The Glenwood post., 1909-01-16
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.)
INFANT FEEDING.

are undoubtedly hereditary whether
the habits of alcoholism, tobacco and
unnatural eating are transmissible or
not. We know that the vitality of the
infant is determined by the vitality of
the parents-though not altogether by
the average vitality-and the powers
of nutrition are the fundamental pow
ers transmitted to offspring
We may not always be able to trace
family history in eyes and lungs, but
we can always find it in stomach and
liver and intestines.
The food of the young dog, horse,
COW, ape and human, in common with
all other mammalia, is milk. The nat
ural food of the mature dog is flesh;
that of the others is vegetable. The
digestive systems of the ape and man
resemble, slightly, that of the dog;
not, | think, as some argue, because
their natural food is largely flesh, but
because nuts closely resemble flesh,
chemically. The gorilla has canine"
teeth, but it is strict vegetarian. The
boars canine" teeth are his means
of defense.
Albumen, the chief constituent of
flesh, is digested chiefly in the stom-
ach by the action of the gastric fluid.
Accordingly, the intestine of the dog
is short in proportion, the stomach be-
ing so per cent. of the entire digestive
tract. The cows stomach is very COM
plicated; she has. in fact, four stom-
achs. This is because her natural
food requires much dilution with sa-
liva and rumination before it can be
passed on to the intestine. not thai
,proteid is the chief element of the
cows food, as in the dog.
Now the stomach of the cow plays
a much more important part, relatively
to the intestinal digestion, than in
man. Cows milk is, chemically and
mechanically, adapted to this physio-
logical difference. 1t does not as soon
break up into small curds, and is.
therefore, retained longer in the calf's
stomach. This popularity partly ex-
plains the difficulty of digesting cows
milk and should be considered in any,
attempt to modify cows milk SO as to-
adapt it to infant feeding.
We know that the health of the in
fant, its nervous moods, its physical
health and temper in general, are in
| fiuenced by those of the mother,
through the food. This alone would in,
dicate the impossibiity of perfect
adaptation of cows milk to infant
feeding. At best it is unnatural, but
as it is in many cases necessary, part
ly or entirely, we must make the most
of it. An imperfectly nourished child
is more liable to diseases of child
hood and survives with greater diff
ficulty. Food is not, of course, the
only requirement for health but it is
fundamental.
In cases in which cows milk must
be used, care should be taken to see
that the COW is healthy, unless herd
milk is used. that no preservative is
used, that the bottles and other YES
sells with which it comes in contact
are washed well with boiling water.
never with river or cistern water, that
1t is not unnecessarily exposed to dust
/ or barnyard contamination, for milk
absorbs bacteria as sponge absorbs
water and they develop very rapidly.
The feeding bottle should be thorough
ly washed in boiling water after and
before using. 1t is best to have two,
the one not in use kept immersed in a
solution of common baking soda.
Cows milk can not be made iden-
tical with the infants natural food:
but 1t can be approXimated to it. The
chief difficulty to be overcome is to
modify the large curds of cows milk
that tend to remain in the stomach
| longer than they should, as the de-
| velopment of the calfs stomach re-
| quires that its food shall have much
heavier curd than that required by the
| infant, in which intestinal digestion
is more important. The use of Tactic
tablets, as explained in my last ar
| ticle, entirely obviates this difficulty
besides overcoming other objections
to the use of cows milk
| To reduce the proportion of the ele-
ments in cows milk to approximately
the standard of human milk, pour of
about half of the fat that settles to
the top of the bottle; add as much wa.
ter as the whole amount of milk and
tablespoonful of sugar. Milk sugar is
to be preferred to cane sugar, always
Objectionable. The addition of lit
tie lime water is, in many cases, bene-
ficial.
AS rule infants. like adults. are
overfed. No doubt one of the rea-
sons for the greater endurance and
freedom from disease Of wild animals
is the fact that the young are less
likely to be overfed. as every natural
list knows. An infant probably would
starve in one-tenth the time that an
adult can subsist without food, but
eating too often and too much be-
comes a habit with the infant as with
the adult. An infant may cry for food
when 1t is food drunk: what 1t may
need is water. And children cry for
other reasons than because they are
hungry. Stopping an infants cry coll
tinuallY With food La eaaY hut uuWise