Articles Needed in Preparing the Baby’s Food. A complete equipment for preparing and giving the baby’s milk should be assembled, kept in a clean place, separate from utensils in general use, and never put to any other service. A satisfactory outfit for this purpose comprises the following articles:
- One dozen graduated nursing bottles.
- One dozen nipples.
- Clean, new corks or a package of sterile, non-absorbent cotton for stoppers.
- Bottle brush.
- Covered kettle, capacity one gallon, for boiling bottles and possibly pasteurizing milk.
- Pasteurizer or wire bottle rack.
- Small kettle, about one quart size.
- Graduated pint or quart measuring glass.
- Pitcher, two quart size.
- Long-handled spoon for mixing.
- Funnel.
- Measuring spoons—table and tea sizes.
- Double boiler.
- Thermometer which will register at least 212° F.
- Cream dipper (if ordered).
- Two small covered jars for sterile and used nipples.
- Sugar (lactose, maltose or cane sugar according to orders).
- Lime water, if ordered.
Utensils of enamel or aluminum ware are probably the most satisfactory ones to use as they are easily kept clean, while bottles with wide mouths and curved bottoms and inner surfaces can be thoroughly washed more easily than those with small necks and sharp corners. Nipples that can be turned inside out to be washed should be selected as it is almost impossible to clean thoroughly those with tubes or narrow necks. New bottles will be rendered less breakable if placed in cold water, which is gradually heated, allowed to boil for half an hour and cooled before the bottles are removed.
Fig. 168.—Preparing the baby’s milk. (From photograph taken at Johns Hopkins Hospital.)
The bottles should be rinsed with cold water after each feeding and then carefully washed and scrubbed with the bottle brush in hot soapsuds or borax water, containing two tablespoonsful to the pint. They may be kept full of water while not in use or rinsed with hot water and stood upside down until they are all boiled on the following morning, preparatory to being filled with the freshly prepared milk. The baby’s bottles should never be washed in dishwater nor dried on a towel. The nipples should be rinsed in cold water, turned inside out and scrubbed with a brush, in hot soapsuds or borax water; rinsed and placed in a jar ready to be boiled with the bottles.
Preparation of Milk. The full quantity of milk which the baby will take in the course of twenty-four hours is prepared at one time and the prescribed amount for each feeding poured into as many separate bottles as there will be feedings. (Fig. [168].)
The nurse should first boil for five minutes all of the articles that will come in contact with the milk, including the full number of bottles and nipples and the jars in which the nipples are kept; remove them with the long-handled spoon without touching the edges or inner surfaces and place them on a clean table, dropping the nipples into one of the sterile jars.
She should wash the mouth of the milk bottle before removing the cap and pour the amount which the formula calls for into the sterile pitcher. To this is added the sterile water in which the sugar has been dissolved in the glass graduate, and the potato or barley water, the lime water or soda solution as ordered. This mixture is thoroughly stirred and the amount for one feeding at a time measured in the graduate and poured into the specified number of bottles which are then stoppered.
If certified milk is used for the milk mixture it is often given to the baby without being pasteurized, in which case the bottles are placed in the refrigerator as soon as they are filled and stoppered. Very frequently, however, the milk is sterilized or pasteurized. The nurse will feel surer of keeping the mouths of the bottles clean if she covers them with squares of gauze or muslin before they are sterilized, holding the caps in place with tapes or rubber bands. Pasteurization as applied to infant feeding consists of heating the milk to 140–165° F. and keeping it at that temperature 20 to 30 minutes.