RUDDOCK.E.H IN consequence of the vital importance of the diet of children, for health, for growth and development, we deem it necessary to give detailed examples of dietary adapted to infants and other children at ages when they are most likely to be improperly fed, and when the consequences of such feeding are sure to tell disastrously ; namely, 1st, from birth to six months old ; 2nd, from six to twelve months 3rd, from twelve to eighteen months ; and 4th, from eighteen months to two years, and upwards. As it is impossible to make one invariable rule applicable to the different constitutions of requirements of children, it is scarcely necessary to add that the quantities stated in the following arrangements are only approximative. But the amounts of farinaceous food stated will generally be found sufficient.
As the diet suitable for children suffering from disease is pointed out in the various following Sections of this Manual it is not described in the present Section.
11. For the First Six Months.
DIET 1.- We commence by stating emphatically that children who enjoy their inalienable right to maternal breast-milk, assuming this to be suitable in quality land sufficient in quantity, require no other food. The infant should be applied to the breast every two hours and a half during the day for above the first six weeks ; afterwards only once in every three or four hours. But he should not be awakened from sleep at night to be fed. After about the first month or even earlier it will not be necessary to give the breast at all between the hours of 11 p.m. and 5 or 6 a.m. the early commencement of this arrangement is very important, as it affords the opportunity for that regular, undisturbed repose, which contributes much to the well-being of both mother and child. It is important, too, that the infant should suck from each breast alternately. Regular habits of feeding may be soon acquired ; it is a great mistake and the cause of wind, Colic, and other disorders, to give the infant the breast whenever it cries, or to let it be always sucking.
It should not be too readily assumed that the mother is unable to nurse her infant. Perseverance, more meat and milk and perhaps lactagol for the mother, often work wonders. On the other hand, though there may be plenty of milk, the child may suffer from dyspepsia which is sometimes corrected by restricting the mother's food or making her take more exercise.
A nursing mother or wet-nurse does not require an extra or a rich dietary, but discrimination in the selection of her food. The meal-hours should be regular, and late meals avoided. The thirst to which nursing mothers are liable is best appeased by milk-and- water, barely-water, toast-and-water, and similar beverages. Stimulants are best avoided.
DIET 2.- For children brought up by hand. The best substitute for mother's milk is good milk from a good dairy, diluted with boiled (not boiling) water half and half, and enriched by the addition of sugar (sugar of milk if possible) and cream. The milk should be scalded - either by heating over the flame until the first small bubbles begin to form (at 160o) or by standing for ten minutes in a vessel of boiling water (water kept boiling). Three- quarters of an ounce of sugar (a tablespoonful and a half) dissolved in 18 ounces of boiled water may be mixed as wanted with an equal quantity of the scalded milk and then given from a modern feeding-bottle with a simple rubber teat. Avoid all tubes. Be sure that the hole in the teat is the right size so that the child gets the milk neither too fast nor too slowly. The bottle and teat should be thoroughly washed out after each meal and kept in a basin of cold water. The child's mouth ought also to be cleansed out with fresh water after every feed. Under three months the child should receive 2 1/2 oz. of the milk mixture every two and a half hours, at three months 3 oz. every three hours. The interval then remains the same up to six months but the amount is increased an ounce every month. At six months the interval should be four hours, and by that time the half-and-half proportion should give way to two of milk and one of water.