Milk Modifications
Malt used in place of milk-sugar or cane-sugar will greatly assist the absorption of fat and decrease the tendency to fermentation and colic. It is being extensively used in milk modifications.
It is best to use the dextrin-maltose preparations that do not contain sodium chlorid, as it is rarely advisable to add this salt to the infant’s food.
Some physicians have been securing very satisfactory results with a preparation containing whey. Whey is a thin, watery fluid, looking very much like skimmed milk; its caloric value is about 300 per quart, 9 per ounce, barely one-half that of whole milk. It is therefore adapted only to temporary feeding, while its low fat content is of great value in cases of fat dyspepsia.
To secure the whey, 5 grams (1 teaspoonful) of rennet should be used to each quart of milk. The mixture must be kept at a temperature of about 100 F. until it separates into a liquid and a solid portion. It is then strained through cheesecloth. Practically all the casein is left on the cloth, the fluid being the whey. The curd should be broken up before straining, in order to obtain, as nearly as possible, the casein. However, about two-thirds of the milk fats remain in the curd. The whey, besides the whey proteins, thus contains only about one-third of the fats, but nearly all of the milk-sugar and salts. The whey still contains the rennet and, to destroy this, the whey must be heated to at least 140 F. for thirty minutes.
The average composition of whey according to Wachenheim is as follows:
| Proteins | 0.8 | per cent. |
| Fats | 1.0 | ” ” |
| Milk-sugar | 4.5 | ” ” |
| Salts | 0.7 | ” ” |
| Water | 93.0 | ” ” |
Sometimes sugar is the primary cause of intestinal fermentation, due to the concentration of the whey and the relative proportions of casein and sugar in the mixture.
According to Finkelstein and Meyer, to prepare a food which will combat intestinal fermentation there must be:
A diminution in the quantity of milk-sugar, a diminution of the salts through dilution of the whey, and an increase in the casein, with varying, and, under certain circumstances, not inconsiderable amounts of fat. After improvement has begun, an easily assimilable and consequently little fermentable carbohydrate should be added.