The infant : nutrition and management / by Eric Pritchard.

  • Pritchard, Eric, 1864-1943.
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The infant : nutrition and management / by Eric Pritchard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    faith, and it may refuse to make any further efforts. Sometimes the effort of sucking may initiate painful sensations in the abdomen, due to contraction of sphincters, to enterospasms, or to other forms of inco- ordinated peristalsis; and when once the infant asso¬ ciates such experiences with the act of taking the breast, it may resolutely refuse to make any further attempt. The truth is that breast-feeding requires a great deal of management if it is to be a complete success. It is a mistake to underrate its difficulties or to exaggerate its merits. One of the most important matters in connection with breast-feeding is to know when and how to supplement an inadequate supply with artificial feedings. In this connection two factors must be considered—firstly, how much food ought any particular infant to receive in the twenty-four hours; and, secondly, how much does it actually derive from the mother’s breasts. As regards the first factor, I must refer the reader to Chapter III., which treats of the food requirements of infants. If it is found by means of the test-feed that the quantity of milk supplied by the mother falls materially short of this amount, then the deficit must be made good by supplementary feedings. It is very difficult to in¬ crease the natural supply by any practical expedient. Galactogogues which directly stimulate the flow are unknown, and food makes very little impression. Starving women afford quite a good supply, as we know from the experiences of the siege of Paris in