Condensed Milk and Milk Powder 131 



sively and for a prolonged period of time, the growing organism is 

 bound to suffer from 1 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 recom- 

 mended 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 dis- 

 orders in bottle-fed babies are undoubtedly 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 sweet- 

 ened condensed milk is only about 2.5 to I, 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 diges- 

 tion. The immediate 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 country 

 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 the development of fermentations in the finished article that 

 ruin the goods for the market. While a certain amount of sucrose 

 is necessary to preserve this milk, yet, if the product is manufactured 

 from a. good quality of fresh milk, as it should be, and when the 

 proper sanitary conditions are maintained in all departments of the 



