When starchy food is made the important part of a young infant's food, as in the mistaken use of certain "baby foods" or in the prolonged use of cereal concoctions, crackers, potatoes, etc., quite definite conditions will result. The bowel movements are deeply colored, more brown than yellow, are loose and frequent. Diarrheas with frequent brown, watery, frothy, acid, and irritating bowel movements are common. These children are often for a time plump and firm, of good color, active, and seem healthy. The firmness of the muscles and of the tissues is, however, rather due to a hypertonic condition of the former, and to a retention of water in the latter. This accounts for the frequency of convulsions and edemas in these babies. As in milk overfeeding the final outcome is typically one of marasmus, all the more so here because acute catastrophes from which recovery is at best slow are very frequent, and add to the steady downward course. We have in these babies the minimum of immunity and of resistance, and they fall an easy prey to even slight intercurrent infections. This is probably due not so much to the excess of starch as to an inadequate amount of protein.

The Treatment

The starch must be eliminated wholly or in part, and fat and protein given in abundance. The ideal food here is human milk, not alone because of its favorable composition - i. e., high, easily assimilable fat content - but also because it alone can supply immunizing bodies, and the highest degree of resistance to infection and other insults. If this is not feasible, then the cautious use of cow's milk whole, or diluted, with little or no cereal or sugar addition, is indicated for a time.

Sugar

The tolerance for sugar is usually high. When given in excess the bowel movements are apt to become sour, foamy, irritating, watery, frequent and brownish like thin mustard. The addition of a cereal diluent prevents or delays this result. The chronic condition, as in starch overfeeding, is less likely to occur. Sugar in large amounts, especially cane sugar and malt sugar, if well tolerated, are very fattening, but the babies are apt to be pale and essentially poorly nourished. We are all the more cautious now not to use an excess of sugar, because we have learned to look upon it as the fever-producing and intoxicating element in food intoxications. The frequency of these acute intoxications in babies fed on malted milk, or condensed milk with their high sugar content, is well recognized.