How to Bring Up Baby.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVIII, Issue 21, 20 November 1912, Page 58

How to Bring Up Baby.

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HYGEIA.)

Published under the auspices ot the Society for the Health ot Women and Children. “It is wiser to pui up a [cnee at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

MOTHER'S INQUIRY AS TO NINE-MONTHS-OLD BABY. T" HE following letter has been received from a mother in Ashburton:— ■’ 1 have gained much valuable help from * The Feeding and Care of Baby,’ but should be glad if you will kindly give me advice on the.introduction of some solid food into baby’s food. QUESTION I,—He is nine months old, entirely breast-fed. My health is good. I should like to continue breastfeeding. Is Ibis wise? QUESTION 2. —When is barley jelly Io be given? Just before the breastfeeding, or instead? QUESTION 3.—How many limes a day and what quantity ? Should it be given plain or with cow's milk? With or without sugar?” QUESTION 1. —He is nine months old, entirely breast-fed. Aly health is good. I should like to continue breast-feeding. Is ithis wise? ANSWER.--Before answering one would have to knpw morn about the baby. Is he satisfactory? He should be putting on an average of about a quarter of a pound a week, though some weeks he might gain little or nothing owing to teething, ete. However, he should be gaining about a pound a month. If this is tlie ease, and if he is a bright, happy, laughing, lirm, chubby little eheiub, you may be sure be is getting enough from the breast, and that your milk is still the beat main nutriment for him. On the other hand, if he seems unsatisfied or if lie shows signs of falling off in any direction you ought to ascertain the dilferenec in his weight before and after each feeding for a whole day, in order to make sure, as to the quantity of milk he is drawing of! in the 24 hours (see •'Feeding and. Care of Baby,” page 31. or " W hat Baby Needs,” pages and G). if a child is getting too much from the breast, the remedy is obvious; but if he is getting too little several courses are open. As you say you are in good health and nursing seems to agree with you, the best plan, if the breast supply is inadwpiate, would be to supplement, with humanised milk No. 2, giving at each feeding the equivalent of a. fifth of lhe quantity that your supply is short in the day. Thus, assuming the baby's normal ration to be 42.1 ounces in the 24 hours (which would be met by giving live feedings of St ounces each), and yon found that ypu had been supplying only .37J ounces, you ought then to give in addition an ounce by bottle after each suckling, or more probably baby would need nothing additional with the first three feedings, but, say, two ounces and -three ounces respectively with the evening feedings. The proper course of procedure and the reason for it is clearly indicated in the following extract from the society’s pamphlet, What Ba'by Needs”: — Ideal Feeding. "The ordinary routine advice given to mothers is that the baby must have only one breast at each suckling, the breasts being used alternately. This is right where the mother has an ample supply of milk where the baby gets all be needs from the breast. But where this is not the ease where lhe breast supply tends to fall short of what is needed, and one breast does not supply enough for one feeding—the baby should certainly be put to both silk's at each suckling, the right breast being used first at one feeding time and the left first at (he next. This is the best moans of stimulating the secretion of milk, from eight to ten minutes being allowed for each breast. In any ease, the breast first suckled should be emptied*, but with an ineri'asing supply less and less time should be allowed in regard to the second breast, and if the supply becomes ample only tin* one breast should be used at each nursing.”

In giving the above instructions I have assumed that you want 1.6 continue at least partial breast-feeding for a eonsiderable time longer. How to Wean Quickly. If, on the contrary, von want to get your baby completely weaned in the course of a month, the best means of drying olf the breast supply will be to replace first one feeding a day by lluinaiiised Milk (diluted at first with an equal quantity of boiled water), then two bottle feedings, then three, and so on. T he lessened stimulation of the breasts causes the secretion to slack olf inudh quicker than if you were to continue, with partially breast-feeding live times a day. Prolonged Suckling. The pros and eons of weaning at nine months or continuing to partially su<kle up to 12 or 18 months, where feasible, arc adequately dealt with in -an extract from the forthcoming edition of the "Feeding and Care of Baby,” which will appear in next week's columns. QUESTION 2. —When is barley jelly to bo given just before the breast feeding, or instead? ANSWER. -Fluids are generally best given just after suckling; solids, on the other hand, such as dry crusts, ete., should rather bo given before suckling, as the. baby then tends to work more vigorously at them. Bajley jelly or oat jelly should not be given as the sale food in place of ordinary feeding, because its food value, bulk for bulk, is Jess than a third that of human or humanised milk, and it is not in itself a complete food. Commencing with an ounce or so a day, the use of barley jelly may be gradually increased up to about a quarter of a-pint in the 24 hours by the time a ehild is a year old. At that ago. if milk were the 'only fluid food given, the ordinary allowance of milk would be rather less than a quart, assuming that lhe baby was then taking a fair quantity of dry fool in the way of crumbs ami toast. A suitable allowance of fluid food iu these circumstances might be as follows:- Mother’s milk or humanised mill-' No. 2, 20 ounces; cow’s milk, 15 ounces; barley or oat jelly, 7 ounces. It cannot be to strongly insisted oil that every baby should be trained to masticate a progressively increasing allowance of hard, dry, resistive food from the age of nine months onwards. But if for any reason the baby took very little solid food, he might need a quarter of a pint more human or humanist d milk than is shown above. (JUESTION 3. How many limes a •lay should barley or oat jelly Im given, and in what quantity' Should it be given plain or «iU I cow’s milk, with or without sugar? ANSWER. — The jelly may lie given mixed with the milk as shown above, ok may be given just before or after the supplementary milk, either plain or rendered more appetising with a Jittie salt or sugar. Salt is preferable. If sugar is used, allow very little indeed. Next week I shall deal with the desirability of training the baby, even earlier than 1 have hitherto r<u*omine:id‘<l eat raw apple and other solid food.