Another plan by which the casein of cow's milk may be made digest ible, consists in mechanically separating the particles of curd by the addi tion of some thickening substance, such as gelatine or barley-water. This method of preparing the milk is to be preferred to the previous one, as it leaves the gastric juice unaltered, and does nothing to impair the child's digestive 'power. It merely forces the curd to form a multitude of small clots, instead of running together into one large, dense lump. For a child of two months of age, the milk should be diluted with an equal quantity of barley-water, and be sweetened with a small teaspoonful of sugar of milk.
The proportion of milk taken by the infant for each meal should be gradually increased as he grows older. From a half, the quantity may rise by degrees to two-thirds, and then to three-fourths, and a larger quantity of milk-sugar may also be added.
Barley-water rarely disagrees even with the youngest infants, although in them, the capacity for digesting starch is very feeble, as has been already explained. If preferred, however, instead of barley-water, the milk may be diluted with plain water, and the thickening material be supplied by a teaspoonful of isinglass or gelatine. Mellin's food, too, may be used from the first, and is almost always well digested.
Farinaceous matters, unless guarded by malt, as in Main's food, should not be given to a child younger than six months.
The milk prepared in one of the ways described must be given in suit able quantities and at regular intervals. Six or eight tablespoonfuls will be enough to make a meal for an infant of four or five weeks old. The child should take his food half reclining, as when in his mother's arms, and the bottle must be removed directly its contents are exhausted. After taking his food, the child should sleep for two hours. Any sign of fretful ness or discomfort at this age must be taken to imply indigestion and flatulence. If this be the case, a teaspoonful of some aromatic water, such as cinnamon or dill, may be added to the next bottle of food. The feeding apparatus must be kept perfectly clean. It is well to wash out the bottle directly after it has been used, with soda and water, and then to let it stand in cold water until again required. It is desirable to have two bottles and to use them alternately.
When the child is six months of age he may begin to take farinaceous food. A teaspoonful of Chapman's entire wheaten flour, baked in an oven, can. be given once or twice a day, rubbed up, not boiled, with milk. If
there is constipation, a similar quantity of fine oatmeal may be used in stead, of the flour. When the farinaceous food is first begun, a teaspoonful of the flour rubbed 'up with milk can be added to the meal of milk thick ened with Mellin's food. Later, the flour can be given with milk as a sep arate meal.
No beef-tea or broth should be allowed until the baby is at least ten months of age. At that time he may begin to take weak beef, veal, or mutton broth, and may also have the yolk of an egg lightly boiled, or beaten up with milk in the bottle. The child may take light pudding at the age of twelve months, but no meat for several months longer.
All changes made in the diet from the earliest period to the latest should be made cautiously, and their effect carefully observed. If the meal appear to excite indigestion and flatulence, the new food must be given on the next occasion in smaller quantity, or we may wait for a week before giving it a second time.
Scrupulous cleanliness, and the purest air attainable, are of great im portance. The child should be washed over the whole body twice a day— once with soap. He should wear a flannel binder round the belly. No slops or soiled linen should be allowed to remain in the nursery, and the window of the room should be kept open as much as is practicable. The infant should be taken out of doors for several hours in the day ; and while every care is taken to guard his sensitive body against sudden changes of temperature, he must not be covered up by too-heavy clothes, and shut off from every breath of air for fear of his catching cold. A child ought to lie cool at night, and the furniture of his cot, although sufficiently thick to insure necessary warmth, should not be cumbersome so as to be a burden.
The above directions, strictly carried out, will be found to succeed in most cases where the child's digestive organs have not been irritated and weakened by unsuitable meals. Often, however, the infant only comes un der observation after attempts—more or less injudicious—have been made to rear him, and advice is sought because the measures adopted have been found to be unsuccessful. Exceptional cases are also sometimes met with, where the infant from the first is unable to digest cow's milk. However carefully the food may be prepared, each meal either excites vomiting, or produces great acidity and flatulence, and the general nutrition of the child becomes gradually impaired.