Milk tooth

“ Thus in many parts of the world it is customary to put extracted teeth in some place where they will be found by a mouse or a rat, in the hope that, through the sympathy which continues to subsist between them and their former owner, his other teeth may acquire the same firmness and excellence as the teeth of these rodents. For example, in Germany it is said to be an almost universal maxim among the people that when you have had a tooth taken out you should insert it in a mouse's hole. To do so with a child's milk-tooth which has fallen out will prevent the child from having toothache. ”

“ Take the teeth as an illustration, which are formed within the gums, and there stop, as their further development would incommode the process of sucking, by which the infant is for some time to be nourished. The milk itself too. It is secreted just at the moment it is wanted, and, above all, is found to contain those ingredients that are best adapted for infantile aliment. No substitute is equal to a healthy mother's milk. Its properties seem to undergo some alteration with the age of the child; any irregularity of diet, or ill health of the mother, affects its salubrity. ”

“ Mother's milk being nearly the same, having only a larger proportion of water, will for the first year of our baby's life meet every demand the system can make. Even the first teeth are no sign, as ignorant mothers believe, that the stomach calls for stronger food. They are known, with reason, as milk-teeth, and the grinders delay their appearance for months afterward. A little oatmeal, bread and milk, and various porridges, come in here, that the bones may harden more rapidly ”

“ As the milk teeth come through, other farinaceous matter may be gradually blended with the milk, and there is nothing better than to begin at about eight months with a teaspoonful of baked flour, well boiled in a pint of milk and water, or in the water, to be afterwards cooled with milk. Oftentimes a little salt, as well as sugar, will materially help its digestion. The child will do well on that food—the quantity being duly increased—until it has cut almost all its milk teeth, when it may eat bread and butter, rice, and egg puddings, and occasionally eat a boiled egg once a day. ”

“ Owing to the additional sugar it is impossible to dilute it so that the protein and sugar shall approach the standard of human milk.
Children fed with it are plump, but have soft flesh; they are large, but not strong, and lack the power of endurance and resistance to disease. Their teeth come late, and they are very likely to have rickets. ”

“ In early infancy, when no teeth exist, the mother’s milk is the only nutriment required; and in proportion as the teeth begin to appear, a small addition of soft farinaceous food prepared with milk may be made with propriety and gradually increased. But it is impossible to look at the small jaw, moderate muscle, and imperfect teeth of early life, without perceiving that only the mildest kinds and forms of animal food are yet admissible, and that the diet ought to consist essentially of soft and unirritating materials. ”

“ By diluting with water to reduce the protein and salts, and adding sugar and a little cream, the proportions of these different substances may be made to approximate those in mother's milk. In both the sugar is the same—lactose, or milk-sugar; the fats are also much alike in each; but the albuminous matter of cow's milk differs somewhat from that of human milk, particularly in the way in which it coagulates in the presence of acids. Human milk forms into small, light, feathery curds; cow's milk into large, compact, not so easily digested masses. ”

“ We are born without any teeth at all; and it is only when we begin to need a little solid food added to our milk diet,—when we are about seven months old,—that our first teeth appear; and these are incisors, first of all in the lower jaw. Then, at average intervals of about three months, the other incisors and the canines appear and, last of all, the molars, so that at about two years of age we have a complete set of twenty teeth. These are called the milk teeth. ”

“ It is then ready to strain through two thicknesses of cheese-cloth and care must be taken to squeeze well so as to obtain as much of the whey as possible, which is very important. Add one tablespoonful of sugar to sweeten. Pour into nursing bottles, the amount being according to the age of the baby. A sufficient number of bottles are prepared for 24 hours’ feeding. Care should be taken to keep the milk in a cool place as it will sour the same as fresh milk. Every time the baby is fed the milk must be warmed by placing the bottle in a pan of water and heating to the right temperature. ”

“ When the young animal comes first into the world, its powers of digestion are weak, and it is fed for some time entirely upon a food already digested for it by the parent. This parent-prepared food of the young animal, which is called milk, of course contains within itself all the several matters which have been spoken of above, as necessary for the supply of the body. Thus when the dairy-maid curdles milk with rennet, and draws off the whey, afterwards pressing and drying the curdled part, the curd at length comes out of the press as cheese. ”

“ Remember, it needs nothing but the secretion that is in the breast, which is laxative at first, and removes the meconium from the bowels. If for any reason the mother has not milk for her child, or is separated from it, the best substitute is a wet nurse, whose babe should be near the same age. The nurse should be well and strong, having abundant and nourishing milk.
The best artificial food is cream reduced and sweetened with sugar of milk. Analysis show that [Pg 211] the human milk contains more cream and sugar and less casein than the milk of animals. ”

“ When the child is big enough to thrive on undiluted, unmodified cow’s milk, it should not only be allowed, but urged, to continue on a diet in which this, the best of all foods, is the most essential part. An excellent form in which to feed milk to the growing child is junket. Eaten slowly with a spoon as a pudding, it is exposed to the action of digestion much better than milk swallowed by the glassful in a hurry and even if it is cold there is no danger of defective rennet action in the stomach because such action has already taken place. ”

“ In the hospital or in the home it serves as a substitute for milk when a mild diet of easily digested food is temporarily required for a weak stomach. For such purposes it must not be allowed to become acid as in cheesemaking, but should be prepared as the chief product from sweet new milk or freshly separated skim milk. The sweet milk is set with rennet—one Junket Tablet, dissolved in cold water, to a quart of milk—at a temperature of 90° to 100° F. As soon as a firm curd is formed it is carefully broken up and transferred to a strainer of cheese-cloth. ”

