Dr. J. Forsyth Meigs directs the following article of diet as one which he has found to agree better with the digestive system of the infant than any other kind of food:—'A scruple of gelatine (or a piece two inches square of the flat cake in which it is sold) is soaked for a short time in cold water, and then boiled in half a pint of water, until it dissolves—about ten or fifteen minutes. To this is added, with constant stirring, and just at the termination of the boiling, the milk and arrowroot, the latter being previously mixed into a paste with a little cold water. After the addition of the milk and arrowroot, and just before the removal from the fire, the cream is poured in, and a moderate quantity of loaf sugar added. The proportions of milk, cream, and arrowroot must depend on the age and digestive powers of the child. For a healthy infant, within the month, I usually direct from three to four ounces of milk, half an ounce to an ounce of cream, and a tea-spoonful of arrowroot to half a pint of water. For older children, the quantity of milk and cream should be gradually increased to a half or two-thirds milk, and from one to two ounces of cream. I seldom increase the quantity of gelatine or arrowroot.'
The egg is a valuable article of food for infants and young children, especially in conditions of debility. It should be given nearly raw, and is best prepared by placing it in boiling water for two minutes. It is then easily digested.
Beef-tea, prepared in the manner described on page 234, is highly nutritious and useful as a food for infants: if it produce a laxative effect, it should be discontinued. When the child shows signs of weakness or of a scrofulous condition its nutrition will be improved by mingling with its food a small piece of butter or mutton suet.
During the first four or five months the food should be thin, and taken through a teat, thus preventing the stuffing of the infant.
On attaining the age of twelve or fifteen months, infants are usually able to digest ordinary wholesome solid food, neatly and well cooked, when mashed or cut into fine pieces.
An article of food employed for the diarrhœa of infants is prepared as follows:—'A pound of dry wheat flour of the best quality is packed snugly in a bag and boiled three or four hours. When it is taken from the bag it is hard, resembling a piece of chalk, with the exception of the exterior, which is wet, and should be removed. The flour grated from the mass should be used the same as arrowroot or rice.'
Infants nourished by prepared food thrive well enough during cool weather, but during the warm months of the year they are exceedingly liable to bowel complaint, of which large numbers of the spoon-fed infants of cities die each summer season. Hence the importance of taking them into the country; and keeping them there until the return of cool weather lessens the danger of city life.
WEANING.
This should take place when the child is about twelve months of age—sometimes a few months earlier, often a few later. If the mother's health be good, and her milk abundant, it may be deferred until the canine teeth appear—between the fifteenth and twentieth month. The child will then have sixteen teeth with which it can properly masticate soft solid food.
Time of the year for.—The infant should not be taken from the breast during or immediately preceding warm weather. If the mother, either on account of sickness or failure in her breast-milk, is obliged during the summer to give up nursing, she should at once procure a wet-nurse. If she cannot, the child must be sent into the country. To wean an infant in the city in hot weather, is to expose it to almost certain death.