OUR BABIES

Waikato Independent, Volume XXIII, Issue 3074, 23 June 1923, Page 2

OUR BABIES

(By "Hygoia.")

(Published under the [inspires of the Eoyal Now Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children). "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." DIET FOE NURSING MOTHERS

(Continued). Last week we gave a sample of a reasonable diet for the average nursing mother, and emphasised the main points to be observed. We now give an example of a harmful regimen and continue the subject of diet, What Not to do.

One morning I looked in to see a mother who.se baby was just a week old. A. kind and very lovable grandmother was in charge, arid she was immensely proud of the baby.

The mother, who was still confined to bed, was suffering acutely from headache, and after a little while I asked what she had had to eat. No thing at all out of the ordinary. I was assured. Then I asked them to tell me as nearly as possible the hours and the kind and quantity of food. The following is exactly what they told me: — 7 a.m.—Tea. Bread and Butter. 8 a.m. —Grilled Chop. Small Cup of Tea. Bread and Butter. 10.30 a.m. —Cup of Cocoa. Bread and Butter, and Biscuits. 1 p.m.—Nice Mutton Broth. Potato and Cabbage. 4 p.m. —Small Cup of Tea. Bread and Butter and .Telly, (3 p.m.—Little Bit of Fish. Bread and Butter. Tea. !) p.m. —Basin of Cruel. Poisoned Cells

When I remonstrated and tried to reason with the grandmother, she told me that a mother must have plenty of nourishment when she is nursing a baby. It was useless explaining thai proper intervals must elapse between meals, to allow of complete mdinterrupted digestion, and that severe headache wsts the natural outcome of such a succession of meals. I was met with the old saw that the best way to feed an invalid is ''Little and Often." It was almost useless for me to attempt to explain to the granny what every edneater 1 young woman of to-day should know, that such headache was due to the poisoning of the brain cells with the products of imperfect digestion and inalassimilation, etc. These poisons are carried in the blood stream, not only to the brain, but also to the breasts, and may thus gain access to the milk, and to some extent upset the baby. This along with the common fault of over-feeding the baby may bring.on indigestion, colic, and fretfulness, leading possibly to diarrhoea, vomiting and convulsions. If then*

were no dietetic errors in respect to either mother or child, infantile convulsions would be practically unknown. Convulsions in general are due to poisoning of the nervous system. Cabbage

Cabbage is not u vegetable which on," would recommend, even after the mother is up and abo.it, 1 much less should it be given when the mother is still in bed, since it is liable to disagree with the baby as it is with the mother. I, met the mother of ;i very flourishing little baby a few weeks ago, ami she remarked that, her infant imd been fretful and most unhappy for a whole dav after she (the mother) had eaten some delicious young cabbage. The baby was so miserable that she began to think her milk must be disagreeing. Of course, the milk was disagreeing for the lime; the milk was poisoned while the harmful waste products of the cabbage were circulating in the mother's blood and passing into the secretions. Compare the well-known effect of turnips on cow 's milk. 'the above is a common experience wit!) cabbage, and it should therefore be avoided by the nursing mother if other suitable green vegetables, such as spirutach, silver beet, etc., can be got, and in every case where cabbage shows a tendency to disagree with the mother. Further, the nursing mother should avoid any articles of food which she knows from previous experience have any tendency to disagree with herself personally. Tdiosnycrnsy in such matter cannot be ignored. Generally speaking, what agrees with one healthy person tends to agree, with another; but this is by no means always the case. Sometimes "one man's food is another man's poison." Plunket Nurse Goulstone, telephone 192 M, office IU2S. Mrs J. W. Pcake, Se«:., Plunket Society, telephone L3IM.