisfactory, n-ihv was fretful and irritable and suffered from flatulence. She gained only a quarter of a pound in the week, and the mother became worried and slept indifferently. The week there inis a loss of a quarter of a pound and marked constipation set in, which tho nurse treated with a daily dose of raster oil, without consulting the doctor, who hi'tb.lv .lisapp’-ovetl when some weeks -lab r he discovered what had boon done. hi the fourth week a bottle-feeding was given in place of one. ol the. breastfeedings, and hv tho end of the fifth week lialiv was getting four bottlefeedings. Towards tho close of the sixth, week the weight had gone down to 81b. lOoz.. there was extreme constipation, baby was flahbv, dull, listless, dissatisfied, ami irritable, and always cried after being suckled. .Complete stoppage ot breast-feeding bad been urged earlier, but was now insisted on, tho parents being told that tho violent crying of the child after the breast-feed-ings and not after tho bottle-feedings showed that the mother’s milk was poisonous. Howtver. tho mother held out and got a weighing-machine, which showed that at this stage tho baby was getting from, the breast under lOoz. in the 2-i hours, being rather less than two-fifths of its normal requirement, whilo die highly-diluted artificial feedings did not supply more than another fifth. The explanation of the satisfaction after tho hottle-fcodings and the yelling after sucklings was very obvious, "the 4oz. or more per feeding given by tho bottle tilling the stomach and relieving thirst, which the 2oz. breast-feed-ings failed to do. THE NEW REGIMEN. The cause of failure being not quite clear, tho mother was given the following instructions: (I) Feed only six times in tho 24 hours, and give no night feedings. (9) Suckle the baby at each feedingtime. (31 Immediatclv before suckling balance the baby, clothes and all, and at the end of suckling find out mid note what weight has to bo added to balance again. This shows how much milk has boon drawn off from the breasts. (For details as to weighing before and after suckhug see pages 57-59, "Feeding and Caro of Baby;’’) (1) Supplement- with tho necessary quantity of humanised milk, beginning diluted and working up to fiilUsircngth in the course of a week. Tho mother had been using only one breast at each feeding but as tho supply was short she was told sho must give both breasts each time, as explained on pages 6 and 7 of tho Society’s book (‘‘Feeding and Care of Baby”). The result of this regimen was that tho baby started straight away to gain normally, and m tho course of tho next month the mother’s supply, instead of continuing to dwindle, rose to nearly 17oz. a day.

THE "RESULTS. When baby was nearly 11 weeks old, the mother wrote, saying: •'I enclose the weighings, and will send tho ones for this week later on. Baby is doing splendidly. She is getting fac und her cheeks are quite a nice colour. She •» looking very bonnie now, and 1 am sure you would be pleased with her. The doctor is delighted. . . I tell him we are going by the book. . "I had baby photographed on Friday, and will se nd you a copy when wo get them. Her motions are quite good now, and she is getting very regular in her habiis We use the rubber enema when necessarv." (The enema referred to is a tiny soft-noz/iled rubber bulb, holding only an ounce. Simple pure water at 70 degrees is used—no soap.) Just before leaving England we received a tolegram saying that baby was going splendidly and that her weight on December 17 'was 101 b. lljoz. This showed that she bad gained exactly a pound in the fortnight Last week the photograph of a plump, happy-looking baby arrived from the Old Country.