p. 10 | Fruit Juice for Babies

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 27, 1916

Fruit Juice for Babies

By MRS. E. SISLEY-RICHARDS, M. D.

MRS. E. SISLEY-RICHARDS, M. D.

The opinion is commonly held that children should not be allowed to partake of fruits until they have well passed the period of infancy. This may be true of fruits in general, but the giving of the strained juices of certain fruits is not only conducive, but is actually essential, to the baby's health. This principle is recognized in the large hospitals for sick children, where a teaspoonful of orange juice three times a day is prescribed for hundreds of babies, especially such as are suffering from rickets and other disorders of nutrition.

Artificially fed infants are very liable to suffer from scurvy, a disorder caused by partaking exclusively of cooked foods. There seems to be a certain living principle in fresh fruits and vegetables which is absolutely essential to health. Since regulations have been passed requiring all seagoing vessels to provide some fresh foods for the sailors, scurvy has been practically exterminated among them. We also find that the only way of preventing or relieving infantile scurvy is the administration of some uncooked food substance. Since it is dangerous to give unsterilized milk, we must turn to fruit juices to satisfy this need. There are a number of mild fruits, the juices of which may be given to even young infants. The sweet oranges and mandarins head the list; then follow sweet grapes, strawberries, raspberries, pineapples, peaches, and possibly some other fruits.

Several regulations govern the use of fruit juice for babies:—

1. It must be obtained from fruit in perfect condition, and it must always be strained. It should be so sweet in itself as to demand no sugar in addition.

2. It must never be given in connection with the milk feeding. It should be

given not less than two hours after a milk feeding, and not nearer to the next milk feeding than one half or three quarters of an hour.

3. It should be given at least once daily, and more frequently if the child desires it.

There is absolutely no danger in giving fruit juice to babies if these suggestions are followed. In almost every case the fruit juice is taken with the greatest enjoyment, this fact in itself being one of the greatest recommendations for its administration.

Since mother's milk is free from the objections offered to all artificial foods, it is not necessary to give fruit juices to breast-fed infants; however, it is often an advantage to do so.

Fruit juice is one of the best preventives of infantile diarrhea, in that it is a natural disinfectant, and the bacteria which produce diarrhea cannot flourish in it.