Infant nutrition

“ Care and discretion should likewise be taken by parents and nurses, after the infant has developed into childhood, to give simple, substantial, and varied food at regular periods of the day, and not in such quantities as to overload the stomach. Children need active nutrition to develop them into robust and healthy men and women; and it is from neglect of these important laws of health, and in allowing improper food, that very often bring their results in scald head, ring-worm, and scrofula, that leave their stamp in the poor development of the hair. ”

“ But there must be no change in the kind of diet if the health of the child is good, and its appearance perceptibly improving. Nothing is more absurd than the notion, that in early life children require a variety of food; only one kind of food is prepared by nature, and it is impossible to transgress this law without marked injury.
If cow's milk disagree with an infant—and this is sometimes unfortunately the case, even from its birth ass's milk,—diluted with one third its quantity of water, may be given as a substitute. ”

“ If to this we add the absence in these substances of the oleaginous matters which the milk contributes to supply the body with fat, and the smaller quantity, and to a certain extent the different kind, of the salts which they contain, it becomes apparent that by such a diet the health if not the life of the infant must almost inevitably be sacrificed. ”

“ After the eighth month, this quantity of milk is usually decreased first to 1 1/3 and then to 1 1/4 ounces for every pound of body weight per day.
The amount of artificial food found satisfactory for the infant during the first few months of its life is usually not sufficient to yield as many Calories as given in the table above. But while the baby is adjusting itself to artificial feeding, it is especially necessary that the stomach be not overtaxed. As the infant develops, the quantity of food can be increased and the deficiency made up later. ”

“ Healthy, nourishing, and digestible milk can be procured only from a healthy parent; and it is against common sense to expect that, if a mother impairs her health and digestion by improper diet, neglect of exercise, and impure air, she can, nevertheless, provide as wholesome and uncontaminated a fluid for her child, as if she were diligently attentive to these important points. Every instance of indisposition in the nurse is liable to affect the infant. ”

“ They can merely excrete these substances if they are contained in the mother’s diet. The absence, or shortage of these food essentials in the mother’s diet, and therefore in her milk, may result in rickets or other malnourished conditions in the baby, or in a degree of faulty nutrition which is not marked enough to be diagnosed, but enough to keep him frail; enough to give him the poor start that is so likely to put him, ultimately, in the class of those adults who are more or less unfit, though not actually ill. ”

“ Every mother has seen how what she eats affects her nursing child. Science has established also that her food before the child is born has just as definite effects. If the expectant mother’s diet is lacking in minerals, vitamins, and other materials which are needed in building teeth, the first teeth of the infant show the bad results. ”

“ But in order to secure intervals of rest, both to the strong and the feeble, we must avoid the pernicious habit of giving infants pap, and other delicacies, "between meals." Many a child's health is ruined by this practice. Nothing should be put into their stomachs for many months—if they are in health—but the mother's milk.
"This," says Dr. Dunglison, "is the sole food of the infant, and is consequently sufficiently nutrient to maintain life, and to minister to the growth, during the earliest periods of existence." ”

“ Never give babies under two years old such food if grown persons eat. Their chief diet should be milk, wheat bread and milk, oatmeal, possibly a little rare boiled egg, but always and chiefly milk. Germ wheat is also excellent. ”

“ A child may drool or throw up its food at any time, yet be quite healthy. If a babe is sucking, and the mother indulges in a mixed or meat and vegetable diet too early, the first passages after it is taken sick will show signs of heat, fermentation and inflammation; they will either be of a deep yellow, or more or less green, and slimy. In such instances it is always advisable to take the infant from the breast for a while and feed it on arrow-root boiled in water, till the acidity is corrected; then in milk, no sugar being added, alternating with gum-arabic water. ”

“ The infant's stomach does not readily accommodate itself to changes in diet; therefore, regularity in quality, quantity and temperature is extremely necessary.
3. Not until a child is a year old should it be allowed any food except that of milk, and possibly a little cracker or bread, thoroughly soaked and softened.
4. Meat should never be given to very young children. The best artificial food is cream, reduced and sweetened with sugar and milk. No rule can be given for its reduction. Observation and experience must teach that, because every child's stomach is governed by a rule of its own. ”

“ In a great majority of cases children are given table-food far too early, and nothing is more common than to be told by the mother that her child grows “thinner and thinner,” though she is giving it all the meat it will eat. Now, our author shows us that the reason the child does not thrive is because its digestive organs are not far enough advanced to extract the nutriment from food of this kind, but that it irritates, and is a positive injury to the infant. ”

“ Where children are not thriving, it is often a good practice to wean earlier, in which case modified cow's milk, taken from a bottle, must be substituted.
Artificial Feeding.—While it is true that children often thrive for a time on the various baby-foods with which the market is so abundantly supplied, it is, nevertheless, the case that where fed in this way they are very apt to develop rickets or scurvy, and not uncommonly show evidences of bad nutrition in loss of weight and strength, becoming peevish and fretful, and sleeping badly. ”

“ Classification of Foods.—Inasmuch as milk supplies all the food necessary for health and growth during the first year of life, it may reasonably be expected to afford some guidance as to the necessary constituents of a diet for the adult; although the conditions of life being altered in the latter, we can hardly expect the same proportions of the different materials to hold good. In the infant rapid growth and building up of new tissues and organs are going on, involving the necessity for a larger proportional amount of nitrogenous food than in the adult. ”

