But little pure milk can be obtained in cities, and a substitute may sometimes be used; but where good milk can be obtained, it may usually be made the principal food of young persons.
The mother’s milk, if the mothers are healthy, is the best food for infants; and those that nurse should not as a general rule be weaned during the summer months, when diarrhœas most prevail. When the mother has a sufficient quantity of milk, an infant requires and should receive no other food but breast milk until the sixth and perhaps the ninth month, when other food than breast milk must be provided. New-born babies until the age of twenty-one days should be fed with one part of milk to three of water; between the ages of three and six weeks, with one of milk and two of water; from six weeks to three months, two of milk to three of water; at three months, half milk and half water; at six months three of milk and one of water. It should be good new milk, and the water should be warm, or only hot enough to bring the temperature to that of breast milk.
This diet is better than any variety of starch food, but if the best milk that is obtainable does not agree well with the child, a light gruel made from any of the derivatives of starch may be substituted for water in the above admixtures. If a feeding bottle is used, the food should be given at regular intervals, as has been heretofore directed in regard to nursing. As soon as the child’s meal is over, the tube should be removed from its mouth. The bottle and teat should be thoroughly washed after each meal, and the former always kept in a basin of cold water when not in use. A sweet feeding bottle is of great importance, and neglect of scrupulous attention to it is a frequent cause of sickness in a child.
A few more general directions will be given to afford some guide under varying circumstances.
The degree of dilution of the milk may vary with the richness of the milk used.
When the mother gives evidence of feebleness it may be best to wean the child at six months, or even sooner if the mother evidently suffers from lactation. If the mother’s health is robust it may be well to nurse it to the twelfth or thirteenth month, but we should always endeavor to know whether the child thrives best on the mother’s milk. Before the twelfth month she should gradually diminish the allowance of the breast, and increase the supply of suitable food; perhaps suckling the child twice in the twenty-four hours, and otherwise feeding it at proper intervals.
If the child is weaned at seven or eight months or later, it may take for a meal a breakfast-cup full of milk to which is added a teaspoonful of lime water, or a weak solution of soda; and sometimes it may take the yolk of an egg well beaten up in a teacupful of milk, or a dessert spoonful of pearl barley jelly dissolved in a breakfast-cup full of warm milk, and slightly sweetened with white sugar.
Food for infants or for the sick should neither be rewarmed nor kept warm on a stove or in an oven, especially if either sugar or salt has been added to the composition; it is better to prepare no more than is required at once, but if any should remain and be used, let it be brought to a proper warmth by the addition of a little hot water, broth, or gruel, as the case may be.
Food made of bread so as to constitute pap or PANADA has a great tendency to become sour, and a quantity only sufficient for a single meal should be made at a time.
Oatmeal and Indian meal have a loosening effect upon the bowels, but these as well as wheaten bread, contain more nutritive matter than sago, tapioca, and similar substances which may be regarded as modifications of starch.