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The Care of Babies: Sterilization

Sterilization of Milk. - Pasteurization is always to be preferred over sterilization, provided milk can afterwards be kept clean and cold. Sterilization makes milk harder to digest and decreases its food value. The prolonged use of such milk leads to stomach and intestinal diseases, rickets, loss of weight, failure of bones to grow properly, and other harmful conditions. But between dirty milk and cooked milk, sterilization is the lesser evil. Those who cannot obtain ice, and especially those who are obliged to live in unsanitary conditions such that the milk is sure to become contaminated, would better sterilize rather than pasteurize the milk, especially in summer. In winter the milk can be kept cool by means of a window box. This will afford the baby some relief from the evil effects of sterilization.

To scald or sterilize milk which comes in bottles place the bottle on a saucer in the bottom of a tin pail as for pasteurization. Leave the cap on. Fill up the pail to within three or four inches of the top and bring to a boil. The instant the water begins to boil (not simmer) remove the boiler from the stove. Take care that the milk does not boil. If it should boil, throw it away. Boiled or over-heated milk, if fed to a baby for any considerable length of time, will produce a most distressing type of scurvy. Remove the boiler from the stove and let the bottle of milk stand in the water for about twenty minutes. Then cool as quickly as possible.

Or, if milk is bought in bulk, pour it into a sterilized glass fruit jar as recommended for pasteurization and proceed as for bottled milk.

Observe that sterilized milk is more susceptible to contamination from germs than raw milk. Hence take care that everything that comes in contact with scalded milk is scrupulously clean. Remember that the ice box cannot be cleaned too often.

When to Pasteurize or Sterilize.- Certified milk or good fresh milk which has been kept clean and cold needs no preservative. Do not "scald," sterilize or pasteurize such milk. But if milk is dirty, or sours quickly, or if there is other evidence that it has not been kept clean or cold, the sooner it is pasteurized or sterilized after it comes into the house, the better. If the milk is to be kept in the original bottle or in a glass fruit jar or similar receptacle during the day, and the baby's bottle is to be filled from this as required, the best plan is to pasteurize or sterilize the milk as soon as it is received and before it is put into the ice box. But if milk is to be modified, and especially if there enough bottles so that a separate bottle can be prepared for each feeding, the better plan is to pasteurize are THE CARE OF BABIES or sterilize the modified milk or prepared food after it has been mixed and placed in the baby's bottles or other receptacles in which it is to be kept for the day.

Adulteration of Milk. - There are still some dairymen and dealers who think it is cheaper to kill the bacteria in dirty, warm, stale milk by means of germicides than to adopt means to keep the milk clean, cool and sweet. Such adulteration is forbidden by law in many states, and all offenders should be vigorously prosecuted. Keep a sharp lookout for adulterated milk and occasionally test the milk you receive for boric acid, borax, formaldehyde or bicarbonate of soda by methods elsewhere recommended. Or request your physician, or the health officials of your community, if any, to test it for you. Never use such preservatives yourself, nor buy milk from a dealer who uses them. You can never tell how much he has used, nor how much may have been used by others before the milk came to him. Preservatives are never harmless and if present in large quantities may be very injurious or even poisonous. CARE OF MILK IN THE HOME If the milk producer and the milk dealer have done their duty there is daily left at the consumer's door a bottle of clean, cold, unadulterated milk. By improper treatment in the home the milk may become unfit for food, especially for babies. This bad treatment consists in placing it in unclean vessels; in exposing it unnecessarily to the air; in failing to keep it cool up to the time of using it; and in exposing it to flies.

Milk absorbs impurities-collects bacteria-whenever it is exposed to the air or placed in unclean vessels.

If there is a sediment in the bottom of the container, after the milk has stood an hour or two, it indicates filthy habits on the part of the producer. The remedy is, change milkmen. This sediment is almost invariably fecal matter (manure) that has fallen into the milk pail from filthy cows. Most farmers who allow this matter to get into the milk are careful to strain it out, but they cannot strain out the unmistakable flavor which it imparts to milk. Remember that clean, pure milk is nearly free from taste or odor. If milk tastes or smells of the stable it is probably dirty.