Kai Tiaki. The Journal of the Nurses of New Zealand. Vol. II, no. 4

October 1909

Medical K 264

Wellington, N.Z.: Watkins, Tyler and Tolan

Truby King began his campaign to ‘save the babies’ two years before the establishment of the Plunket Society. He had developed his humanised cow’s milk in 1905 to feed his sickly and newly adopted daughter Mary. He saw a need for this ‘humanised milk’ in a society where babies were often reared on unsuitable foods such as ‘cracker water, diluted cream…butter and sugar’ (Parry, 1982). King trained Joanna McKinnon, a Seacliff staffer, and using his own money, sent her to live in Dunedin at the end of 1905 to make and distribute humanised milk, and to teach mothers how to best feed their babies. The programme was so successful that the Taieri and Peninsula Dairy Company had to take over milk production. The nurses’ journal, Kai Tiaki, has a recipe for humanised milk on page 157; page 156 chronicles the day in the life of a Plunket nurse.