OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3484, 8 November 1913, Page 7

OUR BABIES.

EVIL EFFECTS OF EXCESS OF PROTEID IN BABY’S MILK.

In dealing recently with Glaxo and other forms of dried and condensed milk in connection with baby-feeding, I left off at the* point of turning to the injurious effects on, the digestive organs and system generally which have been found to accompany the use of sterilised cow’s milk, especially with the needs of the young human being. Twenty years ago the late Professor Dudin, of Paris, commenced to advocate the use of pure cow’s milk, sterilised by boiling, but otherwise unmodified, for the feeding of infants. This procedure, so extremely simple, and backed by the authoritative name of Budin, soon gained many adherents in the medical profession; and the use of pure, sterilised cow’s milk spread throughout' France, but not without marked attention being drawn by impartial observers to its injurious effects on the .ultimate welfare of the babies. However, protests were in vain. Many years had to elapse before the evils incidental to the feeding of babies with pure cow’s milk were clearly demonstrated by the publication of classified records of infants so treated. It must be borne in mind that this course of events has been repeated over and over again in the disheartening and humiliating story of the artificial rearing of babies. Ordinary condensed milk, dozens of patent baby foods, peptonised milk, and pure cow’s milk sterilised have each been hailed during the last 40 years as solving the difficult question of “How best to bot-tle-feed a nursling?” Each preparation in tnrii has won the confidence of the public, each has had its run, its enthusiasti • advocates, and its multitude of victims, and each has been ultimately discredited or relegated to its proper place, only when time and experience had shown the sacrifice of life and health incidental to its continued use. There is no reason to suppose that it will be otherwise with dried cow’s milk (the panacea of the moment), or with any other form of nutriment, which departs widely from Nature’s standard (human milk) m composition and fundamental properties.

'lndeed, a considerable number of the so-called “Baby foods” which have been patented during the last 15 yegrs have consisted mainly, or almost entirely, of dried milk, with or without the addition of sugar or milk. But though the medical journals have teemed with references to the injurious consequences observed on the extended use of such preparations, each new competitor coming heralded with new pretensions is virtually sure of a good sale, especially if it be well “got up” and easy to use. Now let us return to Professor Budin and his confident advocacy of sterilised cow’s milk. How did it come to pass that erroneous views gained such wide acceptance? The answer is simple. Budin kept alive the class of babies that came under his care more successfully tliaif lus predecessors, or than most of his contemporaries. This also is easily explained:— „ .. , (1) The vast majority of Budin s babies were suckled by members of a wonderful organisation of trained wetnurses, and were not artificially fed at all until they had grown to the stage of being able to cope more or less successfully with pure sterilised cow’s milk. Professor Budin says expressly m “The Nursling,” published just before his death: As regards atvifieial feeding from birth, my experience is as yet too limited to warrant any dogmatic statement as to' the most advisable method during the first week of life. As I always endeavor to insist on breast-feeding, my cases arc not numerous enough to base any

definite ooinion upon. 2. Budin centred his attention on lceepig down the death rate—that sustaining the life of the baby, not* ensuring normal growth and development.

“HEALTH AND VIGOR,” not mere “existence,” should be the goal of every rational system of rearing infants. One may search in vain through the pages of “The Nursling” for any reference to the fate of the baby after leaving Professor Budin’s hands —indeed, liis remarks are confined for the most part to mere increase in weight of infants while under his immediate care and supervision, not to evidences of health and fitness then or afterwards. Professor Marfan, of Paris, is today the greatest authority in France on the rearing of infants. The following is a free translation from his great work (of some 450 pages), devoted solely to the “Milk-feeding of Babies” :

ETRACTS FROM PROFESSOR A

B. MARFAN’.' BOOK

(“Traite do L’ O'Mtoir; id.” page 315) “From his first t-v rvnnration m 1892 Budin advanced the idea that young babes (les nouve mx-nes) are capable of digesting pure cow’s milk when it is well sterilised. He has renewed his assertion more or less formally in his later works. Obviously it was a statement calculated to attract lively attention. Fancy, what a simplification it involved for all doctors charged with directing cieehes and dispensaries, omdeahng with collections of babies, nto to need in the future to bother themselvep with modifying or preparing cow’s milk m any way, beyond mere steri.ismg! MARFAN ON THE FATE OF

BUDIN S BABIES

“The babies (healthy babies) who the fed with sterilised pure cow s milk before the fourth or fifth month may be divided into three categories: “1. The first present evident signs of chronic inflammation of the stomach and bowels with emaciation ana cachexia—i.e., malnutrition and general bad health characterised, by a waxy or sallow complexion, as m cancer or consumption. “2. Others present no apparent anomaly. “3. The greatest number, and pal" ticularly those who have received pure cow’s milk from birth, have an appearance of comparatively go health; but if one examines them closely one finds among them the following anomalies:

THE STATE OF THE MAJORITY

“There is more or less obstinate constipation—say* a motion once a day, sometimes every second day, sometimes only once in three days—the infant expelling with pain a great quantity of firm, pasty matter of very pale coloi-j almost white, resembling gum mastic. From time to time this constipation gives place to diarrhoea. with liquid yellow stools, spotted with, white and green. The diarrhoea is accompanied by vomiting. Very often these infants are ravenous. Nevertheless, their weight increases (sometimes .it increases greatly), the child becomes fat, and one would bo satisfied if one passed unnoticed the fact that the flesh is soft and pale. “Usually the belly is somewhat protuberant and flabby. The baby suffers from a special form of infantile dyspepsia, which it is legitimate to name ‘the dyspepsia of pure cow’s milk,’ because the malady cannot be attributed to microbes in the milk, seeing that it has been sterilised. There is apparently a slight inflammation of the stomach and bowels, the large, flabby belly being associated with elongation of the intestine, and an abnormal state of the gastric juice.

SKIN DISEASES AND RICKETS. “In addition to the above there is often present prurigo—an itchy affection of the skin—nettle-rash, or eczema. Sometimes these babies have rickets; the ‘soft spot’ in the head is liable to be late in closing, the cutting of the teeth is usually delayed. “In the majority‘of oases the baby reaches the eighth of ninth month without showing any other symptoms specially calling for notice. Provided this is so, the troubles to which I liave referred tend to become less marked, and one may regard the child as out of danger. But this is not always so. What I have already described may be succeeded by. the typical signs of chronic confirmed inflammation of stomach and bowels. 1 ‘The above assemblage of ailments is attributable to the composition or the milk of t-lio cow. The proof that this is so is to be found in the fact that these troubles do not occur —or, in the few oases met with, are present only in a very minor degree—when one gives cow’s milk modified in such a way as to approximate its composition to that of woman’s milk.” In other words, the grave affections described by Professor Marfan may be avoided by using “Humanised Milk.” It is the old story. . The milk of the cow is the only proper food for a calf, but it is quite unsuitable for a baby unless carefully and pioperly modified. I shall have something further to say next week about the effects of pure cow’s milk, boiled or otherwise sterilised —I mean regarding the erfects attributable mainly to proteid being present in gross excess. Finally, on the ground of their being “devitalised/’ I shall go on to consider the undesirableness of all forms of dried or sterilised milk as food for nurslings, except where good, fresh cow’s milk cannot be procured, or where prescribed, by a doctor, with a special purpose in view, to meet, say, some, abnormal condition of the organism present at the time.