be eaten all the year round.](4) Or Robb's Biscuits, as it is "among the best bread compounds made out of wheat-flour, and is almost always readily digested."—Routh.
(5) Another good food is the following—Take about a pound of flour put it in a cloth, tie it up tightly, place it a saucepanful of water, and let it boil for four or five hours, then take it out, peel off the outer rind, and the inside will be found quite dry, which grate. (6) Another way of preparing an infant's food, is to bake flour—biscuit flour—in a slow oven, until it be of a light fawn colour. Baked flour ought after it is baked, to be reduced, by means of a rolling pin, to a fine powder, and should then be kept in a covered tin, ready for use. (7) An excellent food for a baby is baked crumbs of bread. The manner of preparing it is as follows—Crumb some bread on a plate, put it a little distance from the fire to dry. When dry, rub the crumbs in a mortar, and reduce them to a fine powder, then pass them through a sieve. Having done which, put the crumbs of bread into a slow oven, and let them bake until they be of a light fawn colour. A small quantity either of the boiled, or of the baked flour, or of the baked crumb of bread, ought to be made into food, in the same way as gruel is made, and should then be slightly sweetened, according to the state of the bowels, either with lump or with brown sugar.
(8) Baked flour sometimes produces constipation, when such is the case, Mr. Appleton, of Budleigh Salterton, Devon, wisely recommends a mixture of baked flour, and prepared oatmeal, [Footnote: If there is any difficulty in obtaining prepared oatmeal, Robinson's Scotch Oatmeal will answer equally as well.] in the proportion of two of the former and one of the latter. He says—"To avoid the constipating effects, I have always had mixed, before baking, one part of prepared oatmeal with two parts of flour, this compound I have found both nourishing, and regulating to the bowels. One table-spoonful of it, mixed with a quarter of a pint of milk, or milk and water, when well boiled, flavoured and sweetened with white sugar, produces a thick, nourishing, and delicious food for infants or invalids." He goes on to remark—"I know of no food, after repeated trials, that can be so strongly recommended by the profession to all mothers in the rearing of their infants, without or with the aid of the breasts, at the same time relieving them of much draining and dragging whilst nursing with an insufficiency of milk, as baked flour and oatmeal." [Footnote: British Medical Journal, Dec 18, 1858]
(9) A ninth food may be made with "Farinaceous Food for Infants, prepared by Hards of Dartford". If Hard's Farinaceous food produces costiveness—as it sometimes does—let it be mixed either with equal parts or with one third of Robinson's Scotch Oatmeal. The mixture of the two together makes a splendid food for a baby. (10) A tenth, and an excellent one, may be made with rusks, boiled for an hour in water, which ought then to be well beaten up, by means of a fork, and slightly sweetened with lump sugar. Great care should be taken to select good rusks, as few articles vary so much in quality. (11) An eleventh is—the top crust of a baker's loaf, boiled for an hour in water, and then moderately sweetened with lump sugar. If, at any time, the child's bowels should be costive, raw must be substituted for lump sugar. (12) Another capital food for an infant is that made by Lemann's Biscuit Powder. [Footnote: Lemann's Biscuit Powder cannot be too strongly recommended—It is of the finest quality, and may be obtained of Lemann, Threadneedle Street, London. An extended and an extensive experience confirms me still more in the good opinion I have of this food.] (13) Or, Brown and Polson's Patent Corn Flour will be found suitable. Francatelli, the Queen's cook, in his recent valuable work, gives the following formula for making it—"To one dessert-spoonful of Brown and Polson, mixed with a wineglassful of cold water, add half a pint of boiling water, stir over the fire for five minutes, sweeten lightly, and feed the baby, but if the infant is being brought up by the hand, this food should then be mixed with milk—not otherwise." (14) A fourteenth is Neaves' Farinaceous Food for Infants, which is a really good article of diet for a babe, it is not so binding to the bowels as many of the farinaceous foods are, which is a great recommendation.
