“In all cases, food which contains traces of bran, and also gluten, gum, sugar, cellulose, and saline matter, especially the phosphates, in proportion to the starch, are to be preferred. I prefer the Ridge’s food for nursing infants, but either may be used according to adaptability.
“Sugar of Milk.—A preparation of cow’s milk and sugar of milk forms a still lighter food, and one which, in the case of very young infants, should be used to the exclusion of farinaceous food. Cow’s milk may be assimilated to human milk by dilution with water and the addition of sugar of milk. Cow’s milk contains more oil (cream) and caseine, or cheese matter, but less sugar, than woman’s. When necessary to bring up a child by hand from birth, sugar of milk is more suitable to begin with.
“Formula: One ounce of sugar of milk should be dissolved in three-quarters of a pint of boiling water, and mixed as required with an equal quantity of fresh cow’s milk. The infant should be fed with this from the feeding-bottle in the usual way. Care must be taken to keep the bottle, etc., perfectly clean.
“Alkershrepta (Chocolate).—One of the most delicate and nutritious beverages is made from this preparation of the cocoa. It is prepared from the best cocoa-bean, the highly nutritious natural oil of which is not extracted, as in the ordinary soluble chocolates, but so neutralized as not to derange the stomach of the most delicate. Its nutritious and mildly stimulating qualities, its purity, and the facility with which it is prepared for use—not requiring to be boiled—recommend it as an excellent substitute for tea and coffee. Directions for its preparation accompany each package.
“Delacre’s Extract of Meat Chocolate.—This agreeable article combines in one preparation, and under a most agreeable form, a large proportion of tonic and nutritive principles. It contains both the properties of chocolate and beef. It is a useful tonic and nutritive agent for invalids and convalescents, and for persons of delicate constitutions. It contains three per cent. of La Plata Extract of Meat, and every square represents the nutritive constituents of one and a quarter ounces of beef. It is employed as ordinary chocolate. Full directions accompany each box.
“Welluc’s Biscotine.—A most excellent, healthy, and invigorating food for infants and invalids. It is prepared from sweetened bread and other nutritious substances, reduced to a fine powder, so as to render them easily soluble in water or milk. As an article of common diet for infants, particularly those suffering from delicate constitutions or with looseness of the bowels, it will be found to give health and strength with more certainty than the crude substances now in use, and not, like them, liable to sour on the stomach.”
SOME DISHES FOR “BABY.”
No particular diet can be recommended for the infant that is so unfortunate as to be deprived of its natural nourishment. What agrees with one is quite unsuccessful with another. Different kinds of diet can only be tested. Children’s little illnesses are often the result of food which, in their case, is unassimilating and indigestible; and it is often better to attempt a change of food than to resort to medicines.
City babies generally thrive poorly with cow’s milk. Some can stand it, however, diluting it with a third water, adding a slight thickening of rice, well boiled and mashed, and also a little sugar. Others thrive well on goat’s milk, when no other kind will answer. The Borden condensed milk serves like a charm with very young infants in cold weather; but in warm weather its excessive sweetness seems to cause acidification when taken. In New York, where it may be obtained fresh, without sweetening, I have heard that it is more satisfactory.