And in that word “sudden” lay all the dread possibilities for both mother and child. Fortunately, we have outgrown sudden weaning, along with many other dangerous superstitions and traditions of motherhood. In those days, when grandmothers and aunts came flocking round to assist in weaning the family treasure, babies were fed on breast milk from birth to practically the day when weaning became a stern necessity. Consequently, the enforced weaning represented for the baby an abrupt change in diet, which was most disturbing to his stomach; and for the mother all the horrors of breast-trouble when the baby no longer nursed. Artificial pumping, caked breasts, abscesses, were common features of the old-fashioned system of weaning, which the modern mother does not undergo. To-day the wise physician and mother agree that, from the third month on, the baby shall vary breast feedings with properly modified cow’s milk from the bottle. As the months pass, the bottle feedings are increased. Then, no matter what emergency may arise—illness or pregnancy in the mother, the necessity for a prolonged separation between mother and child—the baby is so accustomed to the bottle that, deprived of natural nourishment, he will not resent bottle food exclusively, and his entire digestive system is at least partially prepared for the change. When weaning is not due to emergency, but is gradual and part of the natural development of the child, it is a very simple process. From the third to the tenth month, we will say that the child has had both breast milk and the occasional bottle feeding. Gradually, from the sixth month on, the bottle feedings have been increased in both number and strength. Now, at the tenth month, he may drink milk, orange juice, and clear broth out of a cup. His cereal and thick broth may be fed to him with a spoon. All this time he draws less and less on the mother for nourishment. By the twelfth month, or the end of his first year, if his health is good, the baby is weaned automatically without any abrupt and dangerous change in diet. During the latter part of this gradual weaning process, as he has drawn less on the breast, the amount of milk has decreased with the lack of demand, and so the weaning involves less danger and pain for the mother. Very few mothers have the strength to nourish their babies after the twelfth month. In fact, pediatrists and nurses who have done dispensary work among children state that many cases of anemia and rickets can be traced to poor nourishment, due to the overworked mother’s well-meaning but mistaken effort to nurse the baby, without any bottle feedings, through teething, and beyond the first year.