OUR BABIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14278, 19 August 1910, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

<By Tlygeia.)

ILLUSTEATIVE CASE. Last week we promised to give tiie history of soma cases showing the great benetit winch will almost certainly accrue to mother and child (where a. breast-fed baby does not appear to he thriving) if the infant is weighed immediately before and immediately after suckling, and any deficiency in quantity is made up by properly prepared and adjusted humanised milk. Au expectant mother in our neighbourhood, who led an indoor and rather sedentary life, had a good deal of anxiety lor some months before the birth of her child on account of poorness of blood and .slight hemorrhages. She had tho tenclencv to constipation usual under such circumstances. but did her best to combat this and.other disabilities. However, .she was not well enough latterly to get about much. Her b,.,y was born at a mateinitv liospital. Before this .some of the glands in the mother's neck began to swell, and later .„„„. P( , .seriously aileeted thai they bad lo be operated on when tiie habv was a few weeks eld. The operation gave her great relief, but she colli,lined anaemic' Tho babe, which ,she was ;il..l<=> io feed naturally, did Jiiirlv well, except, -that there was marked const ip;it ion. The moiher was advised to live practically out. of doors, taking a. fair amount, of walking exerei>e,'and to keep her bedroom windows upon all night long—the ether hvgieuie essentials were also impressed upon her. There was soon a. considerable improvement in the condition of both mother and child.

Y\hen tiie baby was just over six week-sold the mother had a. very severe attack of tonsillitis. She could not swallow anything— not. even water—for two days. .Her friends advised her to wean the baby, and ils slll> w ., s f t>l ,ij llL r very weak and miserable, she asked the doctor whether she ought to do so. She told ino his reply was:—"Certainly not; il you do you mav net sotnethiii<>worse."' for a. month 'no solid food conk! bo taken, because her face became greatly swollen and "so slid' ibat the jaws would not work.'' Almost the .sole food taken at this time ivus egg beaten up with milk. During this mouth the habv's health began to .suffer, and the. mother thought he was not .satisfied with her milk. Roth mother and baby troubled with constipation; to combat this - the baby had been given malt extract and olive oil. The home was again visited and the ventilation and hygienic conditions were further gone into. The best position for the cradle was pointed out, so that baby woidd get pure, fresh, iincnntannnated, outside air; and a means v.-as devised for keeping wind from blowing d.rectly. on-to him. At the same time sleeping in the open porch in the daytime- was insisted on. Absolute regularity with regard to feeding, etc., wns enjoined, the mother was advised to remove tiie binder, which was .still in use. and, the other hygienic essentials, as laid down in the Society'.s book, were again impressed on the' mother.' Some

orange juice was recommended in view of rllO persistant constipation. As tlio baby did nil t seem contented' and tlio mother had difficulty in -wallowing a. sul'lii-ioiu-y oi iood (remember she was .able to take fluid iood oulv). she was advised to weigh the lialiv carefully, before and after suckling, at three, successive nursings. For "'this purpose a set of accurate scales was lent to her. 'Hie haby. which weighed 71b at birth, had thriven fairly well almost up to this point, and the falling off was accounted for by the fact that the amount of milk derived from each nursing, as 'now ascertained bv the ..scales, varied from 2oz to 3oz, instead of about 4J-oz—the standard allowance for. Ju's weight ;UK ] ;i ,.- c . it was no wonder, therefore, that lie had been growing restless, fretful, and dissatisfied, "he very first time the deiieieneswas made good by allowing l'oz addifional. lie .seemed eonteidod, and ,s!ep;: during the afternoon. The additional iood consisted oi e<|Ual parts of standard humamVed milk (Recipe Iff.. page 21) and sugar of milk solution (Recipe 1. page 2D.); tha latter being gradually cut out so that at the end of live day's humanised milk was taken pure. The old-fashioned nurse, or a mother of the old school, is inclined at this P* say impatiently: ""But why bother about weighing; the fact of a baby being fretful and dissatisfied shows he is not getting enough. 'Why not just give him some food from the bottle without more ado:-'' J. n nine cases out ot ten she would say : •■Try two or three bottle feedings a day'in the place of suokl.ng. so that sufficient milk may accumulate."

-\o effort whatever ivmild he made to ascertain how much tlio babv reallv noiidt'd. Adopting this haphazard plan it was lound almost invariablv that babies led partly at the breast and partly Irom the hottle vera overfed and soon bewail to suffer from putting up <>l iood and indigestion. This fact is ■so well recognised that inanv nurses are strongly opposed to ''mixed feeding," and prefer- to wean the babv at onco when the breast supply talis short ot tne needs 'of the infant; or, if thev continue breast-feeding at all under'these circumstances they recommended suckling at mghtonly on the ground of convenience. • ~ There is no reason in the world whv 'Uluxed feeding " should not agree. 'The solution of this problem is easily arrived at by finding out precisely how iniicU t-ho breast- supply falls short, and then supplementing at eaeh nursing with the proper quantity of a food approaching as near as possible to tlie composition of normal mother's milk—in other words, by humanised milk. The result in practice is more than satisfactory. Almost invariably the l)uby which has been pining and fretting becomes comfortable and happy. Equally gratilying is the fact that usually the supply of mother's milk beg ns to increase almost at once, owing to the cessation of uorrv. anxietv, and sleeplcness induced by an ailing" child. Yerv commonly if the'mother gives herself the further advantage of more'outdoor exercise, fresher air in tlio house, more suitable feeding and due attention to other hygienic needs, the breast supply goes on sleadily improving both in quality and quantity, so that in the course of a few weeks no supplementary food will be needed.

'lhis is 111 striking contrast to what usually ensues imcicr ordinarv haphazard '-mixed feeding." in the i latter case the underfed babv (now i'ur- | ther upset by Ijeiny jdven" too much, ! instead of too little milk, and receiving a whole feeding at a time of the artifi" eial preparation, instead of merely the portion needed to make up the mother's shortago at each feeding) now begins to show siccus oi overfeeding. Ho frequently puts up ;i portion of his food, sutlers Irom colic, and may ho troubled w,th diarrhoea, or constipation. The l»[\\y <'«<ng .still 1,-etiul, the mother's mil supply becomes less and less satisfactory. lMirtber (apart altogether from want of sleep and not having the heart or the time to attend to her own health) the mother's milk supply tends to speedily dwindle owing to lack of tlm normal stimulus to secretion afforded by active suckling repeated at regular intervals every few hours. I Jus is all-important, because the quantity ol milk secreted i.; largely determined by the extent to which the breasts are subjected to vigorous, rhythmical stimulation. Thero.is no doubt as to this matter, because in Paris, where wet-nursing is much more practised than in England, it has been clearly established that with a simple hygienic regimen, the foster-mothers can be trained in the course of a few y.-.-e.: t'> !:;.:r e as many as three babies, the :e:ret!(ij increasing in response to the demand, and that an amplo nupplv for several babies may continue for a year or more. On the other hand, where a wjmp.u hag fcsjn supplying

fnllv enough for three babies it i? found that the .secretion (piickly falls to the quantity needed for two. if one is re-moyed---denia.ud and supply regulating one another.