What are the objections to its use?
It is very low in fat and proteids, and high in sugar. This accounts for its easy digestibility, and also explains why children reared upon it often gain very rapidly in weight, yet have as a rule but little resistance. They are very prone to develop rickets and sometimes scurvy.
Are the proprietary infant foods open to the same objections as condensed milk?
They are. What has been said of condensed milk applies equally well to most of those that are sold in the market as substitutes for milk.
What changes in the food are required by slight indisposition?
For slight general disturbances such as dentition, colds, sore throats, etc., it is usually sufficient simply to dilute the food. If this is but for two or three feedings, it is most easily done by replacing with boiled water an ounce or two of the food removed from the bottle just before it is given; if for several days, a weaker formula should be used.
What changes should be made for a serious acute illness?
For such attacks as those of pneumonia, bronchitis measles, etc., attended with fever, the food should be diluted and the fat reduced as described on page 95. It should be given at regular intervals, rather less frequently than in health. Water should be given freely between the feedings. Food should not be forced in the early days of an acute illness, since the loss of appetite usually means an inability to digest much food.
What immediate changes should be made in the food when the child is taken with an acute attack of gastric indigestion with repeated vomiting, fever, pain, etc.?
All milk should be stopped at once, and only boiled water given for ten or twelve hours; afterward barley-water or whey may be tried, but no milk for at least twenty-four hours after the vomiting has ceased. When beginning with modified milk the quantity should be small and the fat low, which may be secured by the use of the Fourth Series of formulas in the place of the First or Second Series. The proportion of lime-water may be doubled.