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30
1919
taking as a basis one part of dried milk with seven of water, five
ounces of dried milk should reconstitute to correspond to one quart
of fresh milk.
Based upon the price for which dried milk is sold now at our
Centres, it is equal in price to fresh milk at 8¾d. per quart. Reconstituted
on the basis of one part to eight of water, it would correspond
to fresh milk at 7d. per quart. In any case at 2s. 4d. a packet,
it was considerably cheaper than fresh milk last winter.
3.—As far as we are concerned, suitability in the artificial
feeding of infants is the most important point in the use of Dried
Milk. Of course it will be clearly understood that we are now
dealing only with the artificial feeding of infants, and that the only
physiologically correct food for a young mammal, is its mother's
milk, or the milk of some other animal of the same species. The
milk of each species is adjusted so as to contain a suitable proportion
of such substances as are needed for the young of that species. Undoubtedly
in the 19th century a decrease occurred in the amount of
breast-feeding. There was a tendency to exaggerate the value of
certain substitute foods, and this may have conduced to neglect of
breast-feeding. There is every reason to hope that this tendency
has not only been checked, but a marked increase in the number of
nfants who are breast-fed has been noticed.
There is a certain number of mothers who fail to establish
the function of lactation, and it is in connection with the infants of
these and of older children that the comparison between dried milk
and fresh milk is being instituted, or rather between dried milk and
liquid milk as it is being delivered to ordinary London households.
Dried Milk has been tried in a large number of Child Welfare
Centres and Municipal Milk Depots, both in this country and abroad
and in almost every instance a favourable opinion has been formed
of the value of Dried Milk in the artificial feeding of infants. The
curd formed in the stomach is softer and more granular than that
formed from fresh milk. Probably this easier digestibility and
also its higher standard of cleanliness account for the comparative
freedom from Diarrhoea of children fed on Dried Milk. Babies
fed on Dried Milk are not exempt from Diarrhoea, but
undoubtedly we had less Diarrhoea during the past summer
amongst babies fed on Dried Milk than amongst those fed on Fresh
Milk, and as the figures show, although we had a hot and dry summer,
we have had comparatively few deaths from Diarrhoea amongst the
children attending the Child Welfare Centres,