If a child will not drink milk, he _must_ eat meat; it is absolutely necessary that he should have either the one or the other; and, if he have cut nearly all his teeth, he ought to have both meat and milk--the former in moderation, the latter in abundance. 141. _Supposing milk should not agree with my child, what must then be done_? Milk, either boiled or unboiled, almost always agrees with a child. If it does not, it must be looked upon as the exception, and not as the rule. I would, in such a case, advise one-eighth of lime water to be added to seven-eighths of new milk--that is to say, two table-spoonfuls of lime water should be mixed with half a pint of new milk. 142. _Can you tell me of a way to prevent milk, in hot weather, from turning sour_? Let the jug of milk be put into a crock, containing ice--Wenham Lake is the best--either in the dairy or in the cellar. The ice may at any time, be procured of a respectable fishmonger, and should be kept, wrapped either in flannel or in blanket, in a cool place, until it be wanted. 143. _Can you tell me why the children of the rich suffer so much more from costiveness than do the children of the poor_? The principal reason is that the children of the rich drink milk without water, while the children of the poor drink water without, or with very little, milk--milk being binding, and water opening to the bowels. Be sure then, and bear in mind, _as this is most important advice_, to see that water is mixed with all the milk that is given to your child. The combination of milk and water for a child is a glorious compound--strengthening, fattening, refreshing, and regulating to the bowels, and thus doing away with that disgraceful proceeding so common in nurseries, of everlastingly physicking, irritating and irreparably injuring the tender bowels of a child. My opinion is, that aperients, as a rule, are quite unnecessary, and should only be given in severe illness, and under the direction of a judicious medical man. How much misery, and injury, might be averted if milk were always given to a child in combination with water! Aperients, by repetition, unlike water, increase the mischief tenfold, and cork them up most effectually; so that the bowels, in time, will not act without them! A mother before she gives an aperient to her child should ponder well upon what I have said upon the subject, it being a vital question, affecting, as it does, the well-being and the well-doing of her child. 144. _But, if a child's bowels be very costive, what is to be done to relieve them_?