The Care and Feeding of Children 995 



month. Sugar requires little change, hence this is the form of carbohy- 

 drate suited to the infant. Mineral matter the baby must have to supply 

 lime and phosphorus and iron and all the other elements which are con- 

 cerned not only in building bones and forming red blood and stimulating 

 growth but which are essential in many different ways. The mineral 

 matter must be in a form best suited to the need for rapid development. 

 Water must be present to hold food in solution, and to carry it to the cells 

 and remove the waste products. 



Best food for the baby. — Nature's answer to the question as to where 

 all these demands are best supplied during this undeveloped period of the 

 child's life is unfailingly " the mother's milk." In the mother's milk the 

 protein is in a form which is very easily digested and yet gives the baby's 

 digestive tract enough work to ensure its gradual development. The fat 

 is unusually finely emulsified and is of a kind which requires little effort 

 to digest. The carbohydrate occurs as milk sugar, almost ready for absorp- 

 tion, and is not so sweet as to vitiate the child's taste for bland food later 

 on. The mineral matter present is very available to the human infant. 



When we come later to a discussion of the composition of milk other 

 than human milk and of the various patent baby foods on the market 

 it will be readily seen that any form of food other than mother's milk must 

 be regarded as abnormal for the very young baby, and as likely to involve 

 it in serious difficulties. Hence every effort should be made by the mother 

 to nurse her own child even if this method of feeding cannot be continued 

 during the entire nine months or year. 



The first meal. — During the first two or three days after the infant is 

 born no milk is secreted by the mother's breast. A thin watery fluid 

 called colostrum is secreted, which is believed to have a distinctly laxative 

 property and which thus aids in cleansing the baby's intestinal canal of 

 the mucous which has accumulated there before birth. The child should 

 be put at the mother's breast as soon as the mother has recovered from 

 the fatigue of labor, about six or eight hours after birth, and every two 

 or three hours thereafter when the mother is awake. This helps to estab- 

 lish the flow of milk, it aids in closing the uterus, and probably gives the 

 baby some water. It also establishes the ability of the child to suck. 

 Nature seems to have intended to give this time to establishing a natural 

 supply of food and it is dangerous to experiment unless under the advice 

 of a physician who understands thoroughly the essentials of infant feeding. 

 The old fashion of making a " sugar rag " or a " flour ball " and giving it 

 to the newborn baby must be strongly condemned. It puts into the 

 child's stomach some entirely foreign substance and is a fertile source 

 of colic, and it diminishes the sucking activity and consequently with- 

 draws this stimulus to milk secretion, thus causing delay in flow of milk. 



