260. Effect Of Foods On Milk Secretion

There are many "old wives' sayings " concerning the relation of food to the mother's milk that have no foundation in fact. It is believed by some that copious drinking, or the free use of watery foods like soups or porridges, promotes the milk flow. Nothing could be more erroneous. The free use of milk is recommended, on the ground that "milk makes milk." While it is true that a reasonable amount of milk forms a very useful part of the diet of a nursing mother, and supplies all the needed materials for the secretion of human milk, it is also true that other foods, such as meat, eggs, grain foods, and vegetables, sustain milk secretion in a very satisfactory way when they are wisely combined. The constituents of milk are a secretion of the mammary glands in which the casein and milk fats are elaborated out of the raw materials supplied by the food or the mother's tissues. These bodies are not filtered out of the blood as such from the digested food compounds. If this were so, then the food would have a very direct and extensive influence on the quality of the milk, which is not the case. With species and breeds of animals the amount and kind of milk are determined by the specific activity of the secreting glands, and no variations of food will cause a Holstein cow to give Jersey milk or will cause any individual animal to abandon her constitutional habit of milk secretion, and the same is true of individuals of the human species.

261. Procedure When Milk Is Abnormal

It sometimes happens that a mother's milk is abnormal in its quality, that is, it may be unusually poor or unusually rich, or may have one constituent in unusual proportions. When this is true, and the child is unfavorably affected, the remedy lies in resorting to artificial feeding, and not in trying to modify the milk through the food supply. The attempt to change the richness of human milk or the relative proportions of its constituents by giving the mother watery food, or food especially rich in one constituent such as protein or fat, is bound to fail in its purpose. All that is required is that the food shall be sufficient in quantity and not markedly insufficient in any needed constituent. A diet made up of meats and fish in reasonable proportions, eggs, milk, bread, breakfast foods in which the constituents of the whole grain are practically all retained, fruits in moderate quantity, and vegetables of such kinds and in such quantities as do not cause digestive disturbances, furnishes an adequate basis for abundant milk secretion.

262. Effect Of Mother's Food Upon Child

The assertion is often heard that a child has been harmfully affected by some food substance that entered into the mother's diet, or by some medicine she took. There are two ways in which it is conceivable that the food of the mother may work injury to the child: (1) the diet affecting the mother's health, with an accompanying reaction on the milk secretion, and (2) by the direct transfer to the milk of substances in the mother's food. Overeating, sudden changes in the diet, and the use of foods that, with a particular person are known to cause a disturbance of the digestion, may react on the milk secretion, and these causes should be avoided. Concerning the influence of particular foods on the child through the direct transference to the mother's milk of certain compounds, there is much tradition and little exact knowledge. Doubtless some foods are regarded as undesirable for the nursing mother without good reason, their bad reputation arising either from the results of eating an excessive quantity, or because the illness of some child has been coincident with the use of a certain food when it was not the disturbing factor. Tradition teaches that acid materials such as fruits and pickles, and condiments such as the spices and peppers, dangerously affect the mother's milk. Doubtless popular notions greatly exaggerate the real facts. There are no well established facts which justify the conclusion that a nursing mother may not eat acid fruits in moderation if under ordinary conditions she is accustomed to do so with comfort. It has been stated to the writer that beans, boiled cabbage, and other vegetables likely to cause intestinal fermentations should be excluded from the diet of a nursing mother; but this assertion seems to rest on hearsay, and not on demonstrative experience. It is hard to understand how these common foods, when eaten in reasonable quantities and with regularity as to kind and quantity, can cause the mother's milk to be harmful. A significant fact is that cow's milk produced from a ration of which acid silage forms a generous part may be safely fed to infants, as the writer knows from observation. Milk from a general milk supply, or even that known as "sanitary" or "certified," is produced from a great variety of foods, including silage, roots, and by-product feeding stuffs, and y6t when such milk is sound, it seems to be a safe food for infants in hundreds of cases.