Feeding the Baby

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 23, 1914

MANY little children are lost every summer through improper feeding. There is so much reliable information to be secured these days that it would seem almost criminal not to avail ourselves of its advantages. The United States Department of Health, in a bulletin on “The Care of the Baby,” has this to say on proper feeding:—

“Mixed Feeding

“When the mother’s milk is diminishing, it is advisable to make up the lack with properly prepared cow’s milk. This may be done either by following one or more breast feedings with enough modified milk to satisfy the baby or by giving one or more full bottle feedings in place of a like number of breast feedings.

“The flow of breast milk tends to diminish when the baby nurses less than five times in twenty-four hours. When the baby is being nursed once every four hours and is not satisfied, it is better to give him after nursing enough modified milk to satisfy him, rather than to replace a nursing with the bottle. If, on the other hand, shorter intervals and more feedings are being used, a bottle feeding may take the place of a nursing without so much danger of decreasing the milk supply. Most babies need additional food after the seventh month.

“Bottle Feeding

“Cow’s milk is the most satisfactory substitute for mother’s milk. The best milk (this does not mean the richest milk) is none too good. Get ‘certified’ milk if possible. If you cannot obtain certified milk, get the cleanest and purest bottled milk you can find. Milk sold in bulk, or bottled from the can in stores or by milkmen in their wagons, is likely to be stale and contaminated, and not a proper food for the baby, even though it looks and tastes good. ‘Baby foods’ and condensed milks and the like are not satisfactory substitutes for good cow’s milk, and often harm the baby.

“Raw milk may carry the germs of tuberculosis, scarlet fever, tonsillitis, diphtheria, typhoid, and other communicable diseases. Unless the milk is above suspicion, danger should be prevented by proper Pasteurization of the milk or by boiling or by sterilization.

“Pasteurization.— By Pasteurization is meant heating the milk to about 150° F. for thirty minutes, and then rapidly cooling it. Milk for the baby should always be Pasteurized in the feeding bottle. It may be done as follows: The milk should be mixed and poured into the clean feeding bottles, which should then be stoppered with clean, nonabsorbent cotton. It is then ready for Pasteurization. While a number of satisfactory Pasteurizers may be bought in the shops, a home-made Pasteurizer can be easily constructed.

“Take a wire basket that will hold all the nursing bottles for twenty-four hours, and place this basket containing the bottles in a vessel of cold water filled to a point a little above the level of the milk. Heat the water, and allow it to boil for five minutes. Then run cold water into the vessel until the milk is cooled to the temperature of the running water. The milk is then put into the ice chest, which should be not warmer than 50° F.

“Sterilization.— By sterilization of milk is meant the process of rendering it germ free by boiling it on three successive days or by keeping it for fifteen minutes under pressure at a temperature of 242° F.

“Boiling.— Milk is boiled for one or two minutes in a large vessel and poured immediately into the sterilized bottles, stoppered with cotton, rapidly cooled in running water, and put on the ice. This destroys all living bacteria but not spores or eggs, which will not do harm unless the milk is kept too long after boiling. It should be used within twenty-four hours.

“If the baby’s milk is to be mixed with other ingredients, such as oatmeal, barley water, rice water, sugar, etc., these should be added to the milk before Pasteurization, boiling, or sterilization. When the milk is once prepared, the bottle should not be opened until it is given to the baby.

“Preservation of the Baby’s Milk.— After the baby’s milk has been prepared, it is very important that it be kept cold until it is used.

“A simple ice box can be made as follows: Procure a wooden box about 18 inches square and 12 inches deep. Get two tin boxes, one about 11 inches square and 9 inches deep, the other 10 inches square and 9 inches deep. Cracker boxes will do. Cut the bottom out of the larger box. Place 3 inches of sawdust in the wooden box. Put the larger bottomless box upon the layer of sawdust, and fill the space between the wooden and the outer tin box with sawdust. Fasten the pieces forming the lid of the wooden box together with cleats nailed on the outer surface. Tack about 50 layers of newspapers cut to the size of the wooden box to the inner surface of the lid. Make hinges for the lid by tacking two strips of leather onto the outside of the box, and then tack additional strips of leather to the front edge of the lid to catch on nails driven into that side of the box, in order to hold the lid down tightly.

The ice box is now ready for use. Into the smaller tin box put your wire basket containing the filled and stoppered nursing bottles (or a quart and a pint bottle of milk) and surround them with cracked ice. Place the smaller tin box inside the larger and close the lid. Each morning, remove the inner box, pour out the water, clean, and repack with ice. Keep the ice box in a cool, shady place.

“This ice box, if properly cared for, and kept full of ice, will keep a day’s supply of milk cool and sweet.”