en the digestive organs of the infant
are too delicate for this change, is a frequent source of the
affections now under consideration.

The attempt to wean a delicate child, for instance, when only six
months old, will inevitably be followed by disorder of the stomach and
bowels. Unless, therefore, a mother is obliged to resort to this
measure, from becoming pregnant, or any other unavoidable cause, if she
consult the welfare of her child, she will not give up nursing at this
early period. But if she should be no longer competent to suckle, and
her infant be delicate, a wet-nurse must be obtained; for, the infant's
bowels becoming disordered, medicine or remedies will avail little
without healthy breast milk.

The age at which weaning ought to take place must ever depend upon
circumstances; the ninth month would not be too early for some, the
twelfth would be for others.[FN#35]

[FN#35] See page 51.

FOR SUDDEN AND ABRUPT ALTERATION OF DIET.--Depriving the child at once
of the breast, and substituting artificial food, however proper under
due regulations such food may be, will invariably cause bowel
complaints. Certain rules and regulations must be adopted to effect
weaning safely, the details of which are given elsewhere.[FN#36]

[FN#36] See page 52.

OVERFEEDING, AND THE USE OF IMPROPER AND UNWHOLESOME FOOD.--These
causes are more productive of disorder of the stomach and bowels at the
time of weaning than any yet referred to.

If too large a quantity of food is given at each meal, or the meals
are too frequently repeated, in both instances the stomach will become
oppressed, wearied, and deranged; part of the food, perhaps, thrown up
by vomiting, whilst the remainder, not having undergone the digestive
process, will pass on into the bowels, irritate its delicate lining
membrane, and produce flatulence, with griping, purging, and perhaps
convulsions.

Then, again, improper and unsuitable food will be followed by
precisely the same effects; and unless a judicious alteration be
quickly made, remedies will not only have no influence over the
disease, but the cause being continued, the disease will become most
seriously aggravated.

It is, therefore, of the first importance to the well-doing of the
child, that at this period, when the mother is about to substitute an
artificial food for that of her own breast, she should first ascertain
what kind of food suits the child best, and then the pre