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Show LITTLE TALKS ON BABYQLOGYj By Anna Steeae Richardson Babies' Bureau, Woman's Home Companion. FEEDING THE BABY. The last talk of Babyology set forth tho imp"rtance of mother'B milk for under one year of age, and the equal importance of the mother keeping her-fcelf her-fcelf in good condition. A well-nour-1 Iched baby. Next in imiortanco to the sort of milk supplied the baby is the regular j Ity of supplying it. How strange it' is that we grown up who knew the bad effects of Irregularity of eating think that the new-born child can be fed Irregularis without bad effects! One of the first questions asked I the mother at the Better Babies Con test is: "How many times a dav is your child fed " The variet of replies is amazing. "I don't know.'' 'Whenever he cries" "When he wal.es up." "Ob, when I get through with ins-work ins-work ' Naturally liable- fed in this was are seldom prl.t winners. lii Studying the score cards of prize winners win-ners in a dozen states, I find that ninety per cent are fed at regular Inters als, according to their age Babies are born hungry For mans weeks ibey have nothing to do but eat and sleep A well. known writer on babies says that eating Is the only form of recreation babies have. I Adult intelligence must decide ho oft.'n this habit of hunger should be satisfied, bearing in mind that a baby j will cry Just as hard on an overloaded stomach as on an empty one. Tht time to start baby in regular habits of feeding is the day of Its birth. The new born babs should be j nursed every two hours from f! a m j to 10 p. m., and once during the nipht at 2 a. m. This moans sesen feedings 1 I in twents four hour? At four months if a baby shows a normal gain in size and strength, according to the Better I Babies .standard sc ore card, should not be nursed between 9 p. m. and 6 a m., but should be sleeping soundl. I Between 6 a. in and 0 p m. he will I now have six feedings and his schedule sched-ule shsdd be maintained until he s a vear old. Mans mothers ask contest jhysi-clans jhysi-clans whether the baby should be awakened to be fed Phsslclans seem to acree that the baby should nevr I be asvakened at night to nurse, and the healthy baby will svake of its own accord to be fed once in three hours during the day There are rare exceptions ex-ceptions to this ruie. For example, when the mother has fed the child Irregularly from birth, Its sometimes : turns nlpht Into das, sleeping by day and fretting for food by night If the child is healthy, normal in every was, then It must be retrained to wake ; during the day for nursing and to j sleep by nisht without nursing This very example shows the importance of starting the feeding habits aright I from birth, by not nursing but once during the night. Another question asked by many mothers svho are nursing their babies is. "May 1 mix the baby s food, giving I him an occasional bottle" Dostors agree thai the answer Is governed by conditions Sometimes the mother's milk is not sufficiently nourishing. In that case under the di rection of the family doctor, bottle I and breast milk may be alternated In this way the baby Is gently prepared pre-pared for sveaning Again, in certain I families it may be necessary or ad I vlsable for the mother to have a certain cer-tain amount of freedom from her dutv j 01 nursing the baby The mother's , milk will not proslde certain elements which baby's system demands, and the bottle may be alternated with breast-feeding, alsvays with a doctor advising as to the food In the bottle. Many prize-winning babies have a record of mixed feeding, breast milk exclusively for two or three month then Rn Intelligent combination ji breast and bottle diet And this brings us to the problems ! of tho mother svho must bring up her baby on the bottle exclusively The scientific nnd successful rals ! ing of the baby on the bottle depends upon tsvo distinct lines of enro of the bottles. The best of food in an unsanitary un-sanitary bottle or drawn through an unclean nipple becomes dangerous to Baby's health. In choosing artificial food for your baby, remember that esen physicians difft-r on this question Many oml nent American specialists for children insist that fresh cow's milk, properly modified. Is the only substitute for mother's milk. Foreign authorities recommend goat e milk. And there are other recognized authorities on h.hs -health who have found it advisa ble to prescribe for delicate bottle fed babies a combination of milk and patent pat-ent food Not must the mother con- J suit her family physician on this question, but with tho physician she! I must watch the effect of the food chosen on the baby Vomiting, restlessness, sleeplessness; and the conditions of the bowls all tell the tale of food that is not being assimilated. In this condition the In-e.xperieuced In-e.xperieuced mother must understand that there are two forms of vomiting In the young baby, or more properly spvuking there are difference between somlting and regurgitation slight to i'p sure, but worth watching. Re-11 Re-11 1 citation Is merely an overflow of milk when the baby has taken too much It follows almost Immediately I upon having the breast or bottle taken away, and the milk Is practbpaJiy the same' condition as when It entered the stomach. But when the baby vomits habitually after feeding, and the milk Is curdled or tough or sour, there is something wrong with the botflo diet The bowels are a surt indication of the was In which the bottle diet agrees er disagrees with the baby YVhen the passage Is hard and bulletlike, bullet-like, when shows curds or white lumps like' cheetse, or when munis Is present (a slimy phlegm), or there Is diarrhea, the mother may be sure that tho food docB not agree with her baby and the doctor should be consulted immediately. immedi-ately. , . , o medicine should be given without with-out consulting a doctor. What the babv ueed Is not dosing, but a right sort of food, the food lis stomach will digest. At one contest in the niidwft tho mother of a little prize winner told me that at eleven months, she almost lost her baby. She had changed diets time and time again, varvlng from certified cow's milk to a well-known patent food The baby was reduced to a skeleton when the physician decided de-cided to try not mill, but cream, . e-luted e-luted svith barley water Tbe change in the haby' condition wa immediate, and it continued to thrive without further change of diet On the other hand, some babies fed on the modified modi-fied cream would not thrive. Frankly, Frank-ly, feeding a babs deprived of breast-milk breast-milk often resolves ltBoif into an experiment, ex-periment, but an experiment that must be conducted in an intelligent manner, with the ads-teo of a physician. physic-ian. Do not consult your neighbor no matter how many babies she has raised successfully The bottle food shich was real food to her babies may be poison for yours. There are no hard and fast rules for bottle foods Kach baby is a case unto itself and requires the most delicate attention, the unmost vigilance. Even two babies in one family may require different dif-ferent forms of artificial nourishment, or at least different modifications of cows milk. Babyology lays special stress on diet for the bottle-fed baby, so the nexi article will define the much discussed modified milk and the care of the bottle in which it is served to the baby |