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31
Although the question resolves itself to a consideration of the conditions
under which children are hand-fed, it is not advisable that our survey should
be limited to this aspect alone, but should also include some of the factors
which tend to produce hand-feeding. This is essential for more than one
reason. It must be clearly realised that human milk is not only the best food,
but that no other milk can be made into a perfect food for infants. In infant
feeding, nature is superior to art, and the milk of any species of animal is a
highly specialised product, specialised mechanically, chemically and physiologically
to suit the digestive system, nutrition, rate of growth, and mode of life
of the animals of that species.
The so-called "humanised" milk is not humanised in the true sense of the
term. It is true that other milks can be modified so as to resemble human milk
in chemical composition, but milk is not an inert liquid, depending for its
nutritious qualities on the chemical substances it contains. It is a living liquid
with important biological properties. There is evidence that human milk
contains substances derived from the mother, and that these substances carried
by the milk into the infant's body, protect it from the attacks of diseaseproducing
bacteria. It is extremely rare for infants on the breast to suffer from
measles, scarlet fever, or any of the acute infectious diseases.
These observations are made not for the purpose of discouraging any
improvement in the conditions under which children are being artifically fed,
but in order to show that extreme care is necessary, lest an inducement be given
to mothers to wean their offspring unnecessarily, and prematurely.
Fortunately, the human organism is eminently capable of adapting itself to
circumstances, and in spite of the above facts, healthy children can be brought
up on the bottle in a majority of instances.
We have to consider the factors which compel artificial feeding, when it
becomes inevitable to what extent can they be obviated, and can the conditions
under which the children are artificially fed be improved.
There are in the Borough of Stepney, factories of various descriptions
where married women are employed. This industrial occupation compels the
mother to leave her home for a considerable part of the day. The women who
have young families are compelled to have their children cared for during
the day, and the alternative is either to leave the baby in charge of a very
young child, in a "baby minder's" house, or a creche. As far as sanitary conditions
are concerned, there is no doubt that a creche is superior to the other two.
The mother does not select the house where the baby is cared for, on sanitary