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47
In Tables D and E are shown in detail the results of enquiry
during 1907.
The beginning and the end of infant rearing is good mothering.
From one reason or another, however, as will be seen from the
above tables, this is denied to a large number of infants. Probably
not more than half of the babies over throe months of age are nursed
by their mother?. So long as this continues infantile mortality must
necessarily be high. Artificial feeding of infants under the best of
circumstances is a poor substitute for natural nurture, and is inevitably
associated with the direst risks to the infant.
The mere fact that only one-third of the infants dying within the
year of their birth are breast fed, as compared with 77 per cent, of
those surviving, is a striking commentary on the importance of
mothers nursing their offspring.
When it is remembered further that of those artificially fed
nearly one-half are fed with improper food—i.e., with food that the
infantile stomach is physiologically incapable of digesting—the evils of
resorting to this method will be readily appreciated.
Even were a pure and clean milk supply assured to those who
resort to artificial feeding and proper protection and storage possible
in the homes, the use of improper feeding bottles in the case of nearly
one-third of the infants thus fed is calculated to undo all the good
which the most elaborate precautions would otherwise secure
Only a little over half the babies, whether naturally or artificially
fed, are fed regularly, and this fact in itself is responsible for a lot of
infantile illness and domestic discomfort.
Two-thirds of the babies sleep in bed with their mothers, more
than half sleep in the hot crowded kitchen during the day, only about
the same proportion are taken out regularly into the open air. and
nsarly a third are improperly clothed.
These conditions are not compatible with healthy babyhcod.