The Addition of Other Foods to Milk

How long should modified milk be continued without the addition of other food?

This depends upon circumstances; usually, for about six months; but if the infant is thriving satisfactorily the milk may be used alone for ten or eleven months; with some infants who have especial difficulty in digesting cow's milk, it is advisable to begin the use of other food at three or four months or even from the outset.

What is the first thing to be used with milk?

Farinaceous food in some form, usually as a gruel.

How are these gruels made?

They may be made directly from the grains or from some of the prepared flours (page 149). The flours are usually to be preferred as being more simple of preparation.

How should they be used in making the food?

They should be cooked separately, rather than with the milk; when the food is mixed, they take the place of a portion of the water in the formulas given on pages 70 and 71.

How much of the gruel should be used?

If it is prepared as recommended on page 149, it may make according to circumstances from one sixth to one half the total quantity of food.

Which of the farinaceous foods are to be preferred?

Those most used are barley, oatmeal, arrowroot, and farina. There is not much difference in their nutritive value; oatmeal gruel is somewhat more laxative.

What value do these substances possess as infant foods?

Some of the starch is digested and absorbed; but the chief value of gruels is believed to be that when added to milk they render the curd more easily digested by preventing it from coagulating in the stomach in large tough masses. This is certainly true with many infants, but there are others who are not at all benefited, and not a few young infants whose digestion is made distinctly worse by the use of farinaceous food, particularly when employed in considerable quantity. The addition of gruels to milk for all infants is not to be recommended.

What further additions may be made to the diet of healthy infants during the first year?

Beef juice, the white of egg, and orange juice.

How and when may beef juice be used?

With infants who are strong and thriving satisfactorily it may be begun at ten or eleven months; two teaspoonfuls may be given daily, diluted with the same quantity of water, fifteen minutes before the midday feeding; in two weeks the quantity may be doubled; and in four weeks six teaspoonfuls may be given. The maximum quantity at one year should not be more than two or three tablespoonfuls.

With delicate infants who are pale and anæmic, beef juice is more important, and it may often be wisely begun at five or six months in half the quantities mentioned.

When should white of egg be used?

Under the same conditions as beef juice, particularly with infants who have difficulty in digesting the proteins (curd) of milk. At six months half the white of one egg may be given at one time, and soon after this the entire white of one egg. The best in manner of cooking is the "coddled", egg (see page 151).

When should orange juice be begun?

Usually about the eleventh or twelfth month; it should be given about one hour before the feeding; two teaspoonfuls at first, then one tablespoonful at a time, and later three or four tablespoonfuls. It is particularly useful when there is constipation. It should always be strained, and care should be taken that it is sweet and fresh.