252. Mother's Milk Best

After birth, the natural food of the human young, and that which is best adapted to its physical welfare under normal conditions, is its mother's milk. Physicians, nurses, and modern science unite in declaring that this is the food which best insures the health, development, and good physical quality of the young child. Statistics confirm this conclusion. In 1890 there were born in Berlin alone 49,362 children. Before the end of a year, 12,623 died, of which 1588 had been breast-fed and 8008 fed on cow's milk. Further statistics show of these fed on mother's milk one in thirteen died, while of those brought up by hand one out of every two died. These figures require no comment. Notwithstanding such ominous facts, thousands of infants are fed from a bottle on some other food when circumstances do not render it necessary. A mother who selfishly refuses to feed her child from the fountains of her own life, merely because of the confinement or inconvenience it occasions, fails to meet one of her highest obligations, jeopardizes the life of her offspring, and hazards her right to be called "mother." The case is different when imperative demands of another kind or abnormal conditions of milk secretion or of health render artificial feeding necessary.

253. The Composition Of Human Milk

In discussing infant nutrition from the natural source, a logical consideration of the subject requires that we first learn what is the composition of human milk. A study of the records reveals the fact that the milk secreted by different individuals varies greatly, and there is by no means an agreement among the average figures that have been compiled by different authorities. There follows the average composition of human milk as presented by various compilers: -

Table XLIV. Average Composition Of Woman's Milk

The preceding figures fail to show the great range of variation. This may be illustrated by a statement of the maximum and minimum percentages compiled by Pfeiffer, the samples being only those taken more than eleven days after parturition.

1 Mostly from " Des Kindes Ernährung," Czerny-Keller, pp. 417-418.

Analyses of mother's milk are occasionally made in the laboratory of New York Agricultural Experiment Station at the request of physicians and others. The table which follows shows the results of eleven such analyses.

Table XLVI. Analyses Of Human Milk Made At The Laboratory Of The New York Agricultural Experiment Station

1 Assumed. 2 Determined by difference.

These figures showing such wide departure from what may be regarded as normal milk are an abundant justification for the recommendation that in any instance where a nursing child is not physically prosperous the mother's milk should be investigated both as to quantity and quality.