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should take the form of some cereal broth, and should be added to the 
milk in the proportion of one-third broth to two-thirds milk. 
The preparations recommended for this purpose are dextrinized 
gruels, oatmeal jelly, and barley water. 
Dextrinized gruel . — Make a thin paste of cold water and 1 or 2 
heaping tablespoonfuls of barley, wheat or rice flour, add 1 quart 
of boiling water, and boil for fifteen minutes in a double boiler. 
When the gruel is cool enough to be easily tasted dextrinize by adding 
1 teaspoonful of diastase solution. An active solution of diastase 
may be prepared by soaking a tablespoonful of crushed malted barley 
grains in sufficient cold water to cover them (about 2 tablespoon- 
fuls) and placing the mixture in the refrigerator over night. In the 
morning the liquid which resembles weak tea is strained off. A table- 
spoonful of this fluid will textrinize a pint of gruel in fifteen minutes. 
Or, a good commercial preparation of diastase may be used. 
Oatmeal felly . — To 2 tablespoonfuls of oatmeal add 1 quart of 
water and boil for three hours, keeping up the quanity to 1 quart by 
the addition of water as it boils away. Strain through coarse muslin. 
As this forms a jelly when cold, it should be added warm to the food. 
Barley icater . — This is prepared in the same way. Barley grains 
or barley flour may be used. If the former, soak the grains in water 
over night. 
METHOD OF INCREASING THE INFANT'S DIET. 
As long as an infant is making satisfactory gains no change in the 
daily quantity of food is required. To this end, all artificially fed 
infants should be carefully weighed each week and the weights noted 
for future reference. When the rate of gain for a week has suffered 
diminution, in the absence of other symptoms to account for it, we are 
to know that the time has come for an increase in the diet. The 
amount of this increase is determined along lines previously laid 
down, i. e., by weighing the infant and giving it that proportion of 
food to its body weight indicated by its age. 
We should be watchful for symptoms of overfeeding with every in- 
crease instituted in the quantity of the daily food. As long as the 
stools are normal in number, color, quantity, and consistency, and the 
urine remains limpid, no fear of overfeeding may be entertained. 
When, however, loss of appetite is manifest, the bowels are con- 
stipated, pale, formed, and dry, the infant is being overfed, and a 
reversion to the former amount of his diet, or the substitution of 
skimmed milk for a few days must be employed until these symptoms 
disappear. 
