ARTIFICIAL DIET FOR INFANTS

It should be as like the breast-milk as possible. This is obtained by a mixture of cow's milk, water, and sugar, in the following proportions.

Fresh cow's milk, two thirds; Boiling water, or thin barley water, one third; Loaf sugar, a sufficient quantity to sweeten.

This is the best diet that can be used for the first six months, after which some farinaceous food may be combined.

In early infancy, mothers are too much in the habit of giving thick gruel, panada, biscuit-powder, and such matters, thinking that a diet of a lighter kind will not nourish. This is a mistake; for these preparations are much too solid; they overload the stomach, and cause indigestion, flatulence, and griping. These create a necessity for purgative medicines and carminatives, which again weaken digestion, and, by unnatural irritation, perpetuate the evils which render them necessary. Thus many infants are kept in a continual round of repletion, indigestion, and purging, with the administration of cordials and narcotics, who, if their diet were in quantity and quality suited to their digestive powers, would need no aid from physic or physicians.

In preparing this diet, it is highly important to obtain pure milk, not previously skimmed, or mixed with water; and in warm weather just taken from the cow. It should not be mixed with the water or sugar until wanted, and not more made than will be taken by the child at the time, for it must be prepared fresh at every meal. It is best not to heat the milk over the fire, but let the water be in a boiling state when mixed with it, and thus given to the infant tepid or lukewarm.

As the infant advances in age, the proportion of milk may be gradually increased; this is necessary after the second month, when three parts of milk to one of water may be allowed. But there must be no change in the kind of diet if the health of the child is good, and its appearance perceptibly improving. Nothing is more absurd than the notion, that in early life children require a variety of food; only one kind of food is prepared by nature, and it is impossible to transgress this law without marked injury.

There are two ways by the spoon, and by the nursing-bottle. The first ought never to be employed at this period, inasmuch as the power of digestion in infants is very weak, and their food is designed by nature to be taken very slowly into the stomach, being procured from the breast by the act of sucking, in which act a great quantity of saliva is secreted, and being poured into the mouth, mixes with the milk, and is swallowed with it. This process of nature, then, should be emulated as far as possible; and food (for this purpose) should be imbibed by suction from a nursing-bottle: it is thus obtained slowly, and the suction employed secures the mixture of a due quantity of saliva, which has a highly important influence on digestion. Whatever kind of bottle or teat is used, however, it must never be forgotten that cleanliness is absolutely essential to the success of this plan of rearing children.

Te quantity of food to be given at each meal ust be regulated by the age of the child, and its digestive power. A little experience will soon enable a careful and observing mother to determine this point. As the child grows older the quantity of course must be increased.

The chief error in rearing the young is overfeeding; and a most serious one it is; but which may be easily avoided by the parent pursuing a systematic plan with regard to the hours of feeding, and then only yielding to the indications of appetite, and administering the food slowly, in small quantities at a time. This is the only way effectually to prevent indigestion, and bowel complaints, and the irritable condition of the nervous system, so common in infancy, and secure to the infant healthy nutrition, and consequent strength of constitution. As has been well observed, "Nature never intended the infant's stomach to be converted into a receptacle for laxatives, carminatives, antacids, stimulants, and astringents; and when these become necessary, we may rest assured that there is something faulty in our management, however perfect it may seem to ourselves."

The frequency of giving food must be determined, as a general rule, by allowing such an interval between each meal as will insure the digestion of the previous quantity; and this may be fixed at about every three or four hours. If this rule be departed from, and the child receives a fresh supply of food every hour or so, time will not be given for the digestion of the previous quantity, and as a consequence of this process being interrupted, the food passing on into the bowel undigested, will there ferment and become sour, will inevitably produce cholic and purging, and in no way contribute to the nourishment of the child.

The posture of the child when fed:- It is important to attend to this. It must not receive its meals lying; the head should be raised on the nurse's arm, the most natural position, and one in which there will be no danger of the food going the wrong way, as it is called. After each meal the little one should be put into its cot, or repose on its mother's knee, for at least half an hour. This is essential for the process of digestion, as exercise is important at other times for the promotion of health.

