A handbook of invalid cooking : $b for the use of nurses in training, nurses in private practice, and others who care for the sickBoland, Mary A.
Science
A handbook of invalid cooking : $b for the use of nurses in training, nurses in private practice, and others who care for the sick
Boland, Mary A.
Cooking for the sick
When a baby is nursed, and its mother has an abundance of milk, it
takes nothing else during the first ten or twelve months of life.
When a baby is artificially fed, this fact should be borne in mind.
The important thing is to attain as nearly as possible to the
standard that nature has set.
Biedert's cream mixture and the whey mixture are valuable for young
infants and those which for any reason do not thrive on milk.
=Amount for Each Meal.= A child is nourished, not by what
it swallows, but by what it digests. Giving too much or too
concentrated milk is very unwise, for the delicate system cannot
manage it, and too frequently the meal becomes a source of pain
rather than of strength. Each individual babe will require a little
different treatment in this respect from every other.
In general, for the first six weeks from two to four tablespoons
at a feeding may be given; from that age to six months, from four
to eight tablespoons, gradually increasing the amount to twelve
tablespoons at one year.
=Dilution.= Cow's milk is more easily digested when diluted with
water, and we are more likely to dilute too little than too much.
The amount of water used should vary with the age and strength of
digestion of the child. As a rule the new-born infant should have
two parts water to one of milk; at four months equal parts of milk
and water; at ten months one part water and two parts milk. When
digestion is particularly feeble, it may be necessary to dilute
milk with six or eight times its bulk of water.
=Manner of Giving.= It is best to give milk from a bottle so
constructed that suction is necessary, for it induces the flow of
the digestive juices. Use the plain rubber nipple; those with tube
attachments which extend into the bottle are to be avoided, on
account of the difficulty of making them perfectly clean inside.
Cultures from these tubes always give large numbers of bacteria, as
do also those made from the nipples, unless they are boiled.
The _intervals_ of feeding will vary somewhat with the age of the
child. Once in two or two and a half hours during the day for the
first six months, and every three hours from the sixth to the
twelfth month, is the general rule.
The _temperature_ of the meal should be 100° Fahr.
A babe needs less variety in its food than older children, and
they in turn require less than grown persons; but both must have a
certain proportion of the five essential food principles.
There is an impression in the minds of many that children should
not have fat. This has perhaps sprung from the fact that mother's
milk has a watery, thin appearance. It seems not rich; nevertheless
it has a due proportion of fat, and it is extremely important that
this be maintained when cow's milk is diluted, for this cream is
the best addition.
Fat is needed not only for the growth of brain and nerves, which is
very rapid in children, but also for the perfect formation of other
tissues.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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