OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2752, 5 March 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUR BABIES.

(By “Hygeia.”)

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

THE CARE OF MILK

No ordinary milk is fit for the baby six hours after it has been received in the home unless it has been rapidly cooled down at once and kept cool. Humanised mills will keejv good somewhat longer, but even in this case certain precautions should be taken. As received’ ready-prepared from the factory, humanised mills has been freed from living microbes and cooled with ice. How is the housholder to keep such milk safe for the next 24 hours? HOW TO KEEP COOLED AIILK COOL.

We will assume that the mother procures two bottles of humanised mills a day. On receiving them from the cart she should remove the cardboard caps, and thus let in air, but she should on no account allow any dust or falling particles to gain access. To prevent this, cover with any cleansed cap or lid, slightly tilted so as to admit air; or a piece of perfectly clean paper may bo twisted loosely over the top of the bottle. If air is excluded’ by corking or by a tight-fitting cap, the milk is liable to go bad in quite a different way from natural souring, and may then be highly poisonous—just as tinned meat is liable to go bad and cause fatal poisoning. Having covered the bottles, place one of them outside the house, in a cool, shady safe or airy box, for use during the next eight or nine hours. Put the other bottle in an ordinary wooden candle box. Place a clean, round coffee or cocoa tin upside down over the bottle. Fill the box with clean chaff or sawdust. Now remove tho tin and sco that the leved of the chaff or sawdust is about an inch below tho top of the bottle. Keep the box in an outside safe or other cool airy place. By this perfectly simple means the humanised -milk, delivered cool at the house can be kept cool and safe for a whole day in tho hottest weather, provided the box is not kept in a warm room, but is outside in the shade. To render assurance doubly sure, when the weather is unusually sultry the motlier can scald the last one or two feedings that she gives from this second bottle by placing the -bottle in warm water in a saucepan and bringing the water in the saucepan to the boil and keeping it at that for five or ten minutes. Tflen cool as rapidly as possible. People often make the great mistake of placing the bottles ot humanised milk received cool from tho factory in ordinary tap water, without pausing to think that this inay be actually warmer, instead of cooler, than the milk. In this way they soon warm up what has been cooled and kept cool by ice water, whereas if they used chaff or sawdust as directed milk received cool would keep practically as well in warm weather as it does in winter, and the greatest risk of summer diarrhoea would be obviated. AIILK PREPARED AT HOAIE.

In the country the mother may be able to stand the milk bottles in a cool stream or spring under trees, or there may be cool artesian or pump water; or,* on the other hand, she may have nothing but tank water to depend on. In the latter case when the weather is warm, the best plan is to keep a pailful of water in the open night unshaded from the rising sun. In this she can cool the milk which has to be set for cream. The warmer the milk is when set in the cool water the quicker the fat will rise. Ou the very warmest day s standing for cream should not be continued for moro than six hours, except- where there is specially cool spring water at hand for keeping down the temperature. Remember that cream rises much quicker and better in a bottle or tall, narrow jar than it would in a shallow pan or bowl. On no accoUnt set more than the exact quantity of milk recommended, because nothing is more liable to give a baby diarrhoea than receiving too much fat. On the other hand, when preparing more than a pint and a-half of humanised milk, see that you set proportionately moro milk to get the proper quantity of fat in the top milk. The thin cream or top milk should look like good milk rather than ordinary cream.

If there is any doubt about the baby’s milk being cool enough on very warm days, the safest plan is to heat whatever is left over before going to bed to 155 deg. for 10 minutes. If there is no thermometer at hand heat to just short of the boiling point, and keep at that for five minutes. Then cool rapidly in the coolest water available, and put in the best place that can be found.

On very hot, dry days (“nor’-wester” weather of Canterbury and Qfcago), if there is no artesian or other cool water to be had, the best way to keep milk comparatively cool, whether setting for cream or not, is to. pour some water into a soup plate and stand the milk jug or bottle in this. Over the bottle place two thicknesses of clean open muslin or cheesecloth, which must dip into the water all round. This plan is of no. use on moist, warm, muggy days, because the cooling effect depends on evaporation, which ceases when the air is saturated with moisture. On this account it is most applicable in dry inland places, or when the wind is blowing from inland. However, it is an excellent standby in summer, even on the coast, since the air is rarely quite saturated with moisture in summer, and there will nearly always he some cooling effected. WHAT STRENGTH TO GIVE. Above all things mothers should beware of giving the baby full-strcngtli humanised milk at the start, whether the infant is aged three weeks or three months, or even older. Always commence as advised in the Society’s book on the “Feeding and Care of the Baby,” and work up gradually. In Dunedin the mother is saved all trouble in this direction by leaving the grading to the nurses at the factory, after telling them the age of the baby, etc. SAVE THE BABIES. To save the baby from the curse of diarrhoea during the next three months the mother should keep herself in good health and breast-feed if possible; failing this, give humanised milk according to the Society’s advice, lhe new book will be issued in a few weeks. It is worth noting that some babies thrive better up to three or four months of age if given o'no part of new milk whey to every three or lour parts of humanised milk than they do if given humanised milk pure. This applies specially to summer time. On the other hand, some babies advance more quickly, especially in winter, if given* from two to four ounces of boiled new milk with the day’s allowance of humanised milk. A gradual addition in this direction can bo tried in any case where the baby’s weight fails

to go up at the average rate, and this allowance can be continued if it appears to suit. If any such changes are desired -they will be made at tho factory without extra charge. Remember that heat, fermentation, and improper food are the main causes of infantile diarrhoea. Therefore secure the right food at once and keep it clean aiid cool in a shaded, open-air safe. Bewaro of condensed milk, parent foods, and simple diluted cow’s milk with or without cane sugar or barley water. Alothers go on using such foods as long as the baby seems to be doing well, forgetful of the fact that sooner or later the baby usually breaks down, and in any case will not thrive so well as on food properly adapted to the needs of infancy.. If the baby becomes ill call in a doctor without delay. Remember that though diarrhoea is a common ailment it is the one broad avenue leading to debility and death in infancy. Alost of the children who die later of other ailments have been maimed and weakened first of all by infantile diarrhoea. HOUSEHOLD AIILK.

Care should be bestowed on milk even when there is no baby in the house. If received warm from the milkman it ought to be cooled down rapidly in running water, or in several changes of cold water., until the temperature is as low as possible; then it should be loosely covered and kept in a cool outside safe. When milk is “scalded” by the housewife she should cool it down -as described above immediately after removal from the fire. If these simple measures are taken milk will keep fresh and good for tho day, even in hot weather. The reason for this is that microbes multiply with great rapidity in warm milk; .therefore milk must' lx? cooled with the least possible delay in order to bring it quickly below the temperature at which these harmful micro-organisms flourish. If allowed to coo] slowly in hot summer weather it is almost sure to become unfit for use before the end of the day.