It is astonishing how mothers, who would exclaim with horror at a few wholesome grains of pepper to season the breakfast egg of a child of five or six, will go on giving a new-born baby dose after dose of what is much the same thing as a very pungent liqueur. Should the pain be really due to “wind,” as shown by belching, some unirritating antiseptic such as a grain or two of resorcin will rapidly check the fermentation that is producing the gas, and so cure the disease. Though comparatively little used for this purpose, the writer has found this drug most useful in these little troubles, and has found that even infants of but a few days old tolerate it perfectly. If, on the other hand, the pain be due to indigestion, the trouble is probably caused by the character of the food, and an effort should be made to find something that agrees better. Probably the commonest cause of these disorders is the use of the numerous much-advertised “infants’ foods,” most of which contain farinaceous material of some sort. Now young infants cannot digest starchy matter of any kind, and the only proper food for them is milk. When the milk of the lower animals is used it is of course desirable to modify it, so that its composition may be made to more closely resemble that of human milk; and this in the case of cow’s milk is effected by diluting the milk and adding a little sugar, preferably milk sugar. Again the tendency of cow’s milk to clot in large mass has to be neutralised by the addition of some material that will prevent this, and the general ban against farinaceous materials need not extend to the use of the deservedly popular barley water for this purpose, as the amount of starchy matter it contains is too small to be harmful.
When goats’ milk is used, the goat should be kept tied up and its food gathered for it, as although a clean feeder, it is apt, if left at freedom, to eat acrid leaves which may affect the milk. Goats’ milk requires somewhat less dilution than that of the cow, and may agree in cases where cows’ milk fails.
In proportion as the heat is greater, so should the milk be more freely diluted, as otherwise thirst may lead to the child taking more food than is good for it; and if at such times the child craves too frequently for food, a few teaspoonfuls of plain water should be given; as the craving is merely an indication that the child, like larger people, is thirsty. The water can do no harm, but irregular feeding is always injurious. As the child grows older, the milk can be given less diluted, and after eight or nine months the yolk of a raw egg beaten up with the milk may be occasionally given, if the child appears to require more nourishment; but this should not be overdone, as such food is apt to cause “biliousness.” In the second year milk puddings and bread and gravy may be given occasionally, and after the third the child should be encouraged to eat plenty of well-cooked vegetables, but stewed fruits should be given with caution.