It is often advisable to double the amount of lime-water—i.e., use two ounces to each twenty ounces of food.
The malted foods and all other foods containing much sugar usually aggravate the symptoms.
The intervals between meals should generally be half an hour longer, and sometimes an hour longer, than when digestion is normal.
The quantity given at a feeding should generally be less than with a normal digestion. Usually a smaller quantity of a strong food succeeds better than a larger quantity of a weak food.
What are the causes of, and food changes required by a constant and excessive formation of gas in the stomach, leading to distention and pain, or eructations (belching) of gas and often of a sour, watery fluid?
This is often associated with habitual vomiting, and is due to similar causes, but particularly to the sugar, which should be greatly reduced or omitted entirely.
What changes should be made when there is habitual colic?
This is generally due to an accumulation of gas in the intestines which forms there because the proteids (curd) of the milk are not digested. They should be reduced by using in the early months a weaker formula—i.e., instead of Formula V of the First or Second Series, IV might be used, or, for a short time, even III. The proteids may be reduced in the middle period by using weaker formulas If we desire to reduce the proteids without reducing the fat, we may change from the Second to the First Series.
Another means of relieving habitual colic is the use of partially peptonized milk (page 115); still another the dilution with barley-water instead of plain water.
What change should be made if curds appear in the stools regularly or frequently?