months,
and from then on the weekly gain is from two to four ounces; in other
words, by six months the baby should double his birth weight and at
the end of a year his weight should be three times the birth weight. A
stationary or diminishing weight demands careful attention; a good
doctor should be called at once. Likewise, a very rapid increase in
weight is not to be desired, as we do not want a fat baby, but we do
desire a well-proportioned and alert baby, and, as someone has said,
it is better to have little or no gain during the excessive heat than
to upset the digestion by over-feeding, designed to keep the baby
gaining.

In weighing, usually the outside garments are removed, leaving on a
shirt, band, diaper, and stockings with the necessary pins; the little
fellow thus protected is placed into the weighing basket and at each
successive weighing, these same clothes or others just like them are
always included in the weight, and it should be so reported to the
physician.

THE STOOLS

In the chapter "Baby's Early Care," the first stools were described in
detail, and there we learned that the dark, tarry, meconium stools are
quickly changed within a week to the normal canary-yellow stool,
having the odor of sour milk.

The bottle-fed babies' stools differ somewhat in appearance; they are
thicker and a lighter color, but should always be homogeneous if the
food is well digested. They do not have nearly the number of bowel
movements each day that the breast-fed baby does. If a bottle-fed
baby's bowels move once a day and he seems perfectly well otherwise,
we are satisfied. And curds (white lumps), or mucus (sedimentary,
slimy phlegm), indicate that the food is not well digested.

BOTTLE FEEDING AND CONSTIPATION

A bottle baby may be constipated because the proteins are too high,
the fat too high, the food of an insufficient quantity or quality, or
the milk have been boiled, while weak babies really may lack the
muscular power to produce a bowel movement. With the help of your
physician endeavor to arrive at the cause of the constipation, and,
if the baby is two or three months old, from one to two teaspoons of
unsweetened prune juice may be administered. Milk of magnesia may be
added to the food (leaving out the lime water), or a gluten
suppository may be used.

The change from milk sugar to malt sugar has helped many infants;
while the giving of orange juice (after six months) is very beneficial
in man