Getting ready to be a mother

by Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom

It is quite plain that a baby who is fed and cared for in accordance with the suggestions offered in the preceding chapters is not likely to develop rickets.

Infantile scurvy is seen among babies who are fed solely on milk that has been heated, boiled, pasteurized or canned, since the vitamine, in milk, that prevents scurvy is practically destroyed by heating or aging. That is one reason why it is dangerous to give stale milk to babies and why you should not use canned milk on your own responsibility. If the doctor orders it for your baby, he will know what to give in addition to the milk to keep the baby from having scurvy.

The disease develops slowly, the first symptoms appearing between the seventh and tenth months. Tenderness or pain in the legs is perhaps the most common symptom and may be detected first by the baby’s crying when his diaper is changed or his stockings put on. And a baby who has been cheerful, playful and active will prefer to lie quietly and will cry whenever he is touched. He grows pale, listless and weak and fails to gain in weight or length. His large joints are likely to be swollen and tender; his swollen gums may bleed; his urine be diminished in amount and contain blood. But it is entirely possible for a baby to be in serious need of the vitamine that prevents scurvy and still not present these well defined symptoms of the disease. In such a case there may be stationary weight, fretfulness, a muddy complexion and perhaps tenderness of the bones.

Scurvy, of itself, does not often cause death among babies, but it is serious, nevertheless, for it makes the babies very susceptible to infection, particularly nasal diphtheria and “grip.”

The disease may be either prevented or cured by giving orange juice, potato water, spinach or tomato juice to a baby whose diet consists of milk that has been heated and is therefore lacking in the vitamine that prevents scurvy.

Although scurvy is seldom seen in breast-fed babies it is believed that an infant who is nursing at the breast of a woman whose diet is lacking or deficient in fresh milk, oranges and leafy vegetables will suffer a certain degree of starvation and thus be sickly and susceptible to infection without actually having scurvy.

The significance to you, of this complicated and enormously important question of nutrition may be summed up as follows:

1. There are five recognized diseases resulting from faulty nutrition, which may be either prevented or cured by a diet which contains the protective substances, called vitamines, which are now regarded as essential to normal growth, development and well-being. 2. These essential substances are not necessarily provided in adequate amounts by a diet that is satisfactory in bulk or in its balance of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, salts and water or that yields the requisite number of calories. The familiar diet of meat, potatoes, peas, beans, bread, pie and coffee is so far from providing complete nourishment that those who are limited to it are in a state of partial starvation. 3. Although the breast tissues are capable of converting into milk certain substances which they extract from the blood, they cannot create the protective substances which we have been considering. They can merely excrete these substances if they are contained in the mother’s diet. The absence, or shortage of these food essentials in the mother’s diet, and therefore in her milk, may result in rickets or other malnourished conditions in the baby, or in a degree of faulty nutrition which is not marked enough to be diagnosed, but enough to keep him frail; enough to give him the poor start that is so likely to put him, ultimately, in the class of those adults who are more or less unfit, though not actually ill. 4. The great protective foods are milk and leafy vegetables and any diet which is poor in these is incapable of nourishing satisfactorily.

By milk we mean fresh milk, first and foremost and also cream, butter, buttermilk, cream soups and sauces, custards, ice-cream and all dishes and beverages made of milk.

By leafy vegetables we mean lettuce, romaine, endive, cress, celery, cabbage, spinach, onions, string beans, asparagus, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, artichokes, beet greens, dandelions, turnip tops and the like.