Searchlights on Health/Feeding Infants
FEEDING INFANTS.
1. The best food for infants is mother's milk; next best is cow's milk. Cow's milk contains about three times as much curd and one-half as much sugar, and it should be reduced with two parts of water.
2. In feeding cow's milk there is too little cream and too little sugar, and there is no doubt no better preparation than Mellin's food to mix it with (according to directions).
3. Children being fed on food lacking fat generally have their teeth come late; their muscles will be flabby and bones soft. Children will be too fat when their food contains too much sugar. Sugar always makes their flesh soft and flabby.
4. During the first two months the baby should be fed every two hours during the day, and two or three times during the night, but no more. Ten or eleven feedings for twenty-four hours are all a child will bear and remain healthy. At three months the child may be fed every three hours instead of every two.
5. Children can be taught regular habits by being fed and put to sleep at the same time every day and evening. Nervous diseases are caused by irregular hours of sleep and diet, and the use of soothing medicines.
6. A child five or six months old should not be fed during the night from nine in the evening until six or seven in the morning, as overfeeding causes most of the wakefulness and nervousness of children during the night.
7. If a child vomits soon after taking the bottle, and there is an appearance of undigested food in the stool, it is a sign of overfeeding. If a large part of the bottle has been vomited, avoid the next bottle at regular time and pass over one bottle. If the child is nursing the same principles apply.
8. If a child empties its bottle and sucks vigorously its fingers after the bottle is emptied, it is very evident that the child is not fed enough, and should have its food gradually increased.
9. Give the baby a little cold water several times a day.