An easy and satisfactory method to care for rubber nipples is the following: Provide as many nipples as the number of feedings given in 24 hours, and another, if desired, to be used in case of accident; provide also two cups of ordinary white enamel, each one large enough to hold all the nipples at once. One cup should have a cover; the other should not. To avoid mistakes it is well to have the cups different in shape. As soon as each feeding is finished the nipple should be thoroughly cleansed under running water by scrubbing it inside and out with a nipple brush. The nipple thus cleansed is placed in the cup without a cover. When all the nipples have been used, cleansed, and collected in the uncovered cup, they are transferred into the other cup; water is added, the cup is covered and its contents are boiled for three minutes. The nipples remain covered in the boiled water until needed; they are removed one by one for the successive feedings. Care must be used in removing a nipple to take it by the rim, not to touch other nipples during the process and not to dip the fingers into the water. The best way is to remove them by means of a glass rod, which is boiled with the nipples and kept with them in the cup when not in use. There
are several advantages of this method of caring for nipples: it is easy; it reduces to a minimum the necessary handling of the nipples after boiling; and it reduces the probability of using the wrong nipple, since boiled nipples are always in one kind of receptacle and used nipples in another. It also prevents the too common practice of continuing to keep nipples in a supposedly antiseptic solution long after the solution has become badly soiled.
Tables
of diet for children over one year of age may be found in the Appendix, [page 322].
Bathing.
—Usually the cord has separated and the navel has entirely healed by the time a baby is 10 days old. After this time a daily tub bath should be given; it should be given not less than one hour after feeding. The temperature of the room should be from 70-72°, measured by a thermometer placed in the part of the room where the bath is to take place. In order to avoid chilling or tiring the baby the bath should be given quickly, without confusion or interruption; success can be achieved by using even a moderate amount of foresight. Before undressing the baby everything to be used should be collected and placed within easy reach,—clean clothing, soft towels, 2 wash cloths, pure white soap, powder, absorbent cotton, etc. The bath tub should last of all be
filled with water, and its temperature tested by means of a bath thermometer. The temperature of the water should be from 98° to 100°. After the baby is three months old slightly cooler water should be splashed over his chest, back, neck, and arms just after he is removed from the tub, and as he grows older the temperature of his cool splash can be reduced. Children who become accustomed to cool water in this way take kindly to their cold showers later.
The baby's face should be washed first and dried carefully, while his body is still covered. Next the head should be washed; a little soap should be used, but it must on no account enter the eyes. Next the entire body should be soaped with the hand; and then the baby should be placed gently in the bath, his head and shoulders supported by the attendant's left hand and forearm. Care should be taken to rinse off all the soap. The baby should not stay in the tub more than 2 or 3 minutes; after he has been removed from the tub he should be wrapped at once in a soft bath towel. He should be dried gently but thoroughly by patting with soft, warm towels rather than by rubbing. Folds of the skin should be dried with special care. A little powder may be applied, but a baby who is kept both clean and dry will not need much powder, if any. The baby should
next be quickly dressed, with as little turning and moving as possible. Clothing should be drawn on over the feet instead of over the head, and the petticoat should be placed inside the slip so that the two garments may go on simultaneously.