OUR BABIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 May 1938, Page 4

OUR BABIES

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.” WORDS OF WISDOM. WRITINGS OF SIR TRUBY KING. These few extracts from the writings of Sir Truby King were taken at random from his book “Feeding and Care of Baby.” Although Sir Truby passed away early this year, yet his work and his inspiration remain, and his writings will continue to be a source of information, guidance, and aid to all interested in the welfare of children.

Page 81.—“ Before describing artificial feeding, it is desirable to state emphatically that no system of bottlefeeding can ever give to either mother or child the advantages which both derive from suckling. Human milk cannot be made outside the human body. We can approach it in composition by carefully modifying the milk of some other mammal, but the imitation cannot be made identical with the original, and must always be inferior to it. Nothing can rival milk drawn from breast into the baby’s stomach —pure, fresh, living, bloodwarm, and uncontaminated by germs. Modified milk is superior to any other form of artificial food, but it is not human milk; and the best glass and indiarubber feeding bottle is a troublesome, unclean, clumsy contrivance compared with the living breast.” Page 5. —“No mother who fails to take daily sufficient open-air exercise (say a walk of two miles a day) gives herself or her baby a fair chance; further, the more they are out in the sunshine the better, and the windows should be open wide day and .night.” Page 131. —“During the first year, the mother usually follows a definite method or system in the feeding of baby, but during the second year, on the other hand, she frequently abandons all pretence of care and system and delivers her offspring over to the special torture known as ‘taking what’s going.’ Most babies do come through this ordeal alive, but not one escapes unharmed. The internal organs have not reached a stage enabling them to cope properly with many articles of food which may be suitable for men and women; much less can the baby be expected to withstand the injurious effects of the indigestible dishes commonly favoured by adults for the stimulation of their own jaded appetites. To anyone who realises the harm done by ‘giving baby what’s going’ there is something peculiarly aggravating in witnessing the positive pride with which parents regard the fact that the baby has reached a stage at which it can stow away almost anything that they take themselves.”

Page 132. —“Every baby ought to be taught to masticate well. Certainly modern children tend to chew imperfectly and to bolt their food; but this is because we suppress the natural tendency of babies to eat hard, dry or tough solids —we give them mush instead. If one thwarts an instinct or refuses to gratify it at the time when it first manifests itself the tendency of such an instinct is to die out and all effort to resuscitate it later on may be of little avail. Thus it is with mastication. We let the golden opportunity slip by when the baby wants something hard to bite, and we try in vain afterwards to make him take time and masticate his food properly Children can be taught to masticate at a very early age by giving them materials whicli need to be chewed, as their first solid food: this habit, once ingrained, will continue and increase in strength if tactfully fostered by precept and example of parents.” One could continue quoting from Sir Truby King's book, but the above serve to show how the ideas and methods he advocated between twenty and thirty years ago, remain applicable to the present day. “Feeding and Care of Baby” costs a modest sum, and is obtainable at all booksellers and from Plunket nurses.