ay contain the
microoerganisms which bring about fermentation or putrefaction. Any or
all of these causes may assail the artificially fed baby.
Consequently, all the care that can be exercised must be resorted to
in the feeding of these babies, not only after digestional
disturbances arise, but as a means of their prevention. In the
preceding chapter the methods generally used in the feeding of normal
infants were discussed. We now proceed to the feeding under abnormal
or pathological conditions.

~Errors in Diet.~--The majority of the ills from which the baby
suffers can be traced primarily to ~errors in diet~ and in most of
these cases the treatment consists chiefly in adjusting the formula to
suit the condition. As a rule, these errors may be placed under two
heads: those that are brought on by under-feeding and those induced by
over-feeding. The pathological conditions arising from under-feeding
are due not only to a lack of food, but chiefly to the improper
balancing of the different food constituents in the formula. As has
already been stated, so much food is required to cover the energy
expenditures, so much for maintenance, and so much for storage for the
growth and development necessary during the entire period from birth
to maturity. These constituents must be regulated to the individual
needs of the infant.

~Over- and Under-dilution.~--If the dilution is too great, the infant,
while receiving the correct amount of the mixture, may have the
necessary food constituents so reduced as to have them fail completely
to do their appointed work in the body. Or if the amount of diluent is
too small the baby may be receiving too strong a mixture, and develop
nutritional disturbances therefrom. Under the first head the child
suffers from under-feeding; the appetite is satisfied before enough of
the actual food is ingested to meet his various needs. However, it is
probable that the artificially fed infant suffers from the results of
over-, rather than of under-feeding.

DISEASES DUE TO ERRORS IN DIET

Gastro-intestinal disturbances, colic, enterocolitis, colitis, etc.,
rickets, scurvy, nephritis, and diabetes are among the diseases most
apt to develop from injudicious feeding, and in these cases the
dietetic treatment plays the most important part in combating the
condition. The disturbances caused by food are recognized by the
general symptoms: vomiting, rise of temperature, subnormal
temperature, and the stools