Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/46

 look for the bosom at those times, and be satisfied. A mother is frequently in the habit of giving the child the breast every time he cries, regardless of the cause. The cause too frequently is, that he has been too often suckled—his stomach has been overloaded; the little fellow is constantly in pain, and he gives utterance to it by cries. How absurd is such a practice! We may as well endeavor to put out a fire by feeding it with fuel. An infant ought to be accustomed to regularity in every thing—in times for suckling, for sleeping, etc. No children thrive so well as those who are thus early taught.

33. Where the mother is strong, do you advise that the infant should have any other food than the breast? Artificial food must not, for the first three or four months, be given, if the parent be moderately strong; of course, if she be feeble, a little food will be necessary. Many delicate women enjoy better health while suckling than at any other period of their lives. 34. What food is the best substitute for a mother's milk?

The food that suits one infant will not agree with another. (1.) The one that I have found the most generally useful, is made as follows: Boil the crumb of bread for two hours in water, taking particular care that it does not burn; then add only a little lump-sugar (or brown sugar, if the bowels be costive), to make it palatable. When he is five or six months old, mix a little new milk—the milk of cow—with it, gradually, as he becomes older, increasing the quantity until it be nearly all milk, there being only enough water to boil the bread; the milk should be poured boiling hot on the bread. Sometimes the two milks—the mother's and the cow's milk—do not agree; when such is the case, let the milk be left out, both in this and in the foods following, and let the food be made with water instead of with milk and water. In other respects, until the child is weaned, let it be made as