If your nipples are not sufficiently prominent for the baby to grasp them, or if they become sore, you may have to use a shield for a while as shown in Figs. 30 and 31, but the shield should be discarded as soon as possible for it is the baby’s suckling that produces the desired effects. If a shield is used, it should be washed and boiled after each nursing and kept in a sterile jar or solution of boracic acid, between times. The length of the nursing periods, and the intervals between them, are decided upon by the doctor according to the needs and condition of each baby: his weight, vigor, the rapidity with which he nurses, the character of his stools and his general condition. The length of the nursing periods themselves, is usually from ten to twenty minutes, the intervals between them being measured from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of the next, and are fairly uniform for babies of the same age and weight. [Illustration: FIG. 31.—Nipple shield used in Fig. 30. ] The average baby nurses about every six hours during the first two days, or four times in twenty-four hours. After this, according to one schedule, he will nurse every three hours during the day for about three months and at 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., or seven times in twenty-four hours. From the third to the sixth month he nurses every three hours during the day and at ten o’clock at night, or six times in twenty-four hours, and from that time until he is weaned he nurses at four-hour intervals during the day and at ten o’clock at night, or five times daily. Such a feeding schedule may be arranged in a table as follows: ─────────────────────┬──────────────┬───────── │ _Day_ │ _Night_ ─────────────────────┼──────────────┼───────── First and second days│ 6 12 6 │12 First three months │ 6 9 12 3 6│10 2 a.m. Third to sixth month │ 6 9 12 3 6│10 After the sixth month│ 6 10 2 6 │10 ─────────────────────┴──────────────┴───────── It is becoming more and more common to omit night feedings after ten o ’clock with the average baby who is in good condition even during the first three months. When this practice is adopted the baby seems not only to do as well as he normally should, but to profit by the long digestive rest during the night. Certainly the mother is benefited by the unbroken sleep thus made possible. As a rule the baby nurses from one side, only, at each nursing, emptying the breasts alternately, but if there is not enough milk in one breast for a complete feeding both breasts may be used at one nursing. Neither you nor the baby should go to sleep while he is at the breast, but he should pause every four or five minutes to keep him from feeding too rapidly.