Not only for cleanliness but for hardening them, the nipples should be washed after each nursing with a solution of boracic acid and very hot water, in the proportion of one teaspoon of the acid to one pint of water. When thoroughly dried with soft old linen or gauze kept for the purpose, they should be covered with a piece of sterilized gauze to prevent any possible infection from clothing. If, in spite of all these precautions, the nipple shows cracks or fissures, and nursing becomes torture, the baby must not be permitted to suck at the nipple, but a nipple shield should be used. There are various kinds, the best being of glass with a rubber nipple on the end. When the nipple is as sore as this, boracic acid in solution will not effect a cure. Zinc ointment must be used instead; but only when the nipple shield is used, never when the baby’s mouth touches the breast. Another aid to baby’s digestion is regularity in feeding. Directly after birth, the feedings should be regulated by the doctor and the nurse, who are better able to determine the strength and needs of the baby. If it is a normal, healthy child, for the first few days it will spend most of its time in sleep, but it should be given the breast at least once in four hours. A small, weak baby should nurse once in two hours, between 6 A.M. and 10 P.M., with one nursing in the middle of the night between 1:30 and 2:30. After the first week, a strong baby may be nursed every three hours, between 6 A.M. and 9 P.M., with one night feeding. At three months, a healthy baby is nursed every three hours, and at four months the night feeding is dropped. That is, he is not nursed between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M. Feeding a baby every time he cries is bad for both mother and child. It ties the nursing mother to her baby’s side. It injures the baby’s digestion. It is the first misstep in molding the baby’s character. If, in spite of the care here outlined for mother and baby, the child does not thrive on breast milk, the cause must be ascertained and artificial feeding must be considered. CHAPTER IV ARTIFICIAL FEEDING WHEN ARTIFICIAL FEEDING IS NECESSARY—WEIGHT THE TEST OF PROPER NOURISHMENT—COW’S MILK, CAREFULLY MODIFIED, IS THE BEST SUBSTITUTE FOR MOTHER’S MILK—SOURCE OF SUPPLY AND CARE—CARE OF THE BOTTLES AND NIPPLES Successful artificial feeding of infants is one of the big problems which the medical profession strives unceasingly to solve. It has never found a perfect substitute for mother’s milk, but it has greatly reduced the rate of infant mortality, due to artificial feeding, by working out formulas that combine the food properties provided by breast milk. And not the least valuable result of its investigations has been the agitation for pure milk supply, the sanitary care of milk and dairies.