OUR BABIES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 18, 2 November 1910, Page 61

OUR BABIES.

(By

HYGEIA.)

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children.

“It is wiser to pul up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambu lance at the bottom.”

Bread. GT~T CORRESPONDENT from the /J North writes as follows: — j “For a long time my hus-

band and I have been much exercised in our minds over the bread question. The white bread, as everyone knows, has practically no nourishment in it, and good brown bread is very difficult to get, and even when it is fairly pleasant to the taste one cannot be at all sure that the ingredients are all they should be. Our little son is nearly four years old, and at present has good teeth. Your Society has made such a special study of the feeding of babies and children that we are most anxious to find out if you know of any simple thing (such as extract of malt) that would take the place of the gluten of which we are robbed; so many children of our little boy’s age have bad teeth, probably owing to the lack of gluten in a great measure, that we are anxious to do all we can to give him a chance. We shall be most grateful for any suggestions.” White Bread or Brown Bread. •Half a century ago the idea that white bread is very inferior to brown 'bread, or whole-meal bread, was very strongly insisted upon, primarily by scientists, who based their conclusions upon relative chemical composition, and, secondly, by doctors accepting this basis. The idea grew and grew’, and ultimately a “Bread Reform League” was founded to advocate the use of whole-meal'and “stone-flour” instead of highly refined ■Modern flour. Up to the present moment the superiority of wholemeal, from a nutritive point of view, has continued to be accepted almost without question by the great majority of people, though this view was proved to bo fallacious a quarter of a century ago—so far, at least, as concerns the basis on which it was founded. It is true that chemical analysis shows a much higher percentage of protein, fat, and mineral matter in wholemeal, but the proportions of each of these left undigested and unabsorbed in the case of whole-meal is so much greater than in the case of refined flour that the body derives from white flour as much as, or more than, it docs from whole-meal. Dr. Robert Hutchison sums up the position after an elaborate discussion by saying:— “There is therefore no justification for recommending the use of wholemeal bread by growing children or nursing women. On the whole, we may fairly regard the vexed question of wholemeal versus white bread as finally settled and settled in favour of the latter. and had due regard been paid to the behaviour of bread in the intestine instead of merely its chemical composition, the Bread Reform League would probably never have come into existence.”

The matter cannot, however, be finally dismissed quite so definitely, especially in the case of children. The medical tendency was first to give undue weight to mere chemical composition without considering the relative absorbability. Having found that the average civilised man absorbs the constituents of wholemeal bread very incompletely, the conclusion is too readily jumped at that in this form the nutritive constituents are intrinsically less digestible—that they are not “get-at-able” as it were, or that they are hurried on too quickly owing to the presence of inert bran, etc. Granted that this is true as regards those who masticate imperfectly, aa is the case with most civilised people, there is no reason to suppose that the constituents of whole-meal would fail to be well absorbed if very thoroughly masticated. Further, the use of some whole-meal and oatmeal is often highly beneficial on account of the laxative tendency of euch materials.

Exercising the Jaws. Now the process of thorough mastici ti-on is one of extreme importance to tin human being—especially the young hu ■man being—on the grounds emphasised on page 133-135 of the Society's book on “The Feeding And Care of the Baby,' and also on page 42, 43, 112 and onwards to 119, all of which should be read in this connection. At the great Dental Congress held last year at Birmingham there was a general consensus of opinion among the leading men (dentists who were physicians and surgeons as well as being dentists) that one of the most important requirements in regard to food was that it should afford adequate exercise for the teeth, jaws, and salivary glands: in other words, that a large proportion of food should have such qualities as being hard, tough, fibrous, or dry. Brown bread or whole-meal bread, unfortunately, is liable to be rather heavy, damp, and almost doughy, and it is questionable whether people generally chew it as much as they would chew, for instance, the crust of twist loaf made of white flour—certainly they do not chew it as much as they chew ■ pulled bread,'' dried in the oven, or toast, made by first partially drying cut bread in an oven with the door ajar and then toasting tdl crisp. Oatcake, etc. Plain oatcake is excellent as being highly nutritious, and also as affording ample exercise, provided the child is trained to chew it as thoroughly as he should. I had under my own personal observation and direction a little girl who grew more quickly and throve bet ter when given oatcake for breakfast than when given porridge, and I particularly noticed the increasing separation of her first ■teeth under this regime. 1 am quite satisfied that (he use of oatcake, etc., was an important factor in the development of her teeth and jaws the latter affording ample room for the new arrivals. Great pains were liken to insist ■by example and precept that the oatcake and other food should be completely reduced to a soft pulp before swallowing. Nuts, almonds, and walnuts were also used with similar- care. Hard ship’s biscuits are good for exercising the jaws, and the same obtains with regard to meat-bones (see page 131 of Society's book). Raw apples are also good (see page 130); in fact, any ordinary articles of diet which afford proper exercise. Indeed, a leading authority goes so far as to say that the mechanical properties of food (or, say, rather, of our ordinary diet) are more important than its precise chemical and so-called nutritive qualities. In regard to white bread, the short age of fat and proteid (of course giirten is a proteid) is easily made up by the substances we are in the habit of taking, such as eggs, milk, cheese, meat, fish, Inrtl.er, bacon, etc. Of course cheeso is not a thing one would give to a small child. Malt Extract. The addition of malt extract is not ordinarily an advantage. It is praeli cally a form of sugar with certain ferments which have 'the properly of |>arti ally dissolving starch, lliowever. this latter function is thoroughly carried out by the normal digestive juices ami it is better t-hat the glands which secrets these substances should fulfil their da.il v task unaided rather than have the assist. n.nee from the diastase contained in null. In cases of malnutrition or feeble digestive power malt extract may often l»e used with advantage, but it is not itself what would be called a “tissue-builder."