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Show LITTLE TALKS ON BABYOLOGY By Anna Steese Richardson, Director Babies Bureau, Woman's Home Companion. BABY'S SOURCE OF HEALTH AND STRENGTH FOOD, The last article on this fascinating fascinat-ing subject of Babyology defined the science of baby-study, and told how It has sprung from the Better Babies Contests. Perhaps the mo6t amazing feature of ray visits to these contests, where I watched doctors and mothers examining ex-amining the babies, was the large number of women who did not knw their own babies Oh, y es, they knew Baby's name, the color of his hair and his eyes, the exact point where his cheek or his chin broke into a delightful de-lightful dimple, the sido of bis family fam-ily from which babykfhi got his many good pnint-s and hla few bad ones, the day when he had first sat up or toddled across the floor, these and many other things the mothers knew, but still they did not know what was goliifc on Inside of baby, in the di gesthe apparatus on which so much of his health and happiness depend Of d.urse If Baby could talk Mother Moth-er would know exactly how he feels, Iip ause he could explain where the ache Is located But when one's means of communication is limited to wriggling, and rolling up his eyes, and emitting disturbed japs. Mother must look for signs or symptoms to take the place of worded complaints. And there are so many ways in which the flesh, the skin, the eves, the ver. actions of a baby indicate that his digestion is not In good working work-ing order And when the digestion is not working. Mother must go directly to the Cause Baby's food. We who are old and strong and seasoned know what Ills follow on the trail oi indk'rM i n How we should sympathise sympa-thise with a tender baby whose suf ferings we can alleviate by Just righting the system of feeding! If the food does not agree with Baby, he may be punv or over-fat, he may be drowsy and listless or fretful fret-ful and rcstle-s, he may be out of proportion in his measurements or he may have a rash Here are some of the things I saw and heard at the Better Babies Contests Con-tests As I told you in the last article, ar-ticle, babies arc examined at contests con-tests by physicians for physical proportions, pro-portions, strength, condition of muscle, mus-cle, skin, digestive and respiratory organs, or-gans, the senses and Intelligence or mental development An attractive eighteen month "Id was undergoing the physical test when the physicians discovered a rash on its abdomen they penalized the child for this rash, and the mother protested W hy," she cried, ' Baby has al ways had that rash. It's a sort of birth mark " "No," answered the physician, 'it's B symptom of too rich food. You are either eer feeding this baby or giving him food that is too heavy, milk that is too rich for him to digest." di-gest." And they went In to the question of baby s diet then and there moth er s first practical lessou in Baby-ologv Baby-ologv Again a mother presented a delicate, deli-cate, doll-like baby girl for examina tlon. perfectly proportioned, but underweight, un-derweight, under height for Its age. Requisite as to silken curls and rose-petal rose-petal cheeks, Baby leaned wearily against mother, watching the doctors languidly from eyes around which there were blue circles. Think of that' Blue circles around the eyes of a baby that had not yet celebrated its first birthday! It did nt take the doctors long to analyse that baby'a trouble and to introduce Mother to her child s true condition. "Mrs. S ," said the doctor, you are starving that baby " The mother was shocked and hurL "I nurse her every three hours," Bhc protested. "No doubt," answered the doctors "but your milk is not nourishing her Perhaps you are not strong enough Perhaps your baby should have both the breast and modified milk We will find out " They did That mother learned that her baby was drifting toward the dangerous rok of anemia Her lesson les-son In Babyology was how to alternate alter-nate the breast milk with a bottle feeding of modified milk A third baby was what v0u would call a 'fat boy." He was covered with the most 'pat-able" creases, and his complexion was blooming, but he had such a 8Cjw1 on his round face and he shoved everything and even body away from him as if the entire en-tire world were distasteful, Mother said he had never been a really Rood naturod babv, and 9he didn't know why But the doctors found out. The plump stomach of which his mother waji so proud was not an Indication of health but of undigested unassimllat-ed unassimllat-ed food, overfeeding At sixteen months, a baby's head., chest and abdomen should measure Just the pame 18 1-2 Inches. This poor little laddies had an eighteen inch head, a seventeen inch chest and an abdomen measuring in 1-2. And Just by exploring with his finger, tho doctor found an ugly little mass of undigested food down In one cor uer of that bulging