FEEDING AND CARE OF INFANTS 773 



not formed in sufficient quantity during the first few 

 months of life to render the child able to digest fari- 

 naceous foods, such as potatoes, rice, fine-flour bread, 

 and the like. 



2. As a general rule, an infant should be fed once 

 in two or three hours during the daytime, and once 

 at night, until one month old. After this time it should 

 not be fed at night, and it should not take its food 

 more frequently than once in three hours during the 

 daytime until four months of age. Between four and 

 eight months, the intervals should be gradually pro- 

 longed to four hours. After this time the fourth meal 

 should be gradually dropped, so that at twelve months 

 the child takes its food but three times a day. 



3. If the child is deprived of its natural food, a 

 healthy wet-nurse should if possible be secured,— at 

 least until the child is two or three months old. When 

 a suitable wet-nurse cannot be secured, milk from a 

 goat or cow constitutes the best food. Care should be 

 taken in the selection of cow's milk, that being pre- 

 ferred which is obtained from a cow which has calved 

 two or three months previously. The health and care 

 of the cow, particularly the character of her food, are 

 matters of importance which should receive attention, 

 as there is no doubt that consumption is frequently com- 

 municated to infants from cows whose lungs have be- 

 come diseased through confinement in close stalls with 

 foul odors, and deficient and improper food. Cow's 

 milk should be diluted at first to one-half the proportion 

 being gradually increased as the child's stomach is 

 strong enough to bear it. Pure water, lime-water, 

 barley-water, and thin well-boiled and strained oat- 

 meal gruel, may be used to dilute the milk. The object 

 of the dilution is, first, to render it more nearly like 



