The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1943-05-17

tent The baby has his own ration
book, and according to my advices,
he has As points, which means 4S
small cans Of processed food, or
"a large cans.
This would include pureed vege-
tables, fruits, meat and vegetable
combinations for the baby's or
young child's diet. Grocers will
undoubtedly have better balanced
stocks during the period of ration
ing than they did before.
On the other hand, baby's diet
cannot be changed or rearranged,
as the adults must, to meet
changed circumstances.
a baby is a very high-powered
engine. It needs a lot Of fuel
far more than an adult. A normal
infant will not thrive unless he
receives approximately so Galleries
per pound of body weight per day.
This would mean in the case of
an adult weighing 80 pounds,
1900 Galleries a day and the cal
culated average for a person of
moderate work Is about $500
Galleries.
Requirements for Baby's Diet
So the first requirement of any
baby's diet is the amount of food
it gets, which should be per pound
three times as much as an adult.
The protein requirement of babies
is also higher than an adults:
children have a requirement of
81 to 3 grams per kilo of body
weight. This would mean that a
child who weighs so pounds would
require As grams of protein a day,
or 40 pound.
The protein requirement is
basic. The energy requirement of
the baby will largely be made up
from the carbohydrates, especially
sugars, such as milk sugar, ordi-
nary sugar. cane sugar and malt
sugar. The reason that many spe-
cial baby foods keep the baby
happy and in good weight is that
they have large quantities of
easily digested carbohydrates; In
any milk formula extra sugar
should be added.
Other basic requirements for
baby food are the minerals and
vitamins. In general these are
usually well taken care of in any
baby's formula. For children and
even for babies it is well to re-
member that augmented or colored
foods are those which contain vita
min and mineral salts. This was
the basis for the spinach craze a
few years ago. The dark green
of spinach indicates iron; so does
theyyellow of egg yolk. Thus car
rot juice or pureed carrots are
also an indication Of vitamins and
mineral salts.
Improvements in Infant Feeding
Improvement in infant feeding
has come from augmenting cows
milk and even mothers milk with
some substance which represents
and vitamin elements
such as cod-liver oil and pig
mented vegetable broths. Raw
cows milk fails Of being an ideal
food for infants in two particu-
lars: it is relatively indigestible
unless a buffer substance is added,
and it contains no iron. Many in
fants fail to thrive on cows milk
on account Of this insufficient iron
content. Unless the milk is irradi-
ated to produce vitamin d, the
child also should have vitamin D
in the form Of cod-liver OIL Cows
milk also does not usually contain
enough sugar.
The final requirement Of any
milk or other food formula for
is that it should be un-
contaminated by harmful bacteria.
Tomorrow we will make specific
suggestions for feeding babies
and young children.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
NJ. B. G.: What is the compare
tive value Of ,oleomargarine and
butter?
Answer; There is very little
difference, so far as nutritive
value is concerned, between oleo-
margarine and butter. Butter
contains perhaps more and better
vitamins than oleomargarine, but
the fat content and hence the nu-