“ Is it not vitally important, therefore, that every mother should make an earnest, unremitting study of infant feeding as health-insurance for her family circle?
The nourishment of the child begins before it is born. Ailments in digestion accompany it into the world. For this reason, in Chapter I, special stress was laid on diet for the pregnant mother. But it is not enough to bring the baby into the world blessed with a sound digestion. The mother must study the science of keeping her child’s digestion sound. ”

“ In respect of the use of high-flavoured or improper food and beverages, medicine, &c., it appears that all these substances immediately affect the milk, and impart to it more or less of their peculiar flavour and properties; and, except with remedies administered under medical advice, in nearly all cases prove injurious to the infant. The diet of a nurse should be nutritious and succulent, and its healthy digestion should be promoted by exercise and pure air. ”

“ As a rule, with the breast-fed baby it is largely a question of adjusting the diet of the mother, of increasing the fluid in her diet, of seeing that she takes the requisite amount of exercise in the open air, and of lengthening the intervals between feedings or of giving the baby water just before putting him to the breast. With the artificially fed infant it is an entirely different proposition. ”

“ With infants it is always best, when it is possible, to give breast milk. As this is the natural food it requires less effort on the part of the digestive apparatus to become available. It has been proved that even during the time when the baby is nursing the milk is projected in spurts into the duodenum without waiting to be attacked by digestive enzymes in the stomach, and [Pg 244g] for this reason the breast-fed infant is more apt to be efficiently nourished than the artificially fed baby, who loses his dinner by vomiting before absorption has had a chance to occur. ”

“ The age and the weight are of some importance, but the best guide is the condition of the child's digestive organs. One should always begin with a weak formula, particularly, (1) with an infant previously breast fed; (2) with one just weaned, as a child who has never had cow's milk must at first have weaker proportions than the age and the weight would seem to indicate; (3) with infants whose power of digestion is unknown. If the first formula tried is weaker than the child can digest, the food can be strengthened every three or four days until it is found what the child is able to take. ”

“ To commence, I fear it must be admitted that the majority of infants are reared on imperfect milk by weak or ill-fed mothers. And thus it follows that the signs of disease, of feeble vitality, or of fretful disposition, may be observed at a very early age, and are apparent in symptoms of indigestion or in the cravings of want manifested by the ‘peevish’ and sleepless infant. In circumstances where there is no want of abundant nutriment, over-feeding or complicated forms of food, suitable only for older persons, produce for this infant troubles which are no less grave than those of the former. ”

“ The breast-milk, and nothing beside, must form the nutriment of the child for at least nine months; and if the infant is delicate or strumous, it will be prudent to continue it even six months longer. When the period arrives for the substitution of artificial food, it must be carefully selected; it must be appropriate to the advancing age of the child; nutritious and unirritating. Good air and daily exercise, and the bath or sponging, are of much importance ”

“ A flannel cover, or bag, should be made to fit the bottle and it should be put on while the baby is nursing so that the milk may retain its heat. The baby must not be disturbed while nursing, nor should he be jounced or carried around after nursing. These habits cause vomiting and indigestion. He should be put in his crib.
When to Increase the Quality or Quantity of Food.—Children of the same age may have different digestive abilities. A strong, robust child may be permitted to take a richer quality of milk than a weak, puny infant of the same age. ”

“ In some women the supply of milk, although at first abundant, yet in the course of a few weeks undergoes so considerable a diminution as to become altogether insufficient for the child's support; while in other cases, although its quantity continues undiminished, yet from some defect in its quality it does not furnish the infant with proper nutriment. Cases of the former kind are not unusual in young, tolerably healthy, but not robust women ”

“ Emphasis has been laid on the importance of diet from infancy to old age. The classification, composition, nutritive value, and digestibility of foods have been carefully considered with the same constant purpose of being a help to those who arrange dietaries. The chapter on infant feeding is an authoritative guide to aid in the development of the baby, while child feeding is considered with like care. Considerable matter has been introduced with reference to diet in various diseases, and the recipes for the diebetic have involved much thought and labor. ”

“ Take particular care of the food of an infant. If it is nourished by the mother, her own diet should be simple, nourishing, and temperate. If the child be brought up ‘by hand,’ the milk of a new milch-cow, mixed with one-third water, and sweetened a little with white sugar, should be the only food given, until the teeth come. This is more suitable than any preparations of flour or arrow-root, the nourishment of which is too highly concentrated. Never give a child bread, cake, or meat, before the teeth appear. ”

“ All food has to answer two distinct purposes: the one to furnish materials for the growth of the body, the other to afford matter for the maintenance of its temperature; and life cannot be supported except on a diet in which the elements of nutrition and those of respiration bear a certain proportion to each other. Now, in milk, the proper food of infants, the elements of the former are to those of the latter about in the proportion of 1 to 2, while in arrowroot, sago, and tapioca they are only as 1 to 26, and in wheaten flour only as 1 to 7. ”

“ This is a well-known fact, hence the premature baby must require more food in proportion to its weight than the baby who is born at the normal time. Then, too, as the premature infant is thinner he does not keep warm like the older infant, and this must be taken into consideration in feeding him. Breast milk is of course by far the best food for such babies, not only because its constituents are in a more available form for the feeble digestive organs, but because the mother’s milk furnishes a resistance which is lacking in even the most carefully modified of milk formulas. ”