abdomen. Of course, Baby wanted to shove people away. So do you, Crown-up, when you have a sick headache or a bilious bil-ious attack. Here was a babv being onrfeil with milk, Just milk, but milk not properly prepared. And there you have It, raah. malnutrition mal-nutrition and downright indigestion, all because three mothers did not know what was going on Inside of Baby's tummy, we think so long as Babv has milk and nothing else, he Is safe Milk even mother's milk, needs watching, and Babyology tells you how to d. it. The feeding of the babv begins before be-fore it is born. Tho condition of the new-born baby's stomach Is largely determined by the condition of the mother's stomach before he comes into in-to the world. Jhat is why the expectant ex-pectant mother should suard her diet and her digestion so carefully during the precious months before her baby comes n pronounced digestive trouble i ommuulcated to the baby directly, and it comes into the world ihy og.uu- i ped for Its first month s struggle for existence. The vast majorit; of bah ies who die during their first year die of Inanltation, mdl-assiuiilci ion of food, indigestion and summer-complaint Tho mother can start her baby right by keeping her own digestion In the beat of condition Some mothers, moth-ers, In the spirit of self-saerificp, srvc at table the choicest food to their growing children, their hardworking hard-working husbands and sons. No expectant ex-pectant mother Bhould deny herself the nourishment required to sustain her own strength and that of the little lit-tle child 60 soon to be ushered Into the world. The natural, the best food for the new born babe Is mother s milk And the Creator has given the average w '-man '-man strength to nourish her child in this natural way Sometimes, d i rj '-lv '-lv after the baby's birth, the mother is ery weak, then well meaning but Interfering relatives and advisers urge her to ween the baby at orfce, when with a little patience, the supply sup-ply of milk would be ample. Unless Un-less 'he mother is anemic or suffering suffer-ing from constitutional or amte (lis easp, the baby will thrive best on mothers milk And the ability t.. nurse 'he baby until a safe time for weaning can be encouraged by care fill attention to th mother's diet A well balanced diet, made up from a variety of foods which the mother craves, will nourish both mother and child. Meat that is easily digested, like chicken, beef and lamb, Is better than pork and veal. Pish may occasionally be substituted for meat, and eggs are desirable if they do not create a bilious bil-ious condition. Green vegetables and fresh or stewed fruits the mother should have in quantit On the other oth-er hand, she should avoid excesses In diet, whether this be tea, coffee, sweets or pastries. Light desserts do no harm, but rich pies and puddings that keep the mother awake at night will have precisel) the same effect on the baby. .. young mother should listen to what doctors call "old women a tales,'' bad advice about extremes in diet At one of the contests. I heard a voting mother say that sh was drinking malt to make her milk more nourishing nourish-ing for the baby And how she did hate that malt It nauseated her even ev-en time she drank it. When the doctors told her that anything any-thing that nauseated her would effect the babv In the same wav, she was actually reliered Yet she had been forcing herself to drink the malt, be- cause an elderly neighbor had told her what wonders it had done for other women. Doctor?, not neighbors, neigh-bors, should be consulted in these problems of Babyology Another woman told me that she didn't see why her baby could not retain her milk. It curdled on his stomach. And she assured me quite solemnly that she never ate anything any-thing acid. She did love pickles and salads and lemonade, but her nurse had told her that she must not eat sour things while she nursed the baby I heard the sensible doctor iu charge of that contest tell her to go rignt along home and make herself a good fresh salad and eat it up to tho last leaf of lettuce. Her digestion craved acid, and her child actually suffered because her svstem was denied it Acid to excess r- dangerous, yes, but a balanced diet, never. Another condition of the mother which will affect the baby'a digestion Is nervousness, baby should not be nursed when the mother is angry or is suffering from shock of any sort. The mother who is very tired from her household duties should sit or lie down and relax before nursing nurs-ing the iab If she Bips a glass ol milk or eats a cracker or biscidt before be-fore nursing the baby, she will help his digestion. So much for the general problem of diet for mother and baby. Next wo will discuss the hours and quantity quan-tity of food for nursing babies and then the care of the bottle-fed baby, subject which students of Babyology must study very carefullv. (Copyright, 131::. by the Woman's Home Companion i |