As soon as the child has got any teeth, and about this period one or two will make their appearance, solid farinaceous matter boiled in water, beaten through a sieve, and mixed with a small quantity of milk, may be employed. Or tops and bottoms, steeped in hot water, with the addition of fresh milk and loaf sugar to sweeten. And the child may now, for the first time, be fed with a spoon.

When one or two of the large grinding teeth have appeared, the same food may be continued, but need not be passed through a sieve. Beef tea and chicken broth may occasionally be added; and, as an introduction to the use of a more completely animal diet, a portion, now and then, of a soft boiled egg; by and by a small bread pudding, made with one egg in it, may be taken as the dinner meal.

Nothing is more common than for parents during this period to give their children animal food. This is a great error. "To feed an infant with animal food before it has teeth proper for masticating it, shows a total disregard to the plain indications of nature, in withholding such teeth till the system requires their assistance to masticate solid food. And the method of grating and pounding meat, as a substitute for chewing, may be well suited to the toothless octogenarian, whose stomach is capable of digesting it; but the stomach of a young child is not adapted to the digestion of such food, and will be disordered by it.

It cannot reasonably be maintained that a child's mouth without teeth, and that of an adult, furnished with the teeth of carnivorous and graminivorous animals, are designed by the Creator for the same sort of food. If the mastication of solid food, whether animal or vegetable, and a due admixture of saliva, be necessary for digestion, then solid food cannot be proper, when there is no power of mastication. If it is swallowed in large masses it cannot be masticated at all, and will have but a small chance of being digested; and in an undigested state it will prove injurious to the stomach and to the other organs concerned in digestion, by forming unnatural compounds. The practice of giving solid food to a toothless child, is not less absurd, than to expect corn to be ground where there is no apparatus for grinding it. That which would be considered as an evidence of idiotism or insanity in the last instance, is defended and practised in the former. If, on the other hand, to obviate this evil, the solid matter, whether animal or vegetable, be previously broken into small masses, the infant will instantly swallow it, but it will be unmixed with saliva. Yet in every day's observation it will be seen, that children are so fed in their most tender age; and it is not wonderful that present evils are by this means produced, and the foundation laid for future disease."

The diet pointed out, then, is to be continued until the second year. Great care, however, is necessary in its management; for this period of infancy is ushered in by the process of teething, which is commonly connected with more or less of disorder of the system. Any error, therefore, in diet or regimen is now to be most carefully avoided. 'Tis true that the infant, who is of a sound and healthy constitution, in whom, therefore, the powers of life are energetic, and who up to this time has been nursed upon the breast of its parent, and now commences an artificial diet for the first time, disorder is scarcely perceptible, unless from the operation of very efficient causes. Not so, however, with the child who from the first hour of its birth has been nourished upon artificial food. Teething under such circumstances is always attended with more or less of disturbance of the frame, and disease of the most dangerous character but too frequently ensues. It is at this age, too, that all infectious and eruptive fevers are most prevalent; worms often begin to form, and diarrhoea, thrush, rickets, cutaneous eruptions, etc. manifest themselves, and the foundation of strumous disease is originated or developed. A judicious management of diet will prevent some of these complaints, and mitigate the violence of others when they occur.

APPERANCE OF MILK-TEETH

The first set of teeth, or milk-teeth as they are called, are twenty in number; they usually appear in pairs, and those of the lower jaw generally precede the corresponding ones of the upper. The first of the milk-teeth is generally cut about the sixth or seventh month, and the last of the set at various periods from the twentieth to the thirtieth months. Thus the whole period occupied by the first dentition may be estimated at from a year and a half to two years. The process varies, however, in different individuals, both as to its whole duration, and as to the periods and order in which the teeth make their appearance. It is unnecessary, however, to add more upon this point.

Their developement is a natural process. It is too frequently, however, rendered a painful and difficult one, by errors in the management of the regimen and health of the infant, previously to the coming of the teeth, and during the process itself.

