The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-04-02

FEEDING INFAYTs.-The following article, interest
ing to mothers, is copied from the Natchez Courier:
Great mortality prevails among children from
injudcious feeding. Some persons attempt to sup
port them upon articles of food which contain little
else than starch or gum neither of which are capa-
BILE of themselves of sustaining animal lie. Others
contne them principally to the milk of the COW, the
excess of casein in which they unable to digest;
and to these, other articles are added, which are
either indigestibe or innutrtiOus. Hence the large
amount of sickness and mortality from disordered
stomach and bowels, and which are generally at
tributed to teething, to worms, and to any and eve
ry other cause but the true one, errors in diet pro-
ducng Indigestion.
In the last July number ofthe American Journal
of the Medical Sciences, there is clever article on
"Natural and artificial Lactaton," by DR.. Cum
ming, a brief abstract of the concluding portion of
which, am tempted to publish, for the information
of young and doubling mothers He says, and suff-
ciently proves by physiological and chemical ar
gument, that nothing but milk can with propriety
be used the food of infants; and this is apt
to fall and to give rise to fatal maadies, unless it
be made to correspond very closely in its consttu-
ent elements, with human milk.
Cows milk differs from human milk in some i'm
portant particulars, as has been accurately ascer-
tanned by chemical analysis. 1t contains nearly
three times much casein as human milk, but
somewhat less than twice much butter; while hu-
man milk contains nearly one-third more sugar,
and little more water than cows milk. Merely
duting cows milk by adding water, with the ad-
dtiOn ofsugar, therefore, is commonly done, will
not fit it for easy digestion by the infant stomach.
There will in this case always be an excess of casen,
and deficiency of butter. But the proportions are
materially changed by permitting the cows milk
to rest undisturbed until the lighter particles rise
toward the surface; and nearl V the same result
are obtained by using only the milk last taken from
the cow
DR.. Cumming proposes, therefore, to have cows
milk at rest for four five hours, and then to
the upper third part for use; or to take only
the latter half furnished by the COW. He then
advises us to add for child not more than ten days
old, two and half parts of water, and one-fourth
| part of sugar. This combination gives almost the
exact proportions of human milk at that early pc
riod of lactatOn. The exact proportions given are
Milk l000-Water 2643-Sugar 243. The sugar
| and water are decreased the child grows older,
until at five months, the proportions are-Milk 1000
| Water l0OO-Sugar l04, and at eighteen months
| the proportions are-Milk l000-Water 500-Sugar
| 63. The child should take this food at a temper
eight ounce vial, with quill rolled in a long strip
of Swiss muslin for stopper, is the best arrange
ment for cleanliness and convenience. Tubes
having narrow passages cannot be readily cleansed.
A child ten days old will take about thirty two
ounces daily, in eight meals of four ounces each;
and the meals should increase in quantity and
diminish in number, as the child grows older, so
that at three months seven meals of eight ounces
| each, may be taken. The milk should be given at
regular intervals, except that the child should be
early accustomed to pass six to eight hours at night
without feeding. This regularity of feeding, with
proper intervals, is in accordance with physio
logical law of digestion applicable to all persons
namely, that the stomach should have time fully tc
A. z. MERRILL.
| FTMsCoURT March IA 1880