590 MILK 



addition to the milk and diluent an ounce of dextrimaltose, which 

 has a caloric value of 120 calories. 



After the child has reached the age of five or six months one 

 feeding of breast or artificial milk should be replaced by a cereal. 

 Any cereal will answer the purpose, but it is possibly best to start 

 out with farina or cream of wheat. As the child grows older it 

 may gradually receive more substantial forms of food to replace 

 most of the milk feedings. Thus, a child of seven months should 

 receive one cereal, one vegetable broth, and three nursings if it is 

 breast fed, and one cereal, one vegetable broth, and three bottles, 

 each containing 6 or 7 ounces of milk, if it is artificially fed. It 

 has been the custom of many pediatricians to keep a child on 

 diluted milk until it reaches the age of a year. We have found 

 repeatedly, however, that a child of eight months can take whole 

 milk very well. 



A breast-fed baby should be weaned from the breast at ten 

 or eleven months of age. A child that is nursed too long becomes 

 pale and anemic looking because of the lack of iron in mother's 

 milk. Prolonged nursing has also been made responsible for rickets. 



It is advisable to give all infants two or three months of age 

 or over some fruit juice in addition to the mUk they are getting. 

 This is especially important when babies are fed on boiled milk to 

 counteract the possible development of scurvy. Orange juice is 

 most valuable for this purpose, as it is the best antiscorbutic we 

 have. It should, however, be given at least half an hour before 

 or after feeding to prevent the curdhng of the milk in the infant's 

 stomach. When no orange juice is obtainable, prune juice or 

 carrot juice may be given instead. These juices also possess 

 antiscorbutic properties, although not in so marked a degree as 

 the orange juice. Potato water (water in which potatoes have 

 been boiled) has also been found useful as an antiscorbutic. 



Alimentary Disturbances 



The gastro-intestinal disturbances of infancy have engaged the 

 attention of pediatrists for a great many years. What is the 

 cause of these disturbances, and what is the process that takes 

 place in the diarrheas accompanying them are questions that 

 pediatricians have sought to answer. Many theories have been 

 offered in explanation. The earher pediatricians considered the 

 various gastro-intestinal disturbances of infancy as pathologic 

 entities, but postmortem examinations performed on infants that 

 died of diarrhea proved this impression to be an erroneous one. 

 There were some that attributed the alimentary disturbances of 

 childhood to bacterial infections and who classified the diarrheas 

 produced according to the organisms causing them. This theory, 



