THE RELATION BETWEEN THE SCIENCE AND THE ART OF INFANT FEEDING
HENRY DWIGHT CHAPIN
1909
Journal of the American Medical Association
During the past few years there has been much discussion in reference to scientific infant feeding. On closely examining the points discussed, however, it will be found that little attention has really been paid to the science of infant feeding, as almost all the efforts have rather been directed to the art of infant feeding. The science of infant feeding consists in knowing why certain things should be done, or not done, and the effects of different procedures. The art of infant feeding
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... es the methods employed in preparing food and administering it. Most of the articles concerning infant feeding have related to methods of making foods acceptable to infants, and many diverse methods have been proposed. As infants have been found who have thriven, to a certain extent, on all of the different methods that have been advocated, it is evident that there has been something in common possessed by all ofjhem. The reason that every method of infant feeding can be shown to have been occasionally successful is that all of the foods contained more or less proteins, mineral matter, fats and carbohydrates, without which no infant can live or grow. Various infants will thrive on some foods better than on others, owing to the fact that the food elements are present in more suitable quantities and forms. The form of a food element has an impor¬ tant effect on its usefulness, and a large part of success¬ ful, practical feeding consists in changing or adapting the form of the food elements to suit different infants, for they are not alike in their capacity for digesting and assimilating even the same forms of food elements. It is self-evident that the infant belongs to the ani¬ mal kingdom and is accordingly subject to the general laws of animal nutrition. It is also evident that the infant is still in the last stages of embryonic development while normally at the breast, and that its digestive organs are not adapted for ordinary food. All young mammals are in this condi¬ tion for some time after birth and it is found that the food supplied by the mother has the property of chang¬ ing its physical form when it comes in contact with the gastric secretions of the young. The food assumes a more or less solid form in the stomach, and the charac¬ ter of this solid differs as the stomachs of the young animals differ, rather than according to the composition of the food. The composition of the food supplied by the mothers of various species of young animals varies according to the rate of growth of the young, the milk supplied to rapidly growing young animals containing more protein than that furnished to those whose growth is less rapid. In reference to the infant's nutrition, we have always to deal with milk in some form, as biology shows,that this is always the primary and elemental food mixture, containing in easily assimilable form all the food prin¬ ciples. While the different manipulations required to make various milks, or other forms of food, acceptable to the infant's stomach constitute the art of infant feed¬ ing, before any of these details can be accepted as scien¬ tific and thus of permanent utility, it must be decided how far they are in accordance with biologic laws. Biol¬ ogy must thus Anally decide both the possibilities and limitations of every method that is advanced. This will call for a knowledge of the structure and functions of the various digestive tracts in connection with the pecul¬ iar characteristics of the milk early furnished to each species. This study will show not only how far different milks are interchangeable, but also throw light on the various manipulations that aim to make them so. A chemical analysis of milk will show the ingredients of this fluid, and, to a certain extent, their potential food values from their quantitative amount. There is something beyond this, however, that chemistry can not explain. While the fats and carbohydrates in their com¬ position and reaction to the digestive secretions are a good deal alike in different milks, the proteins are essen¬ tially different. Chemistry alone can not explain this phenomenon. We must study the reaction of the pro¬ tein to the digestive secretions, and then examine such reactions in relation to the growth and development of the digestive tract-in other words, investigate the ques¬ tion biologically before we can understand the problem. A certain portion of the protein of all milks coagulates on coming in contact with rennin or rennin and acid, but the manner and extent of this coagulation stands in a direct relation to the proper evolution of the digestive tract of the animal. While there are many grades of coagulability in the milks of different animals, for practical purposes, we may distinguish three of these grades and consider their significance. The protein may coagulate in a solid, gelat¬ inous or flocculent manner. In the ruminant, herbiv¬ orous animals, such as the cow, sheep or goat, the pro¬ tein coagulates in solid, tough masses that can not read¬ ily leave the stomach. In these animals, digestion is always largely gastric and the stomach forms 70 per cent, of the digestive tract. Later, this stomach will be called on largely to digest tough, stringy masses of hay and straw and the previous exercise on the tough curds of the milk develops it for this future work. In the non-Downloaded From: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/ by a Carleton University User on 05/13/2015
doi:10.1001/jama.1909.92550120001001
fatcat:qh6gpi2hqfgv3gcyrhvcvi2liu