If, after the application of the child for a few times, he is unable to find nourishment, then it will be necessary to wait until the milk be secreted. As soon as it is secreted, he must be applied, with great regularity, _alternately_ to each breast. I say _alternately_ to each breast. _This is most important advice._ Sometimes a child, for some inexplicable reason, prefers one breast to the other, and the mother, to save a little contention, concedes the point, and allows him to have his own way. And what is frequently the consequence?—a gathered breast! We frequently hear of a babe having no notion of sucking. This “no notion” may generally be traced to bad management, to stuffing him with food, and thus giving him a disinclination to take the nipple at all. 32. _How often should a mother suckle her infant?_ A mother generally suckles her baby too often, having him almost constantly at the breast. This practice is injurious both to parent and to child. The stomach requires repose as much as any other part of the body; and how can it have it if it be constantly loaded with breast-milk? For the first month, he ought to be suckled about every hour and a half; for the second month, every two hours,—gradually increasing, as he becomes older, the distance of time between, until at length he has it about every four hours. If a baby were suckled at stated periods, he would only look for the bosom at those times, and be satisfied. A mother is frequently in the habit of giving the child the breast every time he cries, regardless of the cause. The cause too frequently is, that he has been too often suckled—his stomach has been overloaded; the little fellow is constantly in pain, and he gives utterance to it by cries. How absurd is such a practice! We may as well endeavor to put out a fire by feeding it with fuel. An infant ought to be accustomed to regularity in every thing—in times for suckling, for sleeping, etc. No children thrive so well as those who are thus early taught. 33. _Where the mother is_ MODERATELY _strong, do you advise that the infant should have any other food than the breast_? Artificial food must not, for the first three or four months, be given, if the parent be _moderately_ strong; of course, if she be feeble, a _little_ food will be necessary. Many delicate women enjoy better health while suckling than at any other period of their lives. 34. _What food is the best substitute for a mother’s milk?_