ces. If, therefore, the mother persists
in trying to give the child four ounces of food, the child will suffer
from an excess. Many children during the first few mouths of life bring
up their food, and the mother fears that there is some inherited
tendency to weak digestion. It is wrong to feed a child simply because
it cries, as very frequently it is not a cry of hunger, but one caused
by indigestion from overfeeding.

If the child is being fed with the bottle it is important that the food
be given at a temperature of 100 deg. F., or as nearly that as possible;
never over; and if the child be fed out of doors in its carriage it is
well to have a flannel bag of some kind to slip over the bottle to keep
it at the same temperature until the meal is finished. Many cases of
colic are caused by inattention to this point.

It is a common mistake that when a child cries it needs additional food.
There are many cases where a little drink of water is the prime need of
the child, and great care should be taken that this is heated to the
proper temperature, and especially that no water be given to the child
except that which has been boiled. A few teaspoonfuls should be given to
the child, therefore, several times a day, but aside from that he should
have nothing but his regular food until he is at least a year old. For
the same reason, therefore, if a child be fed by the bottle, the water
used in preparing the food should have been previously boiled, and care
should be exercised not to expose the food to the air during or after
its preparation. It should be remembered that the food of a child must
be nutritious, and that in this food, especially when at the proper
temperature for the infant, bacteria from the air will flourish
wonderfully fast, and therefore the food should not be exposed to
possible contamination.

It is of very great importance that the feeding-bottles be always clean
and sweet. It is an advantage to have several bottles on hand, and also
two or three brushes for cleaning. Keep a special vessel, with water in
which there is a little bicarbonate of soda, so that the moment the
bottle is used it may be thoroughly washed and kept in the water. Do not
use a nipple with a rubber tube, but the short, black rubber nipples,
which fit over the mouth of the bottle. Do not enlarge the hole in the
nipple, so as to make it too easy for the baby to draw its food,
otherwise the food being taken so rapidly into the stomach w