The Feeding of Infants by Eulalia S. Sisley; Bishop J. F. Hurst

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Dec 24, 1903

The Feeding of Infants

By Eulalia S. Sisley; Bishop J. F. Hurst

EULALIA S. SISLEY, M. D.

IT is a significant fact that one half of the infants born into this world die before they reach the age of five years. It may be safely said that a large per cent of this infantile mortality is due to errors in feeding. A few suggestions may be helpful to inquiring mothers.

Many mothers, in feeding their little ones, adopt the plan of “meals at all hours.” No plan could be fruitful of more pernicious results, as a baby’s digestion must suffer from irregular or too frequent feeding.

As a general rule, an infant should be fed once every two hours during the daytime, and once or twice at night, until one month old. After this time the baby should be trained, as far as possible, to do without feeding from ten o’clock at night until five or six in the morning. The little one may cry the first night or two; but he can usually be quieted with a little warm water. After a short time he will learn to sleep through the night without waking for food.

From one to four months of age, the child should be fed once every three hours during the daytime. From the fourth to the eighth month, the intervals between feedings may be gradually lengthened to four hours.

Happy the little ones who are nourished in nature’s own way. Statistics show that such babies, as a class, are healthier than bottle-fed infants, and the mortality among them is far less.

Of artificial foods, modified cow’s milk is usually the best. For a young infant, the milk should be diluted one half, the proportion of milk and cream being gradually increased as the child’s stomach is able to bear it. Plain water, barley water, or thin, strained, well-cooked oatmeal gruel may be used to dilute the milk. Enough milk may be modified and sterilized each morning to last through the day. A teaspoonful of lime-water may be added to each feeding.

If a prepared infant food is used, select one which contains as little starch as possible, as an infant is unable to digest starch.

In selecting nursing bottles, choose those that are smooth inside, without angles or depressions, which, by collecting milk, render cleansing difficult. Provide the bottle with a plain rubber nipple. The long tube attachments should be discarded, as it is impossible to maintain the necessary cleanliness. Any particle of milk remaining in the bottle or nipple from one feeding to another, will be likely to contain the germs which cause fermentation in the stomach; hence the necessity of absolute cleanliness. Immediately after nursing, the bottle should be thoroughly rinsed, then submerged in a soda solution (one teaspoonful of soda to a pint of water). The nipple, after being thoroughly cleansed, should also be immersed in the soda solution until required for the next feeding, taking care to rinse before using. The busy mother may think these precautions unnecessary, but be it known that neglect to observe these requirements is largely responsible for the great mortality among infants.

The healthy infant, whether bottle or breast-fed, should be gradually weaned at about the age of twelve months, or as soon as he possesses sufficient teeth to begin masticating solid food. It is best, if possible, not to wean a child during the warm summer months, as this is the time when gastric and intestinal disorders are most prevalent. The custom followed by some mothers of greatly prolonging the nursing period is detrimental to both mother and child.

A suitable diet for a child one year old would consist of thoroughly cooked grains (such as whole-meal bread, zwieback, browned rice, and the flaked wheat preparations), stewed fruit, and fresh fruits which are thoroughly ripened. Milk and cream may also be used.

Avoid fried or highly seasoned foods, stimulants (including tea and coffee), coarse vegetables, unripe fruit, pastry, and excessive sweets.

It is a mistaken kindness to feed babies on sweetmeats. By thoughtlessness in this matter the foundation may be laid in infancy for lifelong dyspepsia.

Home Life

THERE is something peculiarly beautiful in the pure and calm life of a home in no wise prominent and celebrated. There stands a house, just like the dozen others in the same block, or on the same village street. No newsmonger ever lingers in its doorway. The man who looks out of its windows and crosses its threshold has never led an army or sat in the senate hall; but his life may be perfectly heroic, and as beneficent as only a pure heart has the gift to be. He may, by being the pure priest of his own house, be performing a ministry that only God and his unseen angels are acquainted with, in the instruction of his family in the ways of God, in quietly contributing to the relief of the needy nearest him, and, most of all, in the eloquent sermon of a spotless Christian life. There are many homes pervaded from cellar to garret by such a spirit. Like the ointment with which an adoring woman anointed the weary feet of Jesus, its odor fills the whole house.

The atmosphere of a home will be decided by its strongest spirit, and this is as apt to be a woman as a man. The most delightful home in real Christian grandeur that we have ever known was where a noble woman gave tone and character to the group. She was a priestess whose utterances carried more weight than any ever heard in a pagan temple.

The Epworth rectory would have been just like many others, and Methodism would never have been born, but for the woman who was composed when all about were excited; who taught more and put more great granite blocks in the temple of God’s church in one day, by her molding influence upon two plastic minds,—her sons John and Charles,—than her husband, with all his sermons and hymns and tirades against the government could have done in fifty lifetimes.

Many of the criticisms of “Memorials of a Quiet Life,” by Hare, and the opinions expressed concerning its good influence and tendency, seem to have arisen from different modes of looking at the work. Some have commended the style, others have called attention to the general characteristics of the Hare family, while others have thought that the greatest service of the book is the light it throws on the state of religion and literature in England during the period covered by the lives which it unfolds. But what has struck us most is the simplicity, sweetness, and intensity of virtue in that quiet Christian home at Hurstmonceaux. These were people who visited, and were visited, in turn, by their friends; kept a journal, each for himself, of what seemed the doings of the monotonous days; made plans for life and work; had their bereavements and joys; passed into serene old age, and left children behind them of whom they could only hope well because those who had loved them best had prayed well for them. Such a life has nothing striking in it, but it is the life of a real home. There is no rush, no grand ceremonial, no brilliant entertainment. All is unpretending

and utterly devoid of the gross aspiration for renown. Such an untoward event as public prominence given to the circle of the Hares would have sent them all blushing into the Highlands. They thought nothing of it, and the beauty of their life was their living right straight on, from day to day, a pure and elevated life. There were ambitions, expectations, but they were legitimate and pure, and were fulfilled.

We are sometimes disposed to complain that our American home is beginning to suffer sadly. The excitements and whirl of our common business life get within it. The ostentation that comes from a desire to have the stranger become a guest for a few hours, and entertain a most excellent opinion of our finances and tastes, is too much the fashion. The young fledglings leave the old nest, here in America, very soon, and prefer to live in another atmosphere than their first. Our households are hopeless mutilations. We stand in danger of growing into the feeling that we are living in a vast boarding house, where nothing suits us but the expectation of something better. The excitements of our temporal life, the disappointment of our worldly hopes, should never be allowed to affect the feeling of the loved at home. If the members must separate, let us have them often recalled. Let the correspondence with them be faithfully sustained. Let all the ties be continued. Let the entire life be such that even the youngest at the fireside will never be able to forget, in all his later life, the temper and spirit of that charity and cheerfulness in which he grew, and from which he went out into the chilly world.

If a foreign duty is performed, let the nearest not be left undone. Let us, if we would look to the great future, both here and beyond, have a home where the loving and unifying spirit is supreme, and where religion absorbs all other interests. The good home here is the best type we have of the household above.—Bishop J. F. Hurst.