DIET FOE DIFFERENT STAGES OF LIFE. 349 



gradually made towards the approach of weaning. Premature 

 weaning is to be most strongly deprecated; its advantages are super- 

 ficial, its evils lasting. Too early weaning is a most fruitful cause 

 of rickets. The child may appear to be well, his muscles firm; he 

 may be active and desirous to walk; but the bones have not grown, 

 the limbs yield and become distorted. The bow-legged children so 

 common in manufacturing districts suffer thus in consequence of 

 neglect in infancy. 



There are circumstances, however, which justify early weaning. 

 If the mother be a feeble woman, if she be subject to any acute dis- 

 ease or chronic affection, or if she show signs of suffering from 

 continued lactation or nursing such as headache, dimness or sight, 

 shortness of breath, palpitation or night-sweats the maternal nurs- 

 ing should be discontinued. And the discontinuance may be 

 desirable at the end of the sixth month, or even of the first or second ; 

 for persistence in nursing is then prejudical to both mother and 

 child. 



But the period of weaning should under ordinary circumstances 

 be determined by the growth of the teeth and by the child's age. 

 Milk should be the predominant food till the eye-teeth are cut; it is 

 then not difficult to resume a diet of milk altogether, if in connec- 

 tion with dentition, or teething, there be diarrhea, convulsions or 

 other ailments. From seven to twenty months of age farinaceous 

 matters (flour-foods) may be mixed in gradually increasing quanti- 

 ties with the milk; but they should be well cooked first by being 

 baked and then dissolved by boiling. 



Prof. Buckingham is of opinion that a healthy mother should 

 nurse her child until the first sixteen teeth are cut, and that if she 

 cannot nurse it so long it should have no other diet but milk. He 

 states that careful observation has confirmed him in this opinion, 

 for although early deaths may be produced by other causes, the 

 great majority of infants who die fall victims in their second sum- 

 mer when the changes due to teething are going on and their 

 stomachs have been loaded with indigestible food. Up to three 

 years old, the quantity of flours may be increased and given as pud- 

 dings with a little egg. Bread and butter may also be given, and 

 towards the end of that time a well-boiled, mealy potato with a 

 little red gravy may be given for dinner. 



But no child should be allowed to touch animal food of any 

 kind until its eye-teeth and first molars are developed. An Eng- 

 lish physician has said that the frequent infraction of this rule was 

 worth $50,000 a year to him; his practice lying chiefly among the 

 children of the wealthier classes. After that age the quantity and 

 quality of meat allowed should be carefully graduated according to 

 the constitution of the child, those of a sanguine temperament 

 requiring less animal and more farinaceous food, while the more 

 robust and less sensitive need more solid nutriment. 



One of the greatest mistakes committed in feeding children 



