Babies - Home Modification of Milk : Part 3

The Mother and Her Child
by William S. Sadler, M.D., Lena K. Sadler, M.D.

(Page 20 of 42)

It is important with all children that the increase in the food be made very gradually. It may be best with many infants to increase the milk by only half an ounce in twenty ounces of food, instead of one ounce at a time, as indicated in the tables. therefore, from three ounces the increase would be to three and one-half ounces; from four ounces to four and one-half ounces, etc. At least two or three days should be allowed between each increase in the strength of the food.

Peptonized Milk

Another modification which at times may be ordered by your physician is peptonized milk. Since it is infrequent for the proteins of milk to be the cause of indigestion, peptonized milk has only a limited use, chiefly in cases of acute illness. The milk is peptonized in the following manner:

Place the peptonizing powder (it is procurable in tubes or tablets from the drug store) in a small amount of milk, and after being well dissolved, put into the bottle or pitcher with the plain or modified milk, after which the whole is shaken up together. The bottle is then put into a large pitcher containing water heated to about 110° F. or as warm as would bear the hand comfortably, and left for ten or twenty minutes (if the milk is to be partially peptonized). To completely peptonize the milk, two hours are required. Either of these formulas is only used on the advice of a physician.

Buttermilk

In many cases of chronic intestinal indigestion, buttermilk is used in place of the milk. It is prepared as follows: After the cream has been taken from the milk and it has been allowed to come to a boil, it is cooled to just blood heat. A buttermilk tablet, having first been dissolved in a teaspoonful of sterile water, is now stirred into the quart of warmed, skimmed milk and allowed to stand at room temperature for twenty-four hours at which time it should look like a smooth custard. With a sterile whip this is now beaten and is ready for the sugar and the boiled water which is added according to the written prescription from the doctor.

Condensed Milk

Under no circumstances should condensed milk be used as the sole food of the baby for more than one month. Children often gain upon it, but as a rule they have little resistance, and they are very prone to develop rickets and oftentimes scurvy; and, as noted elsewhere, orange juice should always be administered at least once during the twenty-four hours as long as condensed milk is used.

Of all the brands of condensed milk, those only should be selected which contain little or no cane sugar. Perhaps the "Peerless Brand" of evaporated milk is the most reliable and in the preparation of food from this evaporated milk the same amount of sugar, etc., should be added as we do in the preparation of "whole milk" or "top milk."

We do not in any way advise the use of condensed milk. Fresh milk should always be used where it is obtainable, but in traveling it sometimes has to be used. Holt says, "It should be diluted twelve times for an infant under one month and six to ten times for those who are older."

Malted milk is a preparation suitable in some cases where fresh cow's milk is not obtainable. Even better than condensed milk, this food will be found serviceable in traveling, or in instances where only very bad cow's milk is within reach.

Special Foods

Most patent foods are made up of starches and various kinds of sugars, and some of them have dried milk or dried egg albumin added. Many flours under fanciful names are sold on the market today. For instance, one flour with a very fanciful name is simply the old fashioned "flour ball" that our great, great grandmothers made; and, by the way, perhaps there is no flour for which we are more grateful in the preparation of infant food than the flour ball which is prepared as follows: A pound of flour is tied tightly in a cheesecloth and is put into a kettle of boiling water which continues to boil for five or six hours, at the end of which time the cheesecloth is removed and the hard ball, possibly the size of an orange, is placed on a pie pan and allowed slowly to dry out in a low temperature oven.

At the end of two or three hours, the ball, having sufficiently dried, has formed itself into a thick outer peel which is removed, while the heart which is very hard and thoroughly dry, is now grated on a clean grater, and this flour has perhaps helped more specialists to serve more sick babies than any other form of starch known. It is used just as any other flour is used - wet up into a paste, made into a gruel, which is boiled for twenty minutes before it is added to the milk.

Whey is sometimes used in the preparation of sick babies' food and is prepared as follows:

To a pint of fresh lukewarm cow's milk are added two teaspoons of essence of pepsin, liquid rennet or a junket tablet. It is stirred for a moment, then allowed to stand until firmly coagulated, which is then broken up and the whey strained off through a muslin.

The heavy proteins remain in the curd, and the protein that goes through with the whey is chiefly the lactalbumin.

About the Author

Dr. William S. Sadler M.D. was a well-known American psychiatrist and college teacher in the school of medicine at the University of Chicago. For over sixty years he practiced his profession in Chicago, thirty-three years being associated in practice with his wife, Dr Lena Kellogg Sadler. The doctors were pioneers in the research on the mysterious Urantia Papers.