Thus, chiefly in consequence of injudicious management, it is made the most critical period of childhood. Not that I believe the extent of mortality fairly traceable to it, is by any means so great as has been stated; for it is rated as high as one sixth of all the children who undergo it. Still, no one doubts that first dentition is frequently a period of great danger to the infant. It therefore becomes a very important question to an anxious and affectionate mother, how the dangers and difficulties of teething can in any degree be diminished, or, if possible, altogether prevented. A few hints upon this subject, then, may be useful. I shall consider, first, the management of the infant, when teething is accomplished without difficulty; and, secondly, the management of the infant when it is attended with difficulty.

Management of the infant when teething is without difficulty. ------------------------------------------------------------

In the child of a healthy constitution, which has been properly, that is, naturally, fed, upon the milk of its mother alone, the symptoms attending teething will be of the mildest kind, and the management of the infant most simple and easy.

Symptoms:- The symptoms of natural dentition (which this may be fairly called) are, an increased flow of saliva, with swelling and heat of the gums, and occasionally flushing of the cheeks. The child frequently thrusts its fingers, or any thing within its grasp, into its mouth. Its thirst is increased, and it takes the breast more frequently, though, from the tender state of the gums, for shorter periods than usual. It is fretful and restless; and sudden fits of crying and occasional starting from sleep, with a slight tendency to vomiting, and even looseness of the bowels, are not uncommon. Many of these symptoms often precede the appearance of the tooth by several weeks, and indicate that what is called "breeding the teeth" is going on. In such cases, the symptoms disappear in a few days, to recur again when the tooth approaches the surface of the gum.

Treatment:- The management of the infant in this case is very simple, and seldom calls for the interference of the medical attendant. The child ought to be much in the open air, and well exercised: the bowels should be kept freely open with castor oil; and be always gently relaxed at this time. Cold sponging employed daily, and the surface of the body rubbed dry with as rough a flannel as the delicate skin of the child will bear; friction being very useful. The breast should be given often, but not for long at a time; the thirst will thus be allayed, the gums kept moist and relaxed, and their irritation soothed, without the stomach being overloaded. The mother must also carefully attend, at this time, to her own health and diet, and avoid all stimulant food or drinks.

From the moment dentition begins, pressure on the gums will be found to be agreeable to the child, by numbing the sensibility and dulling the pain. For this purpose coral is usually employed, or a piece of orris-root, or scraped liquorice root; a flat ivory ring, however, is far safer and better, for there is no danger of its being thrust into the eyes or nose. Gentle friction of the gums, also, by the finger of the nurse, is pleasing to the infant; and, as it seems to have some effect in allaying irritation, may be frequently resorted to. In France, it is very much the practice to dip the liquorice-root, and other substances, into honey, or powdered sugar-candy; and in Germany, a small bag, containing a mixture of sugar and spices, is given to the infant to suck, whenever it is fretful and uneasy during teething. The constant use, however, of sweet and stimulating ingredients must do injury to the stomach, and renders their employment very objectionable.

ABC OF BREASTFEEDING

From the first moment the infant is applied to the breast, it must be nursed upon a certain plan. This is necessary to the well-doing of the child, and will contribute essentially to preserve the health of the parent, who will thus be rendered a good nurse, and her duty at the same time will become a pleasure.

This implies, however, a careful attention on the part of the mother to her own health; for that of her child is essentially dependent upon it. Healthy, nourishing, and digestible milk can be procured only from a healthy parent; and it is against common sense to expect that, if a mother impairs her health and digestion by improper diet, neglect of exercise, and impure air, she can, nevertheless, provide as wholesome and uncontaminated a fluid for her child, as if she were diligently attentive to these important points. Every instance of indisposition in the nurse is liable to affect the infant.

And this leads me to observe, that it is a common mistake to suppose that, because a woman is nursing, she ought therefore to live very fully, and to add an allowance of wine, porter, or other fermented liquor, to her usual diet. The only result of this plan is, to cause an unnatural degree of fulness in the system, which places the nurse on the brink of disease, and which of itself frequently puts a stop to the secretion of the milk, instead of increasing it. The right plan of proceeding is plain enough; only let attention be paid to the ordinary laws of health, and the mother, if she have a sound constitution, will make a better nurse than by any foolish deviation founded on ignorance and caprice.