(15) The following is a good and nourishing food for a baby:—Soak for an hour, some best rice in cold water; strain, and add fresh water to the rice; then let it simmer till it will pulp through a sieve; put the pulp and the water in a saucepan, with a lump or two of sugar, and again let it simmer for a quarter of an hour; a portion of this should be mixed with one-third of fresh milk, so as to make it of the consistence of good cream. This is an excellent food for weak bowels.
When the baby is six or seven months old, new milk should be added to any of the above articles of food, in a similar way to that recommended for boiled bread.
(16.) For a delicate infant, lentil powder, better known as Du Barry's "Ravalenta Arabica," is invaluable. It ought to be made into food, with new milk, in the same way that arrow-root is made, and should be moderately sweetened with loaf-sugar. Whatever food is selected ought to be given by means of a nursing bottle.
If a child's bowels be relaxed and weak, or if the motions be offensive, the milk must be boiled, but not otherwise. The following (17) is a good food when an infant's bowels are weak and relaxed:—"Into five large spoonfuls of the purest water, rub smooth one dessert-spoonful of fine flour. Set over the fire five spoonfuls of new milk, and put two bits of sugar into it; the moment it boils, pour it into the flour and water, and stir it over a slow fire twenty minutes."
Where there is much emaciation, I have found (18) genuine arrow-root [Footnote: Genuine arrow-root, of first-rate quality, and at a reasonable price, may be obtained of H. M. Plumbe, arrow-root merchant, 8 Alie Place. Great Alie Street. Aldgate, London, E.] a very valuable article of food for an infant, as it contains a great deal of starch, which starch helps to form fat and to evolve caloric (heat)—both of which a poor emaciated chilly child stands so much in need of. It must be made with equal parts of water and of good fresh milk, and ought to be slightly sweetened with loaf sugar; a small pinch of table salt should be added to it.
Arrow-root will not, as milk will, give bone and muscle; but it will give—what is very needful to a delicate child—fat and warmth. Arrow-root, as it is principally composed of starch, comes under the same category as cream, butter, sugar, oil, and fat. Arrowroot, then, should always be given with new milk (mixed with one-half of water); it will then fulfil, to perfection, the exigencies of nourishing, of warming, and fattening the child's body.
New milk, composed in due proportions as it is, of cream and of skim milk—the very acme of perfection—is the only food, which of itself alone, will nourish and warm and fatten. It is, for a child, par excellence, the food of foods!
Arrow-root, and all other farinaceous foods are, for a child, only supplemental to milk—new milk being, for the young, the staple food of all other kinds of foods whatever.
But bear in mind, and let there be no mistake about it, that farinaceous food, be it what it may, until the child be six or seven months old, until, indeed, he begin to cut his teeth, is not suitable for a child; until then, The Milk-water-salt-and-sugar Food (see page 29) is usually, if he be a dry-nursed child, the best artificial food for him.
I have given you a large and well-tried infant's dietary to chose from, as it is sometimes difficult to fix on one that will suit; but, remember, if you find one of the above to agree, keep to it, as a babe requires a simplicity in food—a child a greater variety.
Let me, in this place, insist upon the necessity of great care and attention being observed in the preparation of any of the above articles of diet. A babe's stomach is very delicate, and will revolt at either ill-made, or lumpy, or burnt food. Great care ought to be observed as to the cleanliness of the cooking utensils. The above directions require the strict supervision of the mother.
Broths have been recommended, but, for my own part, I think that, for a young infant, they are objectionable; they are apt to turn acid on the stomach, and to cause flatulence and sickness, they, sometimes, disorder the bowels and induce griping and purging.
Whatever artificial food is used ought to be given by means of a bottle, not only as it is a more natural way than any other of feeding a baby, as it causes him to suck as though he were drawing it from the mother's breasts, but as the act of sucking causes the salivary glands to press out their contents, which materially assist digestion. Moreover, it seems to satisfy and comfort him more