OUR BABIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12761, 3 October 1919, Page 9

OUR BABIES.

(By HTGEIA.) Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It S. wiser to.'put up a fence at the * a P °f * precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY “SUITING” A BABY? How often, I wonder, have Plunket nurses and others engaged in the work of the society heard such remarks as ‘Baby is on milk and water (or one. of the patent foods), and' as long as it is suiting her so well, 1 shan’t mako any change- Has a parent who thinks like this any idea of looking bevond the immediate present with regard ‘to a * think not; so in this and the following article I want to point out the necessity, not only of considering the present, but of looking to the far future as well.

NATURE’S POOD. The only food that really “ suits ” a baby in the proper sense of developing f* ls , his brain and nerves, his teeth, and all his functions in the best possible way is his mother’s milk; but the results produced, even by this, the baby s own God-given supply, can be lowered if the mother does not know now to take care of her own health, and does not understand the great importance of perfect regularity in feeding baby and of all the other essentials lor his health. . It used often to he said—l think it is less often said now, after years of hard work by the society —" 1 had to wean baby because- my milk did not suit him : some even going so far as £9 *My milk seemed to poison mm. Let me say at once that Nature, or God, which is the same tiling does not prepare poison for little rabies. He does not even put food there that wiU not “ suit ” them. We may, by onr ignorance of the consequences of bad habits (such as lack of exercise or faulty diet) damage the quality of the supply; but usually trouble in breast-feeding is due to baby getting the wrong quantity. He is either underfed or overfed, and the latter is the case far oftener than ncople think. However, faults either of'qnality or quantity are generally easily set nght under the guidance of a Plunket the time is past for any such reason to be given for weaning a

NATURE'S METHODS. Tk© -wise arrangements of Nature in making each animal’s milk provide exactly Tcnat is required for the growth and development of its young one are so marvellous that if they were better known much random talk would come to an end. These methods can be studied _ at greater length in two of the society’s smaller publications—viz., ‘Natural Feeding” and “The Component Parts of Various Milks,” obtainable at 6d and 3d respectively from booksellers or the Plnnket nurses. Those who grasp the plain teaching conveyed in these pamphlets will realise from the minute care that Nature takes the folly of supposing that human beings can “suit” a baby as Is at nre would; and they will see that a calf could no more develot> properly on hiunan milk than a baby can on cow’s milk. Nature works by law, and she does not stop to ask whether a child’s mother infringed her laws in ignorance or not. If they are habitually infringed the consequences follow, although they may not he immediately visible. To _ some the consequences never are visible, though they may he plain enough to the seeing eye; hut that is because our average standard of health is far below what it might be- As long as a child is fairly up to this standard we are satisfied; or if he is obviously below it, we are apt to fall back on saying, “Ob. well, he always was delicate’’—not realising that in the vast majority of cases he was perfectly strong when he was born, though he may have been delicate from his first month, or even from his first week.

In some quarters the idea still persists that the chief work of the society and its nurses is to teach people to feed their babies on humanised’milk. It is almost incredible that such should be the case, since, from its earliest beginnings, the society has striven by every means in its power to make the public understand that mother’s milk is the one and only food for a baby. This wrong conception of its hvork arose partly because people are very apt to seize upon some convenient catchword to describe activities which are new to them, not realising the inaccuracy involved in doing so; and also because the society began its work when breast-feeding was at a very Tow ebb. Indeed, it was called into action by that very fact, and the Plunket nurses were faced with a verv large number of artificially fed 1 babies for whom there was nothing to he done but to pit t them on to the best form of artificial feeding. Now. however, where the nurses hare been at work for any lenyth of time, hreasfc-feediny is becoming the rule instead of the exception, and in this fact lies the best hope for the continued greatness of our race.

A ext week I hope to deal with the question of “suiting” a babv who is deprived of his mother’s milk.’