Another aid to baby’s digestion is regularity in feeding. Directly after birth, the feedings should be regulated by the doctor and the nurse, who are better able to determine the strength and needs of the baby. If it is a normal, healthy child, for the first few days it will spend most of its time in sleep, but it should be given the breast at least once in four hours. A small, weak baby should nurse once in two hours, between 6 A.M. and 10 P.M., with one nursing in the middle of the night between 1:30 and 2:30.
After the first week, a strong baby may be nursed every three hours, between 6 A.M. and 9 P.M., with one night feeding. At three months, a healthy baby is nursed every three hours, and at four months the night feeding is dropped. That is, he is not nursed between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M.
Feeding a baby every time he cries is bad for both mother and child. It ties the nursing mother to her baby’s side. It injures the baby’s digestion. It is the first misstep in molding the baby’s character.
If, in spite of the care here outlined for mother and baby, the child does not thrive on breast milk, the cause must be ascertained and artificial feeding must be considered.
CHAPTER IV
ARTIFICIAL FEEDING
WHEN ARTIFICIAL FEEDING IS NECESSARY—WEIGHT THE TEST OF PROPER NOURISHMENT—COW’S MILK, CAREFULLY MODIFIED, IS THE BEST SUBSTITUTE FOR MOTHER’S MILK—SOURCE OF SUPPLY AND CARE—CARE OF THE BOTTLES AND NIPPLES
Successful artificial feeding of infants is one of the big problems which the medical profession strives unceasingly to solve. It has never found a perfect substitute for mother’s milk, but it has greatly reduced the rate of infant mortality, due to artificial feeding, by working out formulas that combine the food properties provided by breast milk. And not the least valuable result of its investigations has been the agitation for pure milk supply, the sanitary care of milk and dairies.
Any mother who has followed the reports of pure milk commissions, and heard the talks and lectures given by specialists in infant feeding, must realize the tremendous chance she takes in weaning her baby. Therefore, she will not take the step unless convinced that her milk positively disagrees with her child.
The most important test is the child’s development or lack of development, gain or loss in weight. This cannot be determined during the first week, for the average normal child loses from four to eight ounces during the first six or seven days of its life. Thereafter it should gain at the rate of from four to eight ounces a week, until it is six months old. After that the gain per week runs from two to four ounces, until the child is a year old, when the first danger-period of feeding is past.
During this time—and, in fact, throughout its childhood—an accurate record of its weight and measurements should be kept by the mother. For this purpose, the well-equipped nursery should contain a good pair of scales and a measuring board. The scales should record at least forty pounds. They are of the platform, not the spring, variety, with a basket for holding the baby while it is small and helpless. Later, when the child is able to sit up, the basket is replaced by a pad.