Home › Some Kitchen Kinks › Some Kitchen Kinks: Don't

Some Kitchen Kinks: Don't

Don't Overfeed the Baby.-Once in two or three hours is often enough to suckle or feed a baby until it is four or five weeks old; after that do not feed so often.

When a baby is about six months old it will generally thrive best if fed only once during the night and four or five times regularly during the day. It is bad for a baby's stomach and bowels to feed it too often or too much at a time, especially in hot weather.

A new-born baby's stomach will hold from two to three tablespoonfuls, and not more than this amount -rather less-should be given at a time during the first week or so of a bottle-fed baby's life.

As the baby grows, the quantity should be gradually increased, so that at the end of the first month it may be taking about four tablespoonfuls at a meal. Some children will require more and others will not stand so much; but there is more danger of giving too much at a time than too little.

Don't Stick the Nipple in the Baby's Mouth Every Time It Cries. -If the baby is properly fed at regular times it won't get hungry enough to make it cry, and it is foolish to feed it whenever it cries instead of trying to find out the trouble. It may be only thirsty, and a swallow or two of cold water-not a big drink-will stop it; or its clothes may be uncomfortable, or its napkin need changing.

Try to find out what makes it cry, and then use "mother wit." And don't be afraid of giving the baby a drink of water. It needs water as much as milk. It needs more water in proportion to its size and weight, and oftener, than its mother does.

Thirst causes more needless suffering to babies than anything else. Give the baby a drink!-but be sure the water is pure, by having been either boiled or filtered. a Don't Feed the Baby with Spoon.-Sucking is the natural way that a baby takes its food. It needs the sucking action of the lips and mouth and tongue to mix its food with the fluids of the mouth and to keep it from getting into the stomach too fast.

Spoon feeding doesn't do this.

Use a Plain, Common Bottle for Feeding, with a rubber nipple and no tube.

Fancy nursing bottles, with long rubber tubes and patent contrivances, besides costing money, can't be cleaned easily, and babies don't do well with them in other ways. The more simple the bottle and the nipple, the better for the baby. The rubber-tube bottle is a device of the Evil One for lazy mothers. It is bad enough when a mother can't suckle her own infant at her own breast; let her at least take it in her arms and hold the bottle and "mother" it while it feeds.