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36
FOOD.
2. The mother, if she is fairly healthy, is the proper person to
bring up the child, and if she has plenty of breast milk the Infant
should not have any other food whatever until it is seven months
old. If this rule were more often followed many Infant lives
would be saved yearly in this parish, and the mothers themselves
would be in better health. The Infant should be suckled every two
hours during the first month, and gradually less frequently until at
the end of the third month it is suckled every three hours. At
night the Infant, if sleeping, need not be suckled so often. It
often happens that, although the mother is healthy, she has only a
little breast milk, in that case the infant should have what milk is
there, and in addition cow's milk and water in the proportions
recommended for infants brought up on cow's milk alone. A
superstition still exists that the two milks do not agree. It is a
pure fallacy. When the mother has little milk it is as well for her
to drink a cupful of milk half an hour before suckling the Infant.
When a child is overfed it is sick, when underfed it is crying with
hunger. Do not, however, feed it every time it cries, but keep as
much as possible to the regular feeding periods. As a rule the
Infant should be gradually weaned at the eighth or ninth month.
Do not on any account give the child baked flour, arrowroot, cornflour,
biscuits, or any so-called "Infants' food" before it is seven
months old, as a young infant has no power to digest such foods,
and Diarrhoea and other troubles are sure to arise. A mother
should be careful what she herself takes during the suckling period.
She simply requires plenty of plain and wholesome food. Stimulants
are not necessary, and spirits are distinctly condemned.
3. When an Infant has to be brought up by hand, it should be
fed out of a bottle, with cow's milk and water warmed. Fresh cow's
milk should be used. The milk should always be boiled immediately
it is received into the house, not only to make it keep longer, but
in order to kill any germs that may be present in the milk and
which may lower the health of the child. The water with which
the milk is mixed must also be boiled.