Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-04-23
NO.. 96.
MISCELLANEOUS READING.
FEEDING INFANTS.
The following article, interesting to moth

lie lOllONiI1H W
ers. is copied from the Natchsz Courier.
Great mortality prevails among children
from injudicious feeding. Some persons at
tempt to support them upon articles Of food
winch contain little else than starch or gum.
neither of which are capable of themselves.
OF sustaining animal lite. Others csntine
them principally to the milk OF the cow. the
excess Of caSein in which they are unable to
digest; and to these other articles are added.
which are either inIigestible or nnutrtious.
Hence the large amount Of sickness and NOR
tality from dlsordered stomachs and bowels.
and which are generally attributed to teeth
lng 10 worms, and to any and every other
cause but the right one, error in diet, pro-
duclng indigestion.
In the last July number of the American
Journal of the Medical Sciences, there is a
clever article on natural and artificial lac
taton," by DR.. Cumming, q brief abstract
of the concluding portion Of which | am
tempted to publish for the information Of
young and doubling mothers. He says, and
sufficiently proves by physiological and chem
ical argument. that nothing but milk can
with propriety be used az the food OF infants;
and even this is apt to fail, and to give rise
toiatal maladies. unless it be made u CORES
pond very closely in its constituent elements
with human milk.
Cows milk differs from human milk in
some important particulars, as has been ac-
curately asccrtaIned by chemical aLal ysls.-
1t contains nearly three times rs much case
in as human milk. but somewhat less than
twice as much butter. while human milk CON-
tains nearly one-third more sugar, aid
little more water than cows milk. Mere
diluting cows milk by adding water with
addition oi sugar, therefore. as is common
" done. will not fit it for easy digestion by
the infant stomach. There will in this case
always be an excess of casein, aud defcien-
cy ot butter But the proportions are ma
teriaily changed by permitting the cows milk
to rest undisturbed until the lighter particles
rise toward the surface; and nearly the same
result is obtained by using only the milk last
taken from the COW.
DIR. Cumming, therefore, proposes to have
cows milk at rest for four or five hours, and
then to remove the upper third part for use;
or to take only the latter half as furnished by
the cow. He then advises Us to add for q
child not more than ter 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
period of lactation. The exact proportions
are-milk 1000, water 2643, sugar 243.-
The sugar and water are decreased ~ the
child grows older, until at FIVE months, the
proportions are-milk 1000, water 1000, SUI
gar l04, and at eighteen months the pro-
portions are--milk 1000, water 500, sugar
IL The child should take this food Mt n tenn
peraturc of one hundred to one hundred and
four degrees, and by suction. An eight
ounce vial. with aquill rolled in long strip
ofSwiss muslin for q stopper, is the best ar
rangemcnt for cleanliness and convenience.
Tubes having narrow passes cannot be readl-
ly cleansed.
A child ten days old will take thirty-two
ounces daily, in eight meals Of four ounces
each; and the meals should increase in guam
tity 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 inter
walls, except that the child should be early
accustomed to pass six TO eight hours at
night without feeding. The regularity Of
feeding, with proper intervals, is in accord
dance with physiological law of digestion
applicable to all persons, namely, that the
stomach should have time fully to digest its
food, before other food is taken into it.
A. p. MERRILL.
Elmscourt, March IA. 1859.