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The Care of Babies: Right

Right, 5 A. M.; Left, 7 A. M.; Right, 9 A. M.; Left, 11 A. M.; Right, 1 P. M.; Left, 3 P. M.; Right, 5 P. M.; Left, 7 P. M.; Right, 9 P. M.; Change to 24 hours between nursings on (date).

Do not nurse except at the regular intervals. It is a great, but very common mistake to put the baby to the breast every time it cries. It is more likely to be thirsty or suffering from over-feeding than to be hungry.

Give it a drink of water, but do not nurse it until the regular time. If you nurse oftener, your milk will become unfit. Babies when nursed too often or whenever they cry get indigestion and then cry harder from pain. If a baby is not sick or uncomfortable from heat or from the pricking of a pin, it will get no harm from crying. Indeed, every baby should cry during the day. It helps to develop its lungs. Crying, especially during the first few days of life is perfectly natural, and often beneficial. It does not necessarily indicate illness or hunger at any time, and food or medicine should not be given merely because the child cries.

The nursing should not last more than twenty minutes. Never let the baby go to sleep with the nipple in its mouth. Never nurse the baby when you are very tired or very much wrought up with grief, anger, or other very strong emotion. Your milk under such conditions will often baby convulsions. In such cases it be unfit for food. It may give the is often better to draw off the milk and give the infant some other food until you regain self control. Do not take drugs while nursing your baby, except by the direction of your physician. Opium, senna, rhubarb, and some other drugs may affect the milk so as to poison the child.

Care of Nursing Bottles. If the baby must be fed from a bottle absolute sanitary cleanliness is the price of safety. A baby cannot get clean milk out of a dirty bottle or through a dirty nipple. Sore mouth, colic and summer complaint often come nipples. It is true that some babies from improper care of bottles and have lived in filthy surroundings and survived dirty food, but it is equally THE CARE OF BABIES true that others have been killed by them. The only safe course is to take no chances. It is better to be safe than to be sorry.

Clean the nursing bottle immediately after each feeding. First rinse with clear cold water. Hot water changes the casein of milk into an insoluble glue which is very hard to wash off. Stale milk curds sticking to the inside of the bottle become poisonous after a few hours and may contaminate fresh food. After rinsing, put the bottle to soak in soda or borax water or soap suds. Finally, scrub the inside with a clean wire or other bottle brush; rinse with hot water and boil for twenty minutes. Turn the bottle upside down in a clean dish without wiping, and place in a clean place to dry and cool. Or, preferably fill the bottle with clean boiled There's death in the dirty bottle. water and a little piece of cooking soda the size of a pea and let the water stand in the bottle until the next feeding. Never let the bottle stand with milk in it. Never try to save what is left from one feeding until the next. use Nursing Bottles. Never square or paneled bottles. Sour milk and dirt cannot be removed from the corners. This filth remaining will afterwards contaminate the fresh food. Also avoid nursing bottles with tubes of either glass or rubber. They may be handy for you, but they are death to your baby. Indigestion and bowel complaint are the a b (a) Avoid corners or a tube; (b) use a bottle like this. result. Their use cannot be too strongly condemned. They cannot be properly cleaned and milk taken through them, especially in hot weather, soon becomes filthy and absolutely poisonous to the infant. Square bottles and nursing tubes are baby killers and their sale has been forbidden in many states by law. Select bottles with round corners and with the kind of nipple that fits over the neck and can be turned and washed both inside and out. Nipples of black rubber are better than those of white or red.

No person ailing or sick with a contagious disease, or who is known or suspected of having been exposed to such diseases, should be allowed to touch or come near the baby's milk or other food, or any of the utensils in which it is prepared or served. A small cluster of bacteria from a contaminated finger may develop to a colony of several billions in a bottle of warm milk within a short time.

Care of Rubber Nipples. Use the kind of nipple which is slipped over the neck of the bottle. Have at least two nipples, or preferably buy a half dozen at a time and keep some on hand to replace those that are lost or injured. After each feeding, turn the nipple inside out, rinse with cold water, and scrub with a brush kept for that purpose. Wash thoroughly with hot water inside and out, and drop into a cup containing about a teaspoonful of soda or borax to the pint of water, until needed for use.