OUR BABIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19803, 19 May 1934, Page 14

OUR BABIES

BY HYGEIA Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” OVERFEEDING THE BABY Last week we were dealing with the new-born baby and the first stages in feeding. To-day we will talk about “overfeeding the baby”—the commonest cause of weaning in the first few weeks of life. “But surely there cannot be too much natural milk for the baby in the first few weeks of life?” Such people forget that twins are not at all uncommon, and that there is usually sufficient milk to nourish twins fully if it should be required. Mothers cannot be warned too strongly against the common tendency to overfeed baby. This overfeeding is the great cause of indigestion and obstinate colic, which often make breastfed infants miserable during the first few months, and which are so difficult to get rid of when once established. If there is any doubt whatever as to whether a suckled baby is getting the right quantity of food, weighing the child before and after feeding for the whole day (24 hours) should be the invariable rule. Weighing “before and

after” affords the only means of ascertaining whether a breast-fed baby is getting the right quantity of food. The Procedure If you have no reliable scales, ‘borrow a set from the grocer over the weekend. Put a nice soft towel on the scale, and make the baby comfortable on it; don’t undress him. Now balance the scales—the baby on one side and any kind of weights on the other (books, irons, anything will do), and have a pack of playing cards for the purpose of ensuring quickly an accurate adjustment. Now let the mother suckle her baby and then place him on the scale again, where everything remains just as it was when baby was taken up to be nursed. Now use the small weights until the two sides just balance again. Collect the weights just used to balance the scales, and the total amount will be the quanity of milk baby has drawn from the breast or breasts. If four-hourly feedings are the rule both breasts should be used at each nursing. Suppose the balancing was done at the 10 a.m. feeding, make a note: 10 a,m., 3ioz (or whatever the weight showed). Follow the same procedure at each nursing time for 24 hours, add the

amounts, and you will have the total quantity of milk taken by the baby from its mother in the 24 hours. Compare this with the average requirement given on page 34, “Feeding and Care of Baby,” and you will soon find whether baby is getting too much food or too little from his mother. Of course if health and growth are normal and there is no wind or other sign of indigestion, the quantity of milk supplied cannot be far wrong; but if there are the slightest signs of indigestion, such as restlessness, wind, putting up of food, disturbed sleep, or any other symptom of ill-health or discomfort, the first thing to do is to balance the baby before and after each feeding for a complete day. This rule is absolute. Without systematic weighing any attempt at treatment is mere slipshod guesswork. Only One Way The most enlightened authorities of the day, both doctors and nurses, admit their inability to form any idea as to the sufficiency or otherwise of what the mother is supplying to her child without resorting to what is obviously the only means of finding out. They insist on accurate test-weighing of the baby before and after every nursing for a whole day. By this simple means mother and child are constantly being put on the right track without any delay or guessing. Sometimes the

baby is found to be getting far too much food, while in other cases he is being strved. Warning Hardly anyone realises that the chronically half-starved baby tends to be drowsy and quiet, and seems contented when having too little food, while the habitually overfed baby is generally discontented, restless, and seems ravenous. It is quite a mistake to jump to the conclusion that a baby is underfed because he is restless and sucks his thumbs. These symptoms are more often due to overfeeding and indigestion.