If a baby were suckled at stated periods, he would only look for the bosom at those times, and be satisfied. A mother is frequently in the habit of giving the child the breast every time he cries, regardless of the cause. The cause too frequently is, that he has been too often suckled—his stomach has been overloaded; the little fellow is constantly in pain, and he gives utterance to it by cries. How absurd is such a practice! We may as well endeavor to put out a fire by feeding it with fuel. An infant ought to be accustomed to regularity in every thing—in times for suckling, for sleeping, etc. No children thrive so well as those who are thus early taught.
33. Where the mother is MODERATELY strong, do you advise that the infant should have any other food than the breast?
Artificial food must not, for the first three or four months, be given, if the parent be moderately strong; of course, if she be feeble, a little food will be necessary. Many delicate women enjoy better health while suckling than at any other period of their lives.
34. What food is the best substitute for a mother’s milk?
The food that suits one infant will not agree with another. (1.) The one that I have found the most generally useful, is made as follows: Boil the crumb of bread for two hours in water, taking particular care that it does not burn; then add only a little lump sugar (or brown sugar, if the bowels be costive), to make it palatable. When he is five or six months old, mix a little new milk—the milk of ONE cow—with it, gradually, as he becomes older, increasing the quantity until it be nearly all milk, there being only enough water to boil the bread; the milk should be poured boiling hot on the bread. Sometimes the two milks—the mother’s and the cow’s milk—do not agree; when such is the case, let the milk be left out, both in this and in the foods following, and let the food be made with water instead of with milk and water. In other respects, until the child is weaned, let it be made as above directed; when he is weaned, good fresh cow’s milk MUST, as previously recommended, be used. (2.) Or, cut thin slices of bread into a basin, cover the bread with cold water, place it in an oven for two hours to bake; take it out, beat the bread up with a fork, and then slightly sweeten it. This is an excellent food. (3.) If the above should not agree with the infant (although, if properly made, they almost invariably do), “tous-les-mois” may be given. (4.) Or, Robb’s Biscuit, as it is “among the best bread compounds made out of wheat-flour, and is almost always readily digested.”—Routh. “Tous-les-mois” is the starch obtained from the tuberous roots of various species of canna; and is imported from the West Indies. It is very similar to arrow-root. I suppose it is called “tous-les-mois,” as it is good to be eaten all the year round.
(5.) Another good food is the following: Take about a pound of flour, put it in a cloth, tie it up tightly, place it in a saucepanful of water, and let it boil for four or five hours; then take it out, peel off the outer rind, and the inside will be found quite dry, which grate. (6.) Another way of preparing an infant’s food, is to bake flour—biscuit flour—in a slow oven, until it be of a light fawn color. (7.) An excellent food for a baby, is baked crumbs of bread. The manner of preparing it is as follows: Crumb some bread on a plate; put it a little distance from the fire to dry. When dry, rub the crumbs in a mortar, and reduce them to a fine powder; then pass them through a sieve. Having done which, put the crumbs of bread into a slow oven, and let them bake until they be of a light fawn color. A small quantity either of the boiled, or of the baked flour, or of the baked crumb of bread, ought to be made into food in the same way as gruel is made, and should then be slightly sweetened, according to the state of the bowels, either with lump or with brown sugar.
(8.) Baked flour sometimes produces constipation; when such is the case, Mr. Appleton of Budleigh Salterton, Devon, wisely recommends a mixture of baked flour and prepared oatmeal, in the proportion of two of the former and one of the latter. He says: “To avoid the constipating effects, I have always had mixed, before baking, one part of prepared oatmeal with two parts of flour; this compound I have found both nourishing, and regulating to the bowels. One tablespoonful of it, mixed with a quarter of a pint of milk, or milk and water, when well boiled, flavored, and sweetened with white sugar, produces a thick, nourishing, and delicious food for infants or invalids.” He goes on to remark: “I know of no food, after repeated trials, that can be so strongly recommended by the profession to all mothers in the rearing of their infants, without or with the aid of the breast, at the same time relieving them of much draining and dragging while nursing with an insufficiency of milk, as baked flour and oatmeal.” If there is any difficulty in obtaining prepared oatmeal, Robertson’s Patent Groats will answer equally as well.
(9.) A ninth food may be made with “Farinaceous Food for Infants, prepared by Hards of Dartford.” If Hards’ Farinaceous Food produces costiveness—as it sometimes does—let it be mixed either with equal parts or with one-third of Robertson’s Patent Groats. The mixture of the two together makes a splendid food for a baby. (10.) A tenth, and an excellent one, may be made with rusks, boiled for an hour in water, which ought then to be well beaten up by means of a fork, and slightly sweetened with lump sugar. Great care should be taken to select good rusks, as few articles vary so much in quality. (11.) An eleventh is—the top crust of a baker’s loaf, boiled for an hour in water, and then moderately sweetened with lump sugar. If, at any time, the child’s bowels should be costive, raw must be substituted for lump sugar. (12.) Another capital food for an infant, is that made by Lemann’s Biscuit Powder. (13.) Or, Brown and Polson’s Patent Corn Flour will be found suitable. The Queen’s cook, in his recent valuable work, gives the following formula for making it: “To one dessertspoonful of Brown & Polson, mixed with a wineglassful of cold water, add half a pint of boiling water; stir over the fire for five minutes; sweeten lightly, and feed the baby; but if the infant is being brought up by the hand, this food should then be mixed with milk—not otherwise.”
(14.) The following is a good and nourishing food for a baby: Soak, for an hour, some best rice in cold water; strain, and add fresh water to the rice; then let it simmer till it will pulp through a sieve; put the pulp and the water in a saucepan, with a lump or two of sugar, and again let it simmer for a quarter of an hour; a portion of this should be mixed with one-third of fresh milk, so as to make it of the consistence of good cream.
When the baby is five or six months old, new milk should be added to any of the above articles of food, in a similar way to that recommended for boiled bread.