They call attention to the low caloric value of this food and to the necessity of increasing it as soon as possible by the addition of dextrin-maltose mixtures.
They claim that it is worthy of employment in all the disturbances of nutrition in infants, which are accompanied by diarrhea, of no matter what kind. The use of this food has been extended by others to all sorts of conditions including the feeding of healthy infants and the newly born, and good results are claimed for it.
To use a food low in sugar and salts and high in protein in the fermentative conditions caused by sugar, is rational. In these conditions the substitution of the dextrin-maltose mixtures for lactose is also good.
Not all disturbances of nutrition accompanied by diarrhea, however, are due to the same cause and should not be treated in the same way. No method of feeding can be applicable to both the sick and the well, nor can all babies be given the same food without regard to their individual digestive ability.
The main principles of this method of treating intestinal fermentative conditions may be used and, at the same time, the disadvantages of a routine food may be avoided, by applying the modification of milk by the percentage method as given by Moise and Talbot.
Sterilizing and Pasteurizing
To sterilize the milk it should be heated to 212 F., that temperature being maintained for ten minutes or longer.
Many physicians consider pasteurization the better process. In this the milk is heated to from 150 to 165 F. and kept at that temperature for from twenty to thirty minutes. Boiling produces chemical changes, such as converting the milk-sugar into caramel, etc., while pasteurizing does not.
After pasteurization or sterilization, the milk should be quickly cooled to a temperature of 40 F. or lower and kept, until used, in bottles corked with non-absorbent cotton.