METHOD OF WEANING.At whatever time begun, the process should be grad ual, if possible, lest the mother have trouble with her breasts, and the child with its stomach and bowels. At first a bottle should be given tN-vice a day: if the food causes no indigestion the num ber of feedings and the quantity may be gradually increased up to the full quota for the child's age, according to the table below, under "Modification of Milk for Healthy Infants During the First Year," page 227.
As to the formul to be used, if-the baby is under four months old, the food for the first few days should be as weak as that for a newborn child; if from four to nine months, the formula should be at first that for a month-old child; and, if from nine to twelve months, that for a three-month child. The impor tant point is always to start with a suffi cient quantity of very dilute food, and afterward increase the proportions as rapidly as the child can assimilate them.
Artificial, or Substitute, Feeding.
In order that an infant may properly thrive on an artificial food, certain fun damental principles must be complied with, viz.: 1. The food niust contain the same in gredients as breast-milk, and in about the same proportions.
2. As nearly as possible the fats, sugar, and proteids of the food should ffood breast-milk and cows' milk is ffiven in the table: resemble those of breast-milk, both in chemical composition and in their be havior to the digestive fluids.
3. The addition to the food of very young infants of substances not present in breast-milk (e.g., starch) is rarely ad visable, and if used in large quantity may be positively harmful.
In accordance with these principles, cows' milk is selected, because it fur nishes the elements required, although not in the proportions best suited to the infant's needs.
An infant fed at the breast, who suffers persistent indigestion and at the same time fails to gain in weight. should he taken from that breast. If. however. the infant gains in weight it is better to try and correct the indigestion by treatment directed both to the mother and child. To attempt artificial feeding in such a case often only adds to our t roubles.
In commeneit;g artificial feeding a weak mixture should be begun with, and worked up by frequent, but slight, chan,ges to a point of tolerance. By still continuing a gradual, but steady, increase. never beyond the point of easy digestibility, \VC can in a few weeks at tain to a food sufficiently nutritious in all its ingredients and yet fully digest- ' ible and assimilable. It is a serious mis take to begin on a mixture too strong. and work down after weeks of indiges tion to the point of tolerance. Block ader Montreal Med. Jour., July, 1902).
Cows' Milk.