214 DIGESTIBILITY 



per cent of cane sugar is still high, causing the nutritive ratio 

 of such milk to be abnormally wide and unbalanced. The carbo- 

 hydrates are present far in excess of the protein, fat and ash. 

 If fed to infants exclusively and for a prolonged period of time, 

 the growing organism is bound to suffer from malnutrition and 

 at the expense of muscular development. 



Furthermore, it is conceded by the medical profession that 

 sucrose is not a suitable form of carbohydrates for infants. It 

 is not as digestible as lactose, it changes the bacterial flora of the 

 intestines, enhancing the development of butyric acid and other 

 gas-forming and putrefactive germs at the expense of Bacillus 

 bifidus, which is the natural inhabitant of the intestine in normal, 

 milk-fed babies. 



Sweetened condensed milk is generally highly advertised by 

 the manufacturer as a suitable food for babies ; it is frequently 

 recommended by physicians and in some instances, it is claimed 

 to have agreed with babies who were unable to take care of milk 

 in any other form. It is not improbable that in these extremely 

 isolated cases of baby feeding, when all other feeds failed, the 

 true virtue attributed to the sweetened condensed milk, lay in 

 the fact that the mothers carefully followed the directions on 

 the label for dilution. The directions specify that the condensed 

 milk be diluted with ten to sixteen parts of water. The majority 

 of cases of digestive disorders in bottle-fed babies are undoubt- 

 edly the result of the natural tendency of the mother to feed 

 her child too much milk or too rich milk. When we consider 

 that the ratio of concentration in sweetened condensed milk is 

 only about 2.5 to 1, it is obvious that a dilution of 10 or 16 to 

 1 is a great relief to the over-taxed digestive organs of infants, 

 previously fed on milk too rich for normal digestion. The im- 

 mediate change of the health and disposition of these babies for 

 the better, as the result of turning from a prolonged siege of 

 too rich food to the very dilute condensed milk, is therefore not 

 surprising. 



The manufacturer of sweetened condensed milk in this coun- 

 try is inclined to load his product excessively with sucrose. He 

 does this largely in an effort to increase the keeping quality and 

 to guard against development of fermentations in the finished 

 article that ruin the goods for the market. While a certain 



