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42
D.—Hand Feeding of Infants.
1.—That, having reduced the number of sucklings required to be handfed
to the smallest proportion possible, means should be devised for
providing suitable milk for the remainder.
2.—That it is undesirable to encourage the use of pasteurised or sterilised
milk for the use of hand-fed infants who unfortunately cannot be
fed from the breast.
3.—That it is desirable that cow's milk intended for hand-fed infants
should be milked, transported, and distributed under special
precautions.
4.—That the special precautions required in the production of cow's milk
for infants should include not only care in the selection, testing, and
feeding of the cows, but also care in their pasturing, sheltering and
tending; not only extreme cleanliness in milking, but also rigid
aseptic precautions, accompanied by immediate refrigeration, maintained
during transport, and by prompt dispatch so that the number
of micro-organisms and the lactic acid in the milk may be reduced
to a minimum at the time of delivery instead of the hundreds of
thousands and millions of organisms and excess of lactic acid now to
be found in so-called fresh milk.
5.—That, in order to prevent the pollution of infants' milk in distribution
and in the home, it is desirable that it should be protected in
stoppered bottles ready for feeding, and not be transferred to other
bottles.
6.—That on account of the facilities that hand-feeding affords for the
over-feeding and under feeding of infants, due to want of knowledge,
especially amongst the poor, it is desirab'e that the quantity and
quality of milk required for cach feed at the particular age should
be distributed in a separate stoppered bottle, and that each basket or
crate of bottles for use should be accompanied by instructions as to
the frequency and manner of feeding.
7.—That the provision of cow's milk produced under aseptic conditions
accompanied by extreme cleanliness, refrigeration and dispatch, so
diluted and enriched and put up in stoppered bottles in such
quantities, to be administered at specified intervals suitable for
suckling infants, should be regarded not only as ordinary food, but
in the nature of medical assistance.
8.—That for the special protection of hand-fed infants it is desirable that
Municipal Authorities should not only ascertain the quality of milk
intended for infants by chemical analysis, and receive from the
public analyst a statement of the percentage composition of each
sample of milk submitted, as to fat, solids not fat, and total solids,
and the absence of chemical preservatives, but also by bacteriological
examination, and receive from a bacteriologist a statement in regard
to each sample of milk submitted as to the cleanliness and freshness
of the milk.