733 
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. 
AVhen, 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 its diet, or the substitution of 
skimmed milk for a few days must be employed until these symptoms 
disappear. 
PRECAUTIONS TO BE OBSERVED IN THE ARTIFICIAL FEEDING OF INFANTS. 
Every utensil used in the preparation of infant food should be 
clean. This does not mean a mere macroscopical cleanliness, but sur- 
gical cleanliness as well. Vessels used to hold the infant’s food dur- 
ing its preparation should be scalded with boiling water after pre- 
vious thorough cleansing. Feeding bottles are to be cleaned after use, 
i : first with cold water, and then with warm water and some alkaline 
soap powder. Adhering particles of milk are to be removed with a 
bottle brush. The bottles are to be sterilized by boiling them in 
fwater, and storing them in an inverted position, when empty, to pre- 
II vent the access of dust to their interior. When new nursing bottles 
I are bought, in order to prevent them from cracking from the ex- 
i tremes of cold and heat to which they are subject, they should be 
annealed. This is accomplished by placing them in cold water, bring- 
^ ing the water to a boil, and allowing the bottles to remain in the water 
1 until it is cold. 
1 Only rubber nipples fitting on the necks of the bottles should be 
.used. One should be able to turn them inside out for cleansing pur- 
poses. The hole in the top should be just large enough to allow the 
milk to drop rather rapidly when the bottle is inverted. If it issues 
in a stream the hole is too large. Nipples before use should be boiled, 
and may be kept in a saturated solution of boric acid. In feeding the 
child care should be taken to hold it in such a position that it can 
easily take its food. A child should not be coaxed to take more food 
