HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23319, 1 October 1945, Page 2

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

INFANT FEEDING (Prepared and issued by the Herd tit Department) Breast feeding of infants is declining in civilised countries. It is well '0 realise that this is bad for our children, and that every effort should be made to avoid artificial feeding. The British Ministry of Health set up a committee to investigate the drift from breast feeding, and to determine whether It should be allowed without protest as being of no great importance. The findings are that the nation should be advised through every possible publicity method to secure more breast feeding of infants. r The arguments for breast reeding are incontrovertible. It’s so much cleaner and safer as it cuts out external sources of dirt or infection. Gastro-intestinal, respiratory, and other infections are much less frequent during the first year in breast-fed babies. They always show less dysentery, and summer diarrhoea than bottle-fed babies. Besides being cleaner and safer, it’s so much easier than bottle-feeding. Breast feeding saves the pocket: it’s cheaper. There’s no argument about it being nature's way. and that it’s the perfect infant food—breast milk is ready-warmed, perfectly balanced, free from dangerous bacteria, and need not be “modified.” Once a mother has suckled her baby there’s very rarely any wish to give it up. There’s an emotional bond between mother and baby and greater contentment when the baby is breast fed The trouble in modern times is that, mothers sometimes refuse from the very start to breast feed their babies. For the premature baby, the chances of survival are doubled if it's breast fed And if there’s any need for surgical operations for any reason in babies, the risk of death is reduced if they're breast fed. Lastly—and nationally important—the general nutrition of breast-fed babies is more satisfactory. On they' solid grounds—unless there’re medical reasons against it. in a particular case—every effort should be made to breast feed newly born babies.