DISEASES DUE TO ERRORS IN DIET
Gastro-intestinal disturbances, colic, enterocolitis, colitis, etc., rickets, scurvy, nephritis, and diabetes are among the diseases most apt to develop from injudicious feeding, and in these cases the dietetic treatment plays the most important part in combating the condition. The disturbances caused by food are recognized by the general symptoms: vomiting, rise of temperature, subnormal temperature, and the stools, the latter being the chief point of observation.
Fats as Cause.—When the fats are causing the disturbance, the rise of temperature is apt to be high, but not of long duration. The baby vomits frequently, the vomitus being acid in reaction and odor, the latter due to the presence of fatty acids, butyric acid, etc. Diarrhea often develops in a more or less acute form. In these cases there is a loss of sodium and other alkaline salts in the feces, and a consequent excess of ammonia in the urine, resulting in acidosis. Acid intoxication has been known to develop as a result of this loss of alkaline salts. The chief symptoms of this condition are rapid and deep respiration, stupor or restlessness, and cherry-red lips.[84]
Symptoms of Excess Fat in Diets.—The general symptoms in infants receiving an excess of fat in their food take the form of loss of appetite, with more or less loss of weight, or failure to gain. When the cases are not chronic, soft curds may often be seen, which are at times mistaken for casein curds, but may be distinguished from them by their translucent appearance and their solubility in ether. The color of the stools due to the excess of fat under the above-mentioned conditions is shiny and gray. In the majority of cases, especially of a more chronic character, the stools are apt to be large and dry, at times hard and crumbly. The fat in such stools is combined with magnesium and calcium salts, forming the characteristic “soap stools.”[85] The combined loss of these salts in the feces has a definite effect on the general metabolism and nutrition, giving rise to rickets.
Regulating the Fat.—The treatment consists chiefly of regulating the amount of fat in the formula, and of cutting it out altogether in the beginning when the symptoms show acute acid conditions. In many cases, if the baby is given breast milk, the trouble disappears. At other times it is necessary to substitute a foreign fat such as olive oil for the butter fat. Dr. Ladd in the Children’s Hospital in Boston treated many babies who manifested an intolerance for butter fat with “Homogenized Milk,” which consisted of skimmed or separated milk and a certain percentage of olive oil, placed in an apparatus which brought about a more complete division of the fat, causing it to mix with the milk as an emulsion closely resembling human milk.
Fat intolerance is most difficult to overcome, the baby being apt to relapse into the acute stage unless the utmost caution is observed in adding the fats to the formula. It is not safe, however, to feed the baby upon a fat-free milk for any great length of time.
Excess Protein in Food.—The digestional disturbances arising from too much protein in the food are as a rule readily overcome in breast-fed infants. When it is due to nervousness or worry in the mother, it disappears as soon as the mother ceases to worry or does something to remove the cause of the nervous condition. When the breast milk is high in protein, more exercise in the open air at times adjusts the percentage of protein, provided the mother does not become over-tired, in which case the percentage of protein in breast milk increases.
Evidences of Excess Protein.—The symptoms of excess protein in the diet of the breast-fed baby are colic and flatulence, which are often persistent and difficult to overcome. Vomiting is not so common in these babies as in those who are artificially fed. The stools are increased in number, are either brown or green, and generally loose and watery. In artificially fed infants the symptoms are much the same, except that the vomitus often contains large curds which are tough and leathery. The baby suffers from gas formation and colic. The stools are at times normal, except for the presence of large, hard curds; at other times they are increased in number, and are of a watery consistency and alkaline in reaction.
Regulating the Protein in Formula.—When the stools are watery and brown and musty in odor as the result of disturbed protein digestion, the treatment consists of taking out the proteins from the formula and of substituting cereal water, to which dextri-maltose or milk sugar is added, the milk being added as soon as possible to prevent too great a loss of body protein. As a rule the whey proteins do not cause the disturbances so often as the casein proteins; and at times it is possible to use whey mixtures with babies who cannot tolerate the casein at all.
Buttermilk also is used in cases of protein indigestion, as is Eiweissmilch and peptonized milk.
Regulating the Carbohydrates.—When the disturbances are due to the carbohydrates in the formula, they may be digestional or nutritional. In this form the milk sugar is more apt to be the cause of the trouble than the dextri-maltose preparations which are at times used. In the latter, when the disturbance becomes nutritional, the cause of the trouble can usually be traced to an excess of starch. When the percentage of milk sugar is greater than can be handled by the digestive apparatus of the baby, it is manifested by frequent attacks of colic, with the passage of watery green stools, highly irritating, in character on account of their acidity. In acute cases the loss of weight is often marked, and symptoms of intoxication may develop. The outlook is grave in the very severe cases, but if the baby can survive forty-eight hours after the acute symptoms develop, he is apt to pull through the attack.
Adjusting the Sugars.—The treatment in these conditions consists of eliminating the milk sugar from the formula; in less severe cases dextri-maltose may be substituted. As a rule, coincident with indigestion caused by sugar there will be found to be an intolerance for much fat, so that this must be adjusted as well as the milk sugar. Skimmed milk mixtures, containing a certain amount of barley or oatmeal water, are generally found to be suitable in these cases. Dextri-maltose may be added after a few days in order to maintain the fuel needs of the body. Eiweissmilch is at times used, but whey mixtures are contraindicated on account of their high sugar content.
Dextri-maltose also disagrees at times. The baby has colic and flatulence, the stools are usually loose or watery and dark brown in color. The dietetic treatment consists of an immediate withdrawal of the dextri-maltose preparation and a substitution of milk sugar after a few days.
Evidences of Excess Starch in Formula.—The disturbances arising from an excess of starch in the diet are, as has already been stated, more apt to be of a chronic than an acute character. Vomiting is not a common symptom under these conditions, although colic is frequent. The stools are at times loose and brown, at other times dry and small. The baby at times suffers from diarrhea and at others from constipation. When the disturbance is acute the starch must be entirely eliminated from the formula. If proprietary foods are being used containing starch, whether it is dextrinized or unchanged, they must be at once abandoned, and a formula made up of protein with sugar and fat.
Modified Milk Formulas Suggested by Morse and Talbot for These Conditions
| Fat | 1.00% | or | Fat | 2.00% |
| Milk sugar | 4.00% | Milk sugar | 5.00% | |
| Protein | 0.75% | Protein | 1.25% |
They likewise advise whey and whey mixtures under these circumstances.
Fermentation.—Fermentation is often the cause of infantile indigestion. At times it is acute and may cause a decided elevation of temperature owing to the absorption of the toxic substances formed as a result of the bacterial action. In almost every case of indigestion brought on by fermentation there will be an accompanying diarrhea. As a rule the carbohydrates are more liable to the attacks of bacteria in the stomach than the other food constituents.
Treatment.—The treatment consists first of starvation, no food being given for at least twenty-four hours. Then water or weak tea, sweetened with saccharin, may be given, but nothing else. The medical treatment must be left to the discretion of the physician. When the condition warrants a return to food the formula must be made weaker than that which has caused the disturbance. Malt soup mixtures, buttermilk mixtures, whey and albumen water may be added as the condition of the baby improves. In older children the period of starvation may have to exceed that of infants, but a gradual return to normal diet is made. Weak tea and toast may be given after the first twenty-four hours and well skimmed meat broths, soft-cooked eggs, liquid peptonoids, and malted milk added to the diet as the condition of the child improves.