Feeding
The child that is normal will give little trouble since Nature has made provision for all processes necessary to maintain the normal functions of the body. In order that these processes be maintained it is necessary to have food, proper environment, and sufficient exercise. When the mother is able to nurse the babe the problem of nourishment is solved. If the mother is unable to nurse the child and if the condition which makes this impossible is of such long standing that adjustments will not get results on the mother within the nursing period of her child, then the question of baby food should be left to the obstetrician who can prescribe the proper diet.
If the child has difficulty in digesting the food, adjustments should be given to enable Innate to bring about the proper adaptation. The bottle fed baby will require more care than the breast fed baby. Special care must be exercised to keep the bottles and other receptacles in a proper sanitary condition. This can be done by boiling them. Great care must be taken that the nipples used on the bottle are not allowed to become sour and otherwise unhygienic.
Cows’ milk may be used for bottle fed babies, but the most rigid sanitary measures should be used in producing and delivering the milk. There are many baby foods on the market, but the prescribing of food for the bottle-fed baby does not come within the scope of the chiropractor. This should be left to the obstetrician who has specialized in this work. It is not within the scope of Chiropractic to prescribe the kind of food that a bottle-fed baby needs, but the chiropractor must realize the importance of the right kind of food and the necessity for a proper innate adaptation to the kind of food given. Proper feeding is necessary for normal development, although it alone will not insure proper growth and development. The digestive organs must work normally and there must be proper coördinate action between the glands of the body. For this proper balance to be maintained there must be a normal transmission of mental impulses to all parts of the body.
The child that is getting a properly balanced ration and still is not developing normally should receive immediate attention at the hands of a competent chiropractor. No phase of the chiropractor’s work brings such gratifying results as the care of infants and babies, yet in no other phase will he find so much to baffle him. If the child is unable to digest the food then adjustments should be given.