Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Page 9

no milk) will not, for at least twelve
hours, require artificial food. In the generality of instances, then, artificial food is not at
all necessary; but if it should be needed, one-third of new milk and two-thirds of warm
water, slightly sweetened with loaf sugar (or with brown sugar, if the babe's bowels have
not been opened), should be given, in small quantities at a time, every four hours, until
the milk be secreted, and then it must be discontinued. The infant ought to be put to the
nipple every four hours, but not oftener, until he be able to find nourishment.
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 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 consequently in pain,
and he gives utterance to it by cries. How absurd is such a practice! We may as well
endeavour to put out a fire by feeding it with fuel. An infant ought to be accustomed to
regularity in everything, in times for sucking, for sleeping, &c. 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 five or six 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 whilst ambling than at any other period of their lives.
It may be well, where artificial food, in addition to the mother's own milk, is needed, and
before giving any farinaceous food whatever (for farinaceous food until a child is six or
seven months old is injurious), to give, through a feeding bottle, every night and morning,
in addition to the mother's breast of milk, the following _Milk-Water-and Sugar-of Milk
Food_--
Fresh milk, from ONE cow, Warm water, of each a quarter of a pint, Sugar of milk one
tea spoonful
The sugar of milk should first be dissolved in the warm water, and then the fresh milk
unboiled should be mixed with it. The sweetening of the above food with sugar-of-milk,
instead of with lump sugar, makes the food more to resemble the mother's own milk. The
infant will not, probably, at first take more than half of the above quantity at a time, even
if he does so much as that but still the above are the proper proportions, and as he grows
older, he will require the whole of it at a meal.
34. _What food, when a babe is six or seven months old, is the best substitute for a
mother's milk?_
The food that suits one infant will not agree with another. (1) The one that I have found
the most generally useful, is made as follows--Boil the crumb of bread for two hours in
water, taking particular care that it does not burn, then add only a little lump-sugar (or
brown sugar, if the bowels be costive), to make it palatable. When he is six or seven
months old, mix a little new milk--the milk of