The following case proves the correctness of this statement:

A young lady, confined with her first child, left the lying-in room at the expiration of the third week, a good nurse, and in perfect health. She had had some slight trouble with her nipples, but this was soon overcome.

The porter system was now commenced, and from a pint to a pint and a half of this beverage was taken in the four and twenty hours. This was resorted to, not because there was any deficiency in the supply of milk, for it was ample, and the infant thriving upon it; but because, having become a nurse, she was told that it was usual and necessary, and that without it her milk and strength would ere long fail.

After this plan had been followed for a few days, the mother became drowsy and disposed to sleep in the daytime; and headach, thirst, a hot skin, in fact, fever supervened; the milk diminished in quantity, and, for the first time, the stomach and bowels of the infant became disordered. The porter was ordered to be left off; remedial measures were prescribed; and all symptoms, both in parent and child, were after a while removed, and health restored.

Having been accustomed, prior to becoming a mother, to take a glass or two of wine, and occasionally a tumbler of table beer, she was advised to follow precisely her former dietetic plan, but with the addition of half a pint of barley-milk morning and night. Both parent and child continued in excellent health during the remaining period of suckling, and the latter did not taste artificial food until the ninth month, the parent's milk being all-sufficient for its wants.

No one can doubt that the porter was in this case the source of the mischief. The patient had gone into the lying-in-room in full health, had had a good time, and came out from her chamber (comparatively) as strong as she entered it. Her constitution had not been previously worn down by repeated child-bearing and nursing, she had an ample supply of milk, and was fully capable, therefore, of performing the duties which now devolved upon her, without resorting to any unusual stimulant or support. Her previous habits were totally at variance with the plan which was adopted; her system became too full, disease was produced, and the result experienced was nothing more than what might be expected.

The plan to be followed for the first six months. Until the breast- milk is fully established, which may not be until the second or third day subsequent to delivery (almost invariably so in a first confinement), the infant must be fed upon a little thin gruel, or upon one third water and two thirds milk, sweetened with loaf sugar.

After this time it must obtain its nourishment from the breast alone, and for a week or ten days the appetite of the infant must be the mother's guide, as to the frequency in offering the breast. The stomach at birth is feeble, and as yet unaccustomed to food; its wants, therefore, are easily satisfied, but they are frequently renewed. An interval, however, sufficient for digesting the little swallowed, is obtained before the appetite again revives, and a fresh supply is demanded.

At the expiration of a week or so it is essentially necessary, and with some children this may be done with safety from the first day of suckling, to nurse the infant at regular intervals of three or four hours, day and night. This allows sufficient time for each meal to be digested, and tends to keep the bowels of the child in order. Such regularity, moreover, will do much to obviate fretfulness, and that constant cry, which seems as if it could be allayed only by constantly putting the child to the breast. A young mother very frequently runs into a serious error in this particular, considering every expression of uneasiness as an indication of appetite, and whenever the infant cries offering it the breast, although ten minutes may not have elapsed since its last meal. This is an injurious and even dangerous practice, for, by overloading the stomach, the food remains undigested, the child's bowels are always out of order, it soon becomes restless and feverish, and is, perhaps, eventually lost; when, by simply attending to the above rules of nursing, the infant might have become healthy and vigorous.

For the same reason, the infant that sleeps with its parent must not be allowed to have the nipple remaining in its mouth all night. If nursed as suggested, it will be found to awaken, as the hour for its meal approaches, with great regularity. In reference to night-nursing, I would suggest suckling the babe as late as ten o'clock p. m., and not putting it to the breast again until five o'clock the next morning. Many mothers have adopted this hint, with great advantage to their own health, and without the slightest detriment to that of the child. With the latter it soon becomes a habit; to induce it, however, it must be taught early.

The foregoing plan, and without variation, must be pursued to the sixth month.

