306 MEDICAL SECTION 



digestive and assimilative organs can make use of 

 the material designed for a more vigorous animal. 



In infants with injured functions and diseased 

 organs it would seem the height of folly to expect 

 progress in tissue building at once. The functions 

 and organs must be restored, and gain in weight is 

 impossible until progress has been made toward 

 functional and organic integrity. Many a weak baby 

 has succumbed to a normal percentage milk mixture 

 or to one based upon caloric estimations made to 

 fit its weight or age. 



Progressive or fractional feeding is indicated by 

 the fact that most of the babies we are called upon 

 to feed are sick, with impaired digestion and 

 atrophied tissues. These sick babies represent vary- 

 ing degrees of fat proteid and carbohydrate incapacity 

 resulting from improper or insufficient food from the 

 breast or the bottle. 



For the lack of progressive adjustment premature 

 infants are often sacrificed ; in this class slight varia- 

 tions from correct percentages may defeat our object 

 and destroy the child. 



In progressive or fractional feeding neither the 

 percentage method nor the caloric method can be 

 disregarded without failure. The one introduced by 

 Rotch and the other by Heubner are both necessary 

 in measuring the efficiency of a mixture ; both are 

 essential to accurate progressive adjustment of the 

 food, and enable us to know whether we are under- 

 feeding or overfeeding our patient. 



In progressive infant feeding there are two points 

 of procedure. First : The present capacities of the 

 baby to be fed which must be determined. The 

 clamour of the mother for increased weight should 

 be controlled until the powers of the infant to utilize 

 a normal food have been restored. 



Second : The normal capacities of the baby if it 

 were well and had attained its maximum growth must 



