MILK IN ITS RELATION TO INFANT FEEDING 589 



better for the infant than a shorter interval, thus making from 

 five to seven feedings in twenty-four hours. Under no circum- 

 stances should a normal baby receive more than seven feedings 

 [n a day. The work done by Carlson, Ginsburg, and Taylor on 

 lunger contractions of the infant's stomach brings out some 

 interesting facts in connection with the frequency of nursing in- 

 tervals in infancy. Taylor found that in full-term infants under 

 :wo weeks of age the hunger contractions come on an average of 

 :wo hours and fifteen minutes after feeding, with a minimum of 

 two hours and a maximum of four hours. In infants of two weeks 

 to four months of age three hours and forty minutes is the aver- 

 age, with a minimum of three hours and twelve minutes and a 

 maximum of four hours and thirty-five minutes. An interpreta- 

 tion of these figures would lead one to the conclusion that chil- 

 dren under two weeks of age should be fed every two and a half to 

 three hours, and children over two weeks, every four hours. 



Premature infants form an exception to the rule of three- or 

 four-hour feeding intervals. Premature infants need more cal- 

 ories per kilo of their body weight than do full-term infants. In 

 addition to their relatively high caloric requirement the premature 

 infants are usually unable to take as large quantities of milk at 

 one feeding as full-term babies. It is therefore wise in the case of 

 prematures to do away with the four- or even the three-hour feed- 

 ing regulation and feed the infant at more frequent intervals and 

 in smaller quantities. When the premature infant is too weak 

 to nurse from the breast, as frequently happens, the milk should 

 be pumped up and fed to the child by spoon or by Breck's feeder. 

 Important as breast milk is for the normal infant, it is doubly so 

 in the case of the premature. 



An example will help to illustrate how the various rules for- 

 mulated for infant feeding may be utilized. If, for instance, one 

 wishes to feed artificially a normal child of two months whose 

 weight is 9 pounds, the following should be the procedure: 



According to the rule of giving a child 2 ounces more of the 

 mixture than its age in months, a child of two months should 

 receive 4 ounces per feeding. Six feedings of 4 ounces each gives 

 us a total of 24 ounces for twenty-four hours. Applying the rule 

 of giving lj ounces of milk per pound of body weight, a child 

 weighing 9 pounds should receive 13| ounces of milk for twenty- 

 four hours. This will make 13 ounces of the milk and 10J ounces 

 water. As each ounce of milk has a food value of 21 calories, an 

 infant receiving 13J ounces of milk will receive 284 calories per 

 day. However, since each pound of body weight requires 45 

 calories, an infant weighing 9 pounds will need 405 calories. To 

 make up the deficiency of 121 calories the baby should receive in 



