Note 47 — THE FEEDING OF CHILDREN

It should not be inferred from this that mother's milk is the best under all circumstances. It not infrequently happens that a mother, disregarding all indications to the contrary, will continue to nurse her baby after it has become disastrous both to herself and the infant to do so. If a baby remains puny, and the mother is exhausted and languid without any known cause, it is the part of wisdom to call in the aid of a physician, and have the milk analyzed. Good and careful feeding is infinitely better than nursing a baby upon impoverished milk, even if the quantity seems sufficient. A mother, in nursing her child, should do so at stated regular intervals. If it is injurious for a grown person to eat at odd times all day long, it is far more injurious for an infant. It will not hurt a child to be occasionally hungry, or even to cry, whereas it will hurt it seriously and perhaps induce life-long dyspepsia if food is introduced into the stomach while there yet remains in it that previously taken in an undigested, or partly digested, condition. The cry which a young mother thinks indicates hunger, and hopes to allay by feeding, is often only a dyspeptic pain, which is increased by the very means she takes to lessen it.