What to eat and when

by Susanna Cocroft

Weaning

When it is possible, the baby should be weaned gradually. Although there is no set time for weaning, it is not advisable to feed the child exclusively from the breast after the eighth or tenth month. Bunge holds that human milk contains too little iron at this period and the babies are apt to become pale and undernourished.

When additional feeding is decided on, the physician should prescribe the preparation. A bottle a day should be substituted for the breast feeding at first and, gradually, additional bottle feedings, until, after about a month the breast is entirely withdrawn.

After the eighth month and until the age of twelve months, as a general rule, cow’s milk should be diluted and sweetened by mixing eight ounces of barley water and thirty-two ounces of milk, adding an ounce of cane-sugar or milk-sugar, and dividing the whole into five 8-ounce portions.

Additional food may be given to the healthy child after the eighth or ninth month. Orange juice or other fruit juice one or twice a day should be given about an hour before feeding. A teaspoonful may be given at first and the amount gradually increased to about two tablespoonfuls a day.

Orange juice is a specific in conditions of scurvy resulting from improper feeding. The child usually improves rapidly after it begins to take the juice.

Beef juice, meat broths, or strained vegetable soup may be given in increasing amounts up to 5 or 6 ounces daily.

Zwieback and whole wheat or Graham crackers are permissible in small amounts after the ninth month. After nine months the healthy baby should also have a soft-boiled egg occasionally, also baked apple and well-cooked, mashed spinach or carrots.

Food should be given only at regular intervals and nothing but water between feedings.

Starch-digesting ferments are present at birth in sufficient amounts to digest the sugar in milk, but they do not develop sufficiently to digest starches until about the twelfth month, so white bread, crackers made from white flour, potatoes, rice, etc., should not be given the child under a year.