Feeding Babies In The Tropics

Letter to the Editor.

TN your March issue a correspondent, A “Christina,” makes certain statements which if carried out may lead to consider able trouble in babies and young children.

“Christina” speaks of giving a stronger food to babies in the tropics, but does not mention which to increase the sugar, fat or protein? Presumably, she advises to increase all, as she speaks of giving a “second bottle.”

It is certainly, an excellent idea to give as much water as baby will take, but to increase fats to a higher percentage than that ordered for a colder climate is out of all reason.

“Christina” speaks of her second child looking better and bonnier than her older child. That is quite often the case. Some times the first child has to pay for the mother’s lack of experience. Also, the mother usually has less nervous anxiety over her second child- I live in a very highly malarious locality and. like your correspondent, sometimes have to trust the native girls with the entire work of caring for numbers of artiflcally fed babies. If any reader is tempted to say “natives live through any thing,” let me tell you that such is not the case, as brown babies have less re sistance than white ones and are more difficult to rear.

At no time w'ould I suggest continuing with the use of the teat after baby is nine months old. In fact, as soon as baby shows his first teeth the bottle should be discontinued. It is very rarely that a properly handled baby will for long refuse to drink from a spoon or cup. The same food should be given as was given in

the bottle, and any necessary changes should be made when he has become accustomed to the new way of drinking.

Sit baby in his high chair, stand at his side or behind him and, with your arm around his head, hold a plate under his chin. Of course, baby will make a very poor attempt, at first, but with patience and practice he will soon improve.

“Christina” speaks of “giving a baby up to eighteen months old a bottle.” At eighteen months a baby should have for gotten all about his bottle; in fact, a well-managed baby can hold his own cup and delight in doing so by the time he is that age. Before baby is nine months old he should be given an occasional drink from a cup to accustom him gradually to the new way of drinking.

The tropics have many disadvantages for baby, but he is fortunate in that there is frequently more poultry on the adults’ table than in some more moderate climates. When baby is six months, give him the well-scraped leg bone. This will not only amuse him but also teach him what his hands are intended for- The bone helps to cut his teeth.

To put perhaps the least important reason first, teats and feeding bottles are very expensive and should be discon tinued as soon as possible. Then there is cleanliness. A domestic native, boy or girl, can be trusted to wash thoroughly a cup and spoon, but a rubber teat and glass feeding bottle are a much more complicated affair. Even the best native cannot always be trusted to wash his or her hands, and a cup needs much less handling than a teat and bottle.

I agree that there are times when it

Is absolutely necessary to leave the care of your baby to a native; and, for that very reason, discontinue the use of the feeding bottle as soon as possible.

Another reason “Christina” gives for the long continued use of the bottle is “that it is an easy way to administer medicine.” No medicine should ever be given in with baby’s food. When baby is “off colour” he will frequently refuse portion of his food and, if the medicine has been put into the bottle, he will also then be refusing the necessary medicine.

Medicine such as quinine should not be given near feeding time. Unless the need is very urgent, half an hour before the time for the bottle is a good time.

Of course, baby will at first object to this treatment, but it is effective. Quinine tablets are particularly easy to give by holding baby’s jaws open with your thumb and finger and with the first finger of the other hand place the quinine on the back of his tongue, well back so that he cannot return it. As your child grows older make a little game of this and teach him to put his own quinine down “red lane.”

Just one other remark regarding teats.

“Christina” speaks of using a teat with a large hole. This is quite wrong and will very soon lead to indigestion, sleepless ness and loss of weight. This also causes him to gulp his food and, when you return to a good teat, baby will strongly object. Never give baby a teat with a large hole.

Be you the busy wife of a missionary, the wife of a struggling planter or the wife of the man who has left struggling days behind, the care of your own baby is a God-given privilege. If you care for that child yourself instead of leaving it to native labour, you will be well repaid.

An active woman in the tropics is much healthier than one who has a “boy” at her beck and call. In event of sickness, it is wise to have an assistant who can be called on to do these things for baby, but let that one be a girl and there will be less likelihood of trouble. Even the girl with a brown or black skin has the mother instinct. Such work as that of nursegirl is not suited to the dark skinned man.

If “Christina,” or any other mother, would like to ask any questions regarding feeding or management of baby, infor mation would be willingly sent by the Sister-in-charge at the Plunket Nurse Rooms, 283 Elizabeth Street, Sydney; or I would be willing to reply through the editor of this paper.

I am etc.,

Plunket Nurse.

Papua, July 3, 1935.

Mr. Douglas Askew, who was for some time in the Banks Group, New Hebrides, as a member of an expedition exploring sulphur deposits there, has now settled down on a coconut plantation at Manaba on the coast of Malaita, Solomon Islands m the service of the Malayta Co., Ltd.

This is a pretty lonely place,” he says, in a cheery letter, “but it is a relief to be away from the smell of sulphur.”

Pastor Thomas Adams, superintendent ot the Methodist Mission on Norfolk Is land died in a private hospital on Sep tember 2. Known to young and old as + Tom,” he had been connected with the N.I. Methodist Church for over 7 was a direct descendant of John Adams (Alexander Smith, of H.M.S.

Bounty), the last of the original band of ™and e in S m h o° ° n lonely Pitcai ™