DIARRHCEA DYSENTERY. 21 



produced by ill-advised measures. Many ignorant midwives have a notion that the. 

 first and best thing to do with a newly-born baby is to give it a mixture of melted 

 butter and sugar, in order, as they. term it, to "cleanse its bowels," but in reality to 

 give it indigestion, to cause it to be early acquainted with the colicky pains of wind, 

 and to trouble its nurse and friends with an early-developed attack of diarrhu-a. 

 This first false step leads to ignorant and injudicious tinkering with drugs, and the 

 unhappy innocent is hurried on by its ignorant and foolish protectors from trifling 

 maladies to those which lead to a permanent injury of the health. 



The main causes of diarrhoea in children are to be found in the food its quality 

 or its quantity. Children are doubtless the victims of much wrong feeding, the case 

 usually being that the food given to young children is of too complex a nature, and 

 such as they are unable to digest. The proper food for children prior to the cutting 

 of the first teeth is the mother's milk, which they should receive at regular inter- 

 vals. A child of three months old and under should be fed regularly about every 

 two hours, and less often during the night. It should be kept at the breast until it 

 -shows signs of having had enough, when it should be taken away and not fed again 

 until after its regular and proper interval. It rarely happens that children who are 

 fed carefully in this way cause any trouble whatever. If the mother has plenty of 

 milk, it should be fed on nothing else for the first six or seven months at least. It 

 .should have no other milk, and no starchy or farinaceous food is on any account to 

 be given until the teeth begin to appear. Milk is the proper food of children before 

 they cut their teeth, and it has been conclusively proved that they are unable to 

 digest starch in any form bread, baked Hour, biscuits, patent foods, or corn flour. If 

 the latter be given they are very likely to do harm, and they cannot nourish the child. 

 If the mother have no milk, the child must be fed on cow's milk diluted with one- 

 third part of warm water. The meal for very young children must not be too large ; 

 and if under three months, about four ounces (eight table-spoonfuls) of milk diluted 

 us recommended, and sweetened with a knob of sugar, may be given at a time. 



When children begin to cut their teeth, and weaning has commenced, a little 

 farinaceous food may be given ; and when the child is a year old a small quantity of 

 beef tea may be added to the diet ; but until a child is two years old (until, that is, 

 all its teeth are cut), it should be fed entirely on milk, beef tea, or broth, and bread 

 or biscuit. When children about two years old and upwards are brought to the doctor 

 with diarrhoea, and in answer to the doctor's question, " What are you feeding him 

 on ? " the mother replies, " The same that we have ourselves," one may be certain 

 that the cause of the diarrhoea is want of judgment or ignorance. 



Great care must be taken that the milk is neither sour nor putrid. Milk is a 

 very sensitive fluid, and requires to be kept most carefully in a cool, clean place ; for 

 if it be kept in a dirty pantry or a hot stuffy room, the milk is far more likely to 

 become unwholesome than otherwise would be the case. If the milk is sour the 

 child is sure to have diarrhoea. In hot weather, it is a good plan to boil the milk 

 before giving it, and it may be diluted with lime water instead of simple water. 

 A\ lienever a child passes white curds from the bowel, or vomits them, we may be 

 sure that the addition of lime water to the milk is one of the remedies needed. 



Feeding-bottles require more attention than generally is supposed. Directly a 



