Better babies and their careRichardson, Anna Steese
Science
Better babies and their care
Richardson, Anna Steese
Infants -- Care; Infants -- Health and hygiene
A question frequently brought up at contests was that of adding lime
water to modified milk. This, too, represents a difference in medical
opinion. Dr. L. Emmett Holt, one of the first American specialists in
the care and feeding of children, advises that one ounce of lime water
be included in every twenty ounces of modified milk, to correct acidity
in cow’s milk. Dr. Roger H. Dennett, Professor of Pediatrics at the
Post Graduate Hospital, New York City, does not consider lime water
essential to a successful formula. Other authorities differ in the
same way. The mother who feels any anxiety on this score will do well
to consult her own physician, who can study at first hand the general
condition of the baby, its appearance, the stools it passes, and what
it may vomit if the artificial food is not properly digested.
There are almost as many feeding tables in existence as there are
specialists in the care of children. This is another question where
hard and fast rules cannot be laid down. But here are some general
tables which have borne the test in families where artificial feeding
is a stern necessity:
Any baby weaned under three months of age should have bottle feedings
as it would have had breast feedings, at intervals of every two hours
between 6 A.M. and 10 P.M. It should also have one feeding in the
night between one and two o’clock. This represents ten feedings in
twenty-four hours, up to the time the child is three months old.
The quantity to be supplied at each feeding varies with the baby’s age:
During the first week the baby should be given one and one-half ounces
at each feeding. This, with ten feedings in twenty-four hours, means
from ten to fifteen ounces of nourishment a day.
During the second week the amount at each feeding is raised to: 2
ounces, or 20 ounces in twenty-four hours.
Third and fourth weeks: 2½ ounces for each feeding.
Second and third month: 3 ounces for each feeding.
During the fourth month the table of feeding changes. The child is
now fed every two and one-half hours from 6 A.M. to 9 P.M., with one
feeding between 1 and 2 A.M. Four and one-half ounces at each feeding,
or 36 ounces in twenty-four hours.
During the fifth month the feedings are still farther apart; every
three hours between 6 A.M. and 9 P.M., and one feeding in the night.
Five and one-half to 6 ounces at each feeding.
So, from month to month, the feedings are a little farther apart and
each feeding a little heavier.
At five months, if the baby is strong, the night feeding may be
omitted. At eight months the baby is fed six times a day, at three-hour
intervals, eight ounces of food to the feeding.
It must be understood that the feeding tables here given are planned
for a normal, healthy baby. The sickly baby, or the child whose
digestion is very poor and whose appearance denotes malnutrition,
should be placed under the care of a physician who is capable of
planning special diet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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