Never apply oil or any other greasy substance to the cord before it comes off, for this will prevent its drying and delay its falling off. When the cord has come off, you simply keep the navel clean by washing it daily with a little warm borax water and afterwards apply a small compress on which has been smeared a little zinc ointment. Always see to it that the baby is lying dry and use dusting powder freely; the _precipitated chalk_ is the best and cheapest infant powder that can be used. The child that is nursed on its mother’s breasts has little to fear from overfeeding, yet it should not be allowed to hang on the nipple too long or sleep with the nipple in its mouth. Nurse the child every two hours during the day and awaken it if it should sleep to give it its nourishment, but at night allow it to sleep as long as it wants to; this will cultivate regular habits in the child and it will thrive much better. If the baby cries and is restless between times do not imagine that it is always hungry, but rather colicky, for which there is nothing better than the old German domestic remedy, _fennel seed tea_; of this give the baby all it will drink every day and until it is a year old. Sore nipples are a great annoyance to a mother and often very obstinate to treatment. The skin covering the nipple is made exceedingly tender by the sucking of the child’s mouth and in a few days it cracks and becomes fissured. Sometimes, the pain that the mother endures whenever the infant nurses is excruciating, for every time the child is put to the breasts the cracks open anew. The most fruitful cause of this condition is to allow the child to hold the nipple in its mouth when it does not nurse or perhaps to allow it to retain the nipple in its mouth while it sleeps. This practice must be at once discontinued, and the child must be at once removed from the breast as soon as it is satisfied. The nipples should be washed with borax water, and then a salve should be made by mixing the yellow of one egg with half an ounce of Peruvian balsam. This is to be applied by means of a camel’s hair brush to the sore nipple every time after the child is through nursing. Should the nipple be too sensitive and the suction of the child too painful, then a breast pump had better be used for a few days and the child not applied until the teat has sufficiently improved.