“ If the circumstances of the parents do not enable them to obtain a wet-nurse, then good cow's milk constitutes the best food for infants until they have cut their canine and anterior molar teeth. The custom of weaning infants at a certain age in every case is a pernicious one. Some infants are as well developed as to their digestive organs at fifteen months as others are at thirty, and the eruption of the teeth may generally be taken as a safe guide as to that question. ”

“ Independently of this, it has been shown that the saliva of infants has not at first the digestive action on starch that it subsequently acquires, and this affords a further explanation of its so constantly producing intestinal derangement. Reason, as well as experience, abundantly proves that the object to be aimed at in hand-feeding is to imitate as nearly as possible the food which nature supplies for the newborn child, and therefore the obvious course is to use milk from some animal, so treated as to make it resemble human milk as nearly as may be. ”

“ The recollection of their temporary character will cause them to be the more easily distinguished: they look less solid and less firm; they are smaller, more white, and if ideas of beauty and sentiment befit such a subject, have a prettier and more innocent appearance. This is perfectly true as a general rule, but nevertheless must not be absolutely applied; for I have seen rare instances in which the milk teeth were, from constitutional or other causes, so discoloured, as altogether to lose their infantine and prepossessing character—the permanent incisors appearing cleanly by the contrast. ”

“ It is a curious fact that the infant is born with the rudiments of both sets of teeth in the jaw at the same time, although neither makes its appearance till long after birth. The permanent teeth lie in a line under the milk-teeth, and it is from their growth causing the gradual absorption of the roots of the first teeth that the latter no longer retain their hold of the jaw, but drop out as soon as the others are ready to protrude. ”

“ The fact that many, even robust persons, can not use milk at all, and a still larger proportion cream, whereas skimmed milk is well borne by them and in some instances seems to produce lasting good effects, may be accounted for, perhaps, in the following manner: As our cows are bred and fed, their milk is abnormally loaded with fatty matters, and when skimmed, after sitting twelve or more hours, still contains, as compared with natural cows’ milk, a full proportion of cream. ”

“ In order to modify or “humanize” cow’s milk so as to make its composition nearly the same as that of mother’s milk, simple dilution with water is therefore not sufficient.
There are, however, various other methods which may be used to advantage. For instance, top-milk from a bottle of fresh milk which has stood 4 or 6 hours in ice water will contain 6 to 8% of fat. By diluting this with an equal part of water, the percentage of protein, fat and mineral matter will be about right, and sugar, either cane-sugar or milk-sugar, may be added to supply the carbohydrates. ”

“ The sugar is turned into lactic acid, which combines with the casein and when this process has continued for a certain length of time the result is clabbered milk or sour milk. The length of time varies with the temperature and the care given the milk. If milk remains sweet for a long time during warm weather, discharge the milkman and patronize one whose product sours more quickly, for milk that remains sweet has been subjected to treatment. All kinds of preservative treatment cause deterioration. ”

“ In addition, sterilized milk is a different article from fresh milk, its chemical composition being altered by the process. The milk of the cow, when ingested, is changed upon encountering the gastric juices, into whey, a liquid, and into a tough mass of curd most difficult of digestion. To call milk a liquid food is absurd, for the solid matter in a pint of milk is equal to that in a half pound of meat, and in its dense coagulated form it is vastly more difficult of digestion. ”

“ The addition of barley water and lime to the baby's milk is folly. The various forms of modified milk do not give as good results as the addition of water and a little milk sugar, as previously described. If you believe in such modifications as the top milk method and the addition of starchy substances and lime water, I refer you to your family physician or text-books on infant feeding.
It is difficult to improve on good cow's milk. It is well to remember that the human organism is very adaptable, even in infancy. The principal factors in infant feeding are cleanliness and moderation. ”

“ Let not parents be anxious about their healthy children under two years, who have a supply of good milk, either from the mother or from the cow. For those that are feeble, a physician may and ought to prescribe—not medicine, but appropriate food, drink, &c.
When the grinding teeth have cut through, if we have any doubts in regard to the nutritive qualities of the food we are giving, we may improve it by adding, instead of the one third of pure water, a similar quantity of gum arabic water, barley water, or rice water. Some use a little weak animal broth ”

“ Mixed in the proportion in which they here occur, they are most admirably adapted to the delicate digestive apparatus of the infant—the relative proportion of the different substances even gradually changing as the assimilative powers of the youthful organism increase; it is thus seen that milk itself is not of constant composition, even in the same animal, and that it alters in such a manner as to meet best the needs of the delicate being depending upon it for proper sustenance. ”

“ The diarrhœa infantum, or diarrhœa of infants, is generally owing to too great acidity in their bowels. Milk is found curdled in the stomachs of all animals, old as well as young, and even of carnivorous ones, as of hawks. (Spallanzani.) And it is the gastric juice of the calf, which is employed to curdle milk in the process of making cheese. Milk is the natural food for children, and must curdle in their stomachs previous to digestion ”

“ In cases where children, or adults, find that milk troubles the stomach, it is often owing to its richness, and water should then be mixed with it. Infants generally require diluted milk, a little sweetened, as cow’s milk is, when good, considerably richer than mother’s milk. The fact that oil is placed among the articles most difficult to digest, shows the mistake of many, who give diluted cream instead of milk, supposing it to be better for infants. ”

“ The latter is caused by the splitting up of milk sugar and the formation of lactic acid by certain micro-organisms in the milk. When milk is heated, a skin is formed, consisting of coagulated albumin, in which is also a little casein, fat, and salts of lime. Boiled milk becomes sterilized. Cow’s milk should always be boiled, unless it is quite certain that the cows from which it is derived are perfectly healthy, and that the milk has not been exposed to infection before reaching the house. ”