OUR BABIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13892, 1 May 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

[WATER AND BARLEY-WATER. I have already shown that, practically speaking, ordinary barley-water contains no nutriment, and that tue trace it does contain consists almost entirely of starch, which should not enter into the food of early infancy. How is it, then, the mother may Veil ask, that any sick baby improved when I . stopped milk altogether and eavn pore barley-water. The answer is of the simplest. When a baby has an attack of stomach or bowel derangement, its digestice organs have more or less completely struck work for the time being, and the best plan is to give them & rest at once. To effect this we may refrain from giving anything beyond pure boiled water for half a day or even for a whole day or longer. This means more xhan a mere holiday for tlie tired < i•cestive organs; it means also tnc starvation and getting rid of iu l url microbes which have been growing apace in the alimentary canal ana causing the fermentation of any food the baby has been taking. To make this point more clear, I may quote what Dr. Robert Hutchison says as to the essential of diarrhoea. BOILED "WATER FOR DIARRHOEA. You must starve the child because xon do not wish to furinsh any further cood for the growth of micro-organ-fcms, and milk in particular you must withhold (even moth er, s milk), tor there is reason to believe that milk i such cases is actually poisonous (. pecially the curd of ordinary unmodified coVs milk). In a case of aento diarrho-i, whatever you do yon must stop m "With regard to elimination, your idjo should be, in the first place, to remove as far as you can those organisms which are still growing m the alimentarv canal, and, m the second nlace. to get rid of their poisons. How are you to carry out these indications in "practice? . I . S , ta . r y. atl °? ,J S oasilv carried out by withholding foodl, but Infants only bear stanration well it vou keep them warm and at the same time supply them with plenty or liquid. At this stage I can imapnne the mother saying impatiently: "Oh, yes; that's all very wel for diarrhoea, but my baby was suffering from dyspepsia and vomiting.' 1 Again the answer is simple. The essential treatment is similar for all serious digestive disturbances. whether they are attended bv vomittnjr. diarrhoea. «r oven severe jvind and colic, viz., "Withdraw food

supplies more or less completely for a longer or shorter period according to the urgency of the condition, but keep up the supply of water." Hear what Hutchison says on "Dyspepsia and Vomiting" in babies. Boiled Water for Acute Indigestion. "The proper treatment of acute vomiting is by starvation. You need never be afraid to starve young children in the matter of solid food. It is said that infants bear starvation badly. It may be true of chronic underfeeding, but babies will stand the complete withdrawal of all nourishment for two or three, or even more, days without any disadvantage, and, indeed, often with great benefit, provided always that you fulfil these two conditions. The first of these is that the child is kept warm; children stand starvation badly simply because they lose so much heat from their surfaces, a fact which is true of all young animals. And the second condition is that water must on no account be withheld. Children stand the withdrawal of fluid very badly indeed. So when I say that they are to be starved it means that they are to be given nothing which can be described as nourishment, but they must have abundant liquid; and in such cases as we speak ot this may take the form of boiled water, or, if you like, and in order to satisfy the mother, one may administer a thin decoction of barley." Humouring the Mother at the Expense of the Baby.

Note that the proper thing to give is water, and if you allow barley-water to be used it is merely in order to satisfy the mother's feelings, not because barley-water is the best thing for the baby. -Of course there may be some special reason for giving barleywater in a particular case, but that pure water is generally better is shown by the fact that the routine early treatment of acute diarrhoea, etc., in the best modern baby hospitals is ly the withdrawal of every trace of food for a period suited to the necessities of the case. Giving the Digestive Organs a Holiday. If you are going to give the digestive organs a holiday, 'why not let it be a complete one; and if you are going to starve the microbes, why not starve them "completely for a short time? Further, when you do want to give the baby some food why pretend to do so by giving something such as barleywater, which looks like food but whic'i is really mere water and a trace <.f starch —why not give sugar of milk solution which contains seven times th • amount of nutriment, and then w-jni ■in whey, etc., so as to bring the baby by safe stages back to its normal food again? " How Long can Baby, Live on Pure Water?

There is no more important lesson to impress on I lie motner tuan tne lact liiaD an ordinary buoy couia live for a. wnole lnontu on waxer alone, without Deing allowed a trace of loou. uiven waici" aione ja baoy loses only a lew ounces a ua>, ana a sick oauy when so treated oiien gams suengtu xapiuiy, whereas it loou t>r auy Kmu is given it may lose wcignt ■ t»ico as qiucKiy, ana may uic or cinaustiuii and puisoniiiiy by microbes at tne unu oi z± nours. Worn-out Weaklings. Dr Hutclusou says tliat babies who have been chronically underfed may stand the witholding of food badly, but even this is only true in' a niodiied sense. Babies exhausted and worn to mere shadows by weeks of indigestion, diarrhoea, and vomiting brought about by improper feeding, etc., will _ pass their night in sleep and comfort on being given nothing but boiled water. However, in such cases it would be unjustifiable to continue the use of water alone for more than 12 hours, except under a doctor's directions. Indeed, it is obvious that a baby in such a condition should be £ept under the observation and care of a physician from day to day, if one is available; but thero are many cases in the back country where the jiiother is thrown on her own resources, and it is for her specially that I am writing at the moment. Barley-Water and Curd. Barley-water may be used in the preparation of baby food in order to prevent the curd of whole cow's milk from forming in coarse, "tough lumps. This softening of the curd does result to some extent, but it is much better for the baby if the mother modifies and adjusts the composition of the cow's milk so as to make it really resemble human milk as nearly as possible, instead of merely adding something such as barley-water in order to enable the organism to tolerate and absorb what is essentially unfit food for a baby and will tend sooner or later to damage its indigestion and overtax the liver and kidneys. During the whole of the period in which babies were kept at Karitano not a single infant under nine months of age was given any other food than humanised or modified cow's milk, and not a singe one failed to thrive. This showed conclusively that starch, patent foods, and condensed milks arc absolutely unnecessary in the feeding of young babies, though one knows that mothers tend to give them in the vast majority of cases. However, there are certain forms of diarrhoea, etc., in which v barley-water or other starchy fluids may be used temporarily with advantage, but these come strictly within the domain of the physician, and therefore I need not dwell on tlieni.

Thousands of babies have been slowly starved to death owing to the mistaken ideas of mothers regarding the value of barley-water as a food; but, on the other hand, tho same mistaken notioh has undoubtedly proved beneficial in many cases, because mothers have been prevented from overfeeding their babies by counting the barley-water taken as so much food, whereas it is prac tically mero water again. Again,' in sickness, babies have been saved by the fact that restriction for a time to bar-ley-water alone is almost equivalent to tho temporary use of pure boiled water, the beneficial effect of which, in the majority of infantile digestive troubles, lias been clearly proved. It should always be borne in mind that overfeeding is the commonest mistake with babies, and that it is a more serious evil than underfeeding.