After the sixth month to the time of weaning, if the parent has a large supply of good and nourishing milk, and her child is healthy and evidently flourishing upon it, no change in its diet ought to be made. If otherwise, however, (and this will but too frequently be the case, even before the sixth month) the child may be fed twice in the course of the day, and that kind of food chosen which, after a little trial, is found to agree best.

Choose Suitable Cloth for Children

SUITABLE CLOTHING FOR CHILDREN

During infancy

Infants are actual affected of the impressions of cold; a able regard, therefore, to a acceptable accouterment of the body, is acute to their amusement of health. Unfortunately, an assessment is accustomed in society, that the breakable adolescent has artlessly a abundant ability of breeding calefaction and afraid cold; and from this accepted absurdity has arisen the best baleful results. This assessment has been abundant adequate by the insidious address in which algid operates on the frame, the abusive furnishings not actuality consistently apparent during or anon afterwards its application, so that but too frequently the baleful aftereffect is traced to a amiss source, or the baby sinks beneath the activity of an alien cause.

The ability of breeding calefaction in acquisitive animals is at its minimum at birth, and increases successively to developed age; adolescent animals, instead of actuality warmer than adults, are about a amount or two colder, and allotment with their calefaction added readily; facts which cannot be too about known. They appearance how cool charge be the absurdity of that arrangement of "hardening" the architecture (to which advertence has been afore made), which induces the ancestor to attempt the breakable and aerial adolescent into the algid ablution at all seasons of the year, and advisedly betrayal it to the cold, acid currents of an easterly wind, with the lightest clothing.

The attempt which care to adviser a ancestor in accouterment her baby are as follows:

The actual and abundance of the clothes should be such as to bottle a acceptable admeasurement of amore to the body, adapted accordingly by the division of the year, and the airiness or backbone of the infant's constitution. In ability this, however, the ancestor charge bouncer adjoin the too accepted convenance of enveloping the adolescent in innumerable folds of balmy clothing, and befitting it consistently bedfast to actual hot and abutting rooms; appropriately alive into the adverse acute to that to which I accept aloof alluded: for annihilation tends so abundant to attenuate the constitution, to abet disease, and cede the bark awful affected to the consequence of cold; and appropriately to aftermath those actual ailments which it is the arch ambition to bouncer against.

In their accomplish they should be so abiding as to put no restrictions to the chargeless movements of all genitalia of the child's body; and so apart and accessible as to admittance the blah damp to accept a chargeless exit, instead of actuality bedfast to and captivated by the clothes, and captivated in acquaintance with the skin, till it gives acceleration to irritation.

In their affection they should be such as not to abrade the aerial bark of the child. In infancy, therefore, flannel is rather too rough, but is adorable as the adolescent grows older, as it gives a affable bang to the skin, and maintains health.

In its architecture the dress should be so simple as to accept of actuality bound put on, back bathrobe is arid to the infant, causing it to cry, and agitative as abundant brainy affliction as it is able of feeling. Pins should be wholly dispensed with, their use actuality chancy through the carelessness of nurses, and alike through the accustomed movements of the baby itself.

The accouterment charge be afflicted daily. It is conspicuously accessory to acceptable bloom that a complete change of dress should be fabricated every day. If this is not done, abrasion will, in a abundant measure, abort in its object, abnormally in insuring abandon from bark diseases.

During childhood.

The accouterment of the adolescent should acquire the aforementioned backdrop as that of infancy. It should allow due warmth, be of such abstracts as do not abrade the skin, and so fabricated as to break no aberrant constriction.

In advertence to due warmth, it may be able-bodied afresh to repeat, that too little accouterment is frequently advantageous of the best abrupt attacks of alive disease; and that accouchement who are appropriately apparent with attenuate accouterment in a altitude so capricious as ours are the accepted capacity of croup, and added alarming angel of the air- passages and lungs. On the added hand, it charge not be forgotten, that too balmy accouterment is a antecedent of disease, sometimes alike of the aforementioned diseases which arise in acknowledgment to cold, and generally renders the anatomy added affected of the impressions of cold, abnormally of algid air taken into the lungs. Regulate the clothing, then, according to the season; resume the winter dress early; lay it abreast late; for it is in bounce and autumn that the vicissitudes in our altitude are greatest, and congestive and anarchic complaints best common.

