OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 4005, 11 August 1915, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

’• By Hygeia j Publisher! under the misp-ecs of tho J 'Royal Raw Zealand Society for tho j Health of Women ana Children, i “It is wiser to put-up a fence at tho • top of. a prqoipico than to maintain an ; ambulance at the bottom ”

FOOD. At the request of so ne of our correspondents our recent articles have been dealing with.the first Two essentials for health' in the life, of all animals;—namely, air and water. Wo now come to the third primary'essential—food. • However, before going on to tho general consideration of food, wo must hery state emphatically:Mother's milk is the best food for the baby. It is created for the baby. And the first duty of every mother is to ensure by foresight a proper supply of tho only perfect food for her infant. Mother's milk is tho baby’s birthright.

WI-lAT IS FOOD? It Is usual to think of food ns the material of which our meals arc composed—"what we cat.” We find practically that if we eat when we arc properly hungry we are supplying what bur 'system requires for its comfort ail'd well-being. We seklo'm inquire further. Wo don’t -ask for a definition of the word food, and yet tho answer to such a question would be specially helpful in the rearing of nil young creatures. Tiie following definition of "food,”

taken from a standard dictionary, may be accepted as scientifically correct-. — Food is any substance that, being taken into the body ol animal or plant, serves through organic action to build iqi normal structure or supply the waste of tissue.

Wo all. know that certain pi a rite <l° well in one garden, while in another they tend to be nuny and are iwt worm growing. ff ho conditions with regard to situation, rainfall, sunshine, and temperature may be similar; but one family' of plants will not flourish in clay soil, while another kind will not thrive iu> peaty or sandy soil. Each class requires* its’own particular kind of food, as well as other favorable conditions if it is to reach the highest standard. For example, rhododendrons and azaleas must have a large mixture of peat in the soil to attain perfection, while roses do best where there is day, etc. The same applies to animals. Some •ire carnivorous, and others are vegetarian, and each must, have its appropriate nourishment if it is to attain to its best growth and development. (.lata and dogs cannot- live on grass, while horses and cows naturally turn asum from flesh of any kind. THE EARLIEST FOOD FOR MAMMALS—MILK. In tho scheme of Nature all mammals provide tho first nourishment---foocl—for their offspring from then* own bodies. Soon after birth takes olaeo .nourishment for the young is secreted in the form or milk sniloti i ’ the requirements of the particular creature. , The milk for the young ol each kma of mammal differs more or less from the milk provided for every other species, the difference being, natuially, vc ry great in creatures so winely apart from one another, ns a puppy and a rabbit, on the one band, oi >-■ human TnvTv and a calf on The oi-ier hand. Milk provided l.v Nature ror. a rabbit would not suit any of the other three, and cow’s milk is wrong for a baby. . , . We are far too n-rrnc to bum: o. milk as just milk, and are apt to forget that milks differ in composition from one another, and that the differ-civ-e between them bears a definite relationship to the building up of normal structure or supplying the waste of tissue of the creature for which u was designed. COMPOSITION OF MILK. The main constituents of milk are water, -sugar, fat, and proteid. There are also some salts. Each of these substaimes plays an i important, part in the life and health - of 'the creature for which it was ce--1 signed, and each provides more especially for some particular requirement. Let us take them in order; Water. —-Wo have already shown the paramount importance of water for tho life of every living thing; therefore we need not dwell iurthe. on the point. . . , Sugar.—-The sugar in milk provides especially the energy by winch The voung creature exercises its powers. Fat. —The fat is mainly concerned in maintaining the temperature of the bodv (the animal heat). 1 Proteid. —-The proteid is tho niai ter ini used to build up the rnpully- [ growing body and to effect tho rci pairs necessary to make up tor Lie ! wastage of tho working structures, L- ! the adult, of course, there is no general i growth to bo provided lor. and the i need of proteid is practically lumto-a ; to the repair of waste awl wear ami ; tear. In the ease of the baby the pr<>- ! tcid (or flesh-forming material) m ! largely required for tho purpose of enI abling rapid growth to bo made, not i merely in building up what wo oidmj nrily call "flesh,” but also in buiklm„ 1 cartilage, bones, teeth, hair, etc. I THE MOST IMPORTANT DIE; ! EERENCE BETWEEN MOTHER b MILK AND COW'S MILK.

The most important practical difference between Nature’s nn k tor the baby and that provided for the cad is - that cow’s milk contains two or tbice j times the proportion of flesh-torrnin^ ; material found in mother's milk. _ f nm ! is duo to the fact that the call is mi tended, to grow three- times as quickly !as the baby. The calf should increase : from 601 bat birth to 3Golb at six months of age; whereas tho baby, i tl?o same time,., only doubles its w eight. , As we shall show next- week, if a baby is fed on mere cow s milk, tmdifforence is a very serious mat-tei, i ('swain sr oil the one hand a great t-JX !on tiie baby’s digestive organs, through tjieir being called upon to di> solve and absorb a large excess oi tough, leathery curd, and on tin | other hand through the kidneys he ! jug overworked in their efforts to cxl pel from the system the excess o flesh-forming material that nas been absorbed into tho blood. Iho digc.-.-tioir, diarrhoea, and other grave mala.lies of artificially,fd . tobies ai» largely due to the ignoring ol these . simple facts. Unfortunately the evd j results are not confined to childhood. Tho kidneys are weakened foi Jw : through this flouting of Natuie. I. can! be no question that a child s treated will be much break down in adult life and md-X from Bright’s disease and o.horxi.Hived maladies than if the baby had been fed rationally. r