FEEDING AND CARE OP INFANTS 775 



6. Feeble infants, especially those who are born 

 prematurely, should be fed a little more frequently than 

 others, and require extra care, 



7. The interior of a child's mouth, as well as its 

 lips, should be carefully wiped free from milk or other 

 food after feeding, a moist cloth being used for the 

 purpose. 



CAUTION RESPECTING INFANT FEEDING 



1. Too frequent feeding is a very common practice, 

 and is one of the most active causes of colic and vari- 

 ous forms of indigestion in children. Many mothers 

 wonder why the children do not grow fleshy notwith- 

 standing they have a voracious appetite and eat nearly 

 all the time. The simple reason is that the food taken 

 is not digested and assimilated on account of the weak- 

 ened and disordered state of the digestive organs. 

 Frequent feeding at night is not only unnecessary, 

 but exceedingly harmful. After the first month or two, 

 infants require no food at night. 



In order to break children of the habit of eating 

 in the night when the mothers have been in the habit 

 of nursing them at all hours of the night as well as 

 the daytime, a little warm water may be given in the 

 nursing bottle instead of food. This will often satisfy 

 the child's cravings so that it will go to sleep. 



2. Overfeeding is a much more frequent error than 

 the opposite. Very frequently children are allowed to 

 take too much at a time. This is the most common 

 cause of vomiting in infants. Fortunately their stom- 

 achs are so constructed that the surplus of food may 

 be easily expelled; but sometimes this is not the case, 

 and often very serious disorders of digestion result. 



