WEANING, the act of separating a child from the partaking of its mother's milk as food. A few hours after the birth of a child, the breast of the mother secretes milk for its nourishment. The milk that is secreted at first differs in some of its properties from the milk subsequently secreted, and has been called colostrum. Healthy milk under the microscope is found to contain glohules of various sizes, which are perfectly spherical in form, swimming in a fluid in which are suspended no other particles; whilst the globules of colostrum are irregular and disproportioned, some of them being very large and others very small. There are also in coloetrum particles of a yellowish colour, which are very minute, and which consist of fatty matter and a peculiar mucus. The milk retains these characters for several days, and it has been supposed at this period to possess a purgative pro perty, which excites the intestines of the young infant to throw off the accumulated meconium. When the mother is healthy, the secre tion of milk goes on abundantly till the ninth or tenth month, at which time the infant is generally able to take some other kind of food, and the process of weaning may commence at this period. It how ever often happens, from ill health or other causes, that the mother is not able from the first to suckle her child. In this case the child must be either transferred to another nurse or fed artificially. The former, where possible, should always be preferred. In the choice of a nurse care should be taken that the infant is transferred to one whose age, size, and temperament resemble its own mother. There should also be an absence of actual disease or a tendency to hereditary disease, and of all habits likely to interfere with a due secretion of healthy milk. Where children are artificially fed or reared from birth by the hand, the greatest care and attention are required. The first requisite is that the child should have a food as nearly resembling its natural food as possible. For this purpose the milk of various animals has been employed. That of the cow, as being most easily obtained, is meet frequently used; but it would appear that the milk of the ass most nearly resembles human milk, and on that account, where it can be obtained, is to be preferred. The following is the latest analysis by Dr. Mayfair, of the milk of woman, the cow, and the ass, and may serve as a guide in the preparation of the food of children :— The milk of the cow contains a much larger quantity of the casein, or nitrogenised principle, than that of woman or the ass, and requires dilution previous to its being administered to new-born children. At first two-thirds pure fresh water and one of cows' milk, with a small quantity of sugar, may be employed. As the child grows older, the quantity of water should be gradually decreased till it takes milk alone. This food should be administered to the child at a temperature of about 98°, the heat at which the milk is supplied from the mother. 'When children are thus fed, a spoon should not be used, but some means should be had recourse to for administering the milk slowly, as the sucking-bottle, artificial nipple, &c. In feeding a child artificially, as in sucklirig, the first sign of indifference may be regarded as a sign that the child has had enough. On no account ahould children be fed again immediately after vomiting, a practice that is often extremely Injurious.
A. a child increases in size and strength, it requires other food In addition to milk, and at last ceases to require supplies from its mother.
Although this is a perfectly natural process, It is often, from want of skill, or rather want of knowledge of natural laws, a source of painful disease to the mother, And sometimes even loss of life to the child. As a general rule, It may be stated that a child should never be suddenly weaned, and that the more gradual the separation between mother and child the better will it be for both. The time for weaning must depend In some measure both on the development and health of the child and the state and health of the mother. With regard to the child, one of the first indications that weaning may be commenced Is the appearance of teeth. This is indicative of preparation for other kind of food, and generally occurs in healthy children about the sixth or seventh month ; and it is at this period that a gradual abstraction of the breast may commence. If this be done, It is seldom that a child will require suckling beyond the first year ; although, where no ill consequences result to the mother, there is no objection to the child continuing at the breast till it is eighteen months or two years old. Where children are backward in the development of their teeth, and present other signs of want of strength and delicacy of constitution, it is frequently advisable that they should remain a lengthened period at the breast. It is always necessary to take into consideration the health of the mother during suckling, as children may stiller much more severely from an imperfectly secreted or diseased state of the milk than they would from immediate weaning, and under these circumstances of course the least evil is to be preferred.
I In order that the weaning should be gradual, the child should be induced at the fifth or sixth month to take some light food once or twice a day, and its supply from the breast should be proportionately diminished. If such a plan is pursued, the quantity of food adminis tered by hand being increased whilst the supply from the nurse is decreased, it will be generally found that little difficulty will be experienced in entirely weaning the child at ten or twelve months old. After a child has been weaned its food ought principally to consist of liquid or semifluid substances. Asses' and cows' milk alone, or boiled with bread, thickened with barley or baked flour, may be given for the first few months. To these may be added, for the sake of variety, rice, tapioca, sego, and arrowroot, which may be made up with milk or water, or both; and when water alone is used, sugar should be added. Where children cannot take milk, light broths should be administered. As eolid food for the first year after weaning, there is nothing better than bread and butter : but In all cases in the diet of children a due regard should be bad to the relation between azotised and non-azotised aliments. If the former are given in too great quantity, congestion and inflammation are frequently the result; whilst if the latter prevail in the diet, the child gets fat and loses strength, and becomes subject to diseases of debility. Neither the one kind nor the other should be withheld, and it is only by their judicious combination that the fatal effects of improper diet can be avoided.
(Oardien, Dietimmaire des Seitneu Merdicales ; Combs, On the Management of Infancy Mailmen and Evanson, On the Diseases of Children.) WEAR. [Wm.]