With attention to actual (as was afore observed), the bark will at this age buck flannel abutting to it; and it is now not alone proper, but necessary. It may be put off with advantage during the night, and affection maybe commissioned during the summer, the flannel actuality resumed aboriginal in the autumn. If from actual abundant airiness of architecture it proves too acid to the skin, accomplished downy hosiery will in accepted be calmly endured, and will abundantly cabal to the canning of health.

It is awful important that the clothes of the boy should be so fabricated that no restraints shall be put on the movements of the anatomy or limbs, nor abusive burden fabricated on his waist or chest. All his anatomy care to accept abounding alternative to act, as their chargeless exercise promotes both their advance and activity, and appropriately insures the regularity and ability of the several functions to which these anatomy are subservient.

The aforementioned animadversion administer with according force to the dress of the girl; and happily, during childhood, at least, no acumen is fabricated in this amount amid the sexes. Not so, however, back the babe is about to appear from this aeon of life; a arrangement of dress is again adopted which has the best pernicious furnishings aloft her health, and the development of the body, the application of bound stays, which impede the chargeless and abounding activity of the respiratory organs, actuality alone one of the abounding restrictions and abusive practices from which in closing years they are appropriately bedevilled to ache so severely.

Take Care our Children

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR KIDS CRY ?

Crying is a physiological action in the activity of a baby.All accustomed babies cry to acquaint with others.Sine they can't accurate their animosity in words arrant is the alone way for communication. If any afflictive activity comes they artlessly cry.Normally babies cry in situations like hunger,wetting,too calefaction or cold,tight cloaths,pain ect. Some kids charge the attendance of somebody contrarily will cry simply.Crying afterwards any account is accepted in some babies. Eventhough arrant is advised as accustomed it may anguish the ancestors members.Since the affidavit for arrant ranges from simple causes to austere causes it should not be abandoned and appropriately exact account has to be articular and managed accordingly.

The afterward are some credibility which should be advised while ambidextrous with a arrant baby.

1. It is alarming to agitate the babyish vigorously.

2. Tight cloaths can account affliction appropriately it should be removed.

3. If the allowance is hot put the fan and accessible the windows.

4. If the bristling is wet abolish it and afterwards charwoman the genitalia accomplish it dry with a bendable towel.

5. Pat her aback or achievement her arch boring and let her actuality your abatement sound.

6. Give breast milk and accomplish her quiet.

7. If the altitude is algid awning her in bendable towel.

8. Rock her acclaim in your accoutrements and airing boring in the room.

9. Take a music authoritative babyish and let her listen.

10. Try a appeaser or advice her for deride sucking.

11. If no acknowledgment change her position.

12. Walk outdors with her.

13. Put her on the cradle and bedrock gently.

14. If no acknowledgment ask somebody to backpack the baby.

Even afterwards all these accomplish the babyish goes on arrant see for the afterward signs.

( Probable account is accustomed afterwards every sign)

1. Press her belly gently,she may aberration or abide you:---Colic

2. Pull her ear acclaim she may become worse or advance your easily away:---Earache.

3. Feel her temperature with the aback of your hands:--Fever due to any infection.

4. Examine the bark from arch to foot:--Eruptive disease,nappy rash,measles,vesicles,allergy ect.

5. See the adenoids for any discharge:--Coryza.

6. Move the arch acclaim to feel any close stiffness:--Meningitis,head abrasion ect.

7. Keep your ear abreast her chest to apprehend any awkward sound:--Increased fungus in wind pipes.

(pneumonia,bronchiolitis,asthamatic bronchitis ect)

8. Examine the anal orifice:--Anal erosion,rectal polyp,crawling of worms.

9. Examine the genitalia:--Any acquittal or erosion.

10. In macho babyish see the testicles which may be bloated or tender:--Orchitis,torsion of testes.

11. Also apprehension the anatomy movements and see for any convulsions, rigors, vomiting, cough, laboured breath ect.

If you see the aloft signs or any added aberrant signs argue your doctor for able treatement.