Irregularity in feeding, too frequent nursing, and too long intervals between nursing often make what has been good milk unfit for use. Mothers should not nurse their children so often as to make their milk too rich in proteins, or neglect them so as to impair their nutrition and to give them a food that is too dilute. Infants are so readily made creatures of habit that, 12 if they are well, they will show signs of hunger only after the accustomed intervals. In order to preserve the mother's health it is best to habituate the infant to but one meal between ten o'clock at night and seven in the morning. The following table, modified from Holt's, will give the best intervals between feedings, the number of feedings a day, and the amount that the average child takes at each feeding:

The stomach of an infant is small and weak. It possesses little muscular activity and milk flows rapidly from it into the intestine and is digested there. During the later months of infancy the organ becomes more of a pouch and acquires more functional power. It is disputed whether or not during the first weeks of life milk clots in the stomach. It has been determined that during the second or third months of life two-thirds of a meal will have passed from the stomach in three hours, and that in a half-hour more the organ will have been completely emptied.

It is interesting to compare the ratio of food constituents in the diet of an infant six months old with that of an adult:

The child's weight is to a woman's approximately as...... 1 is to 10

The protein in the child's food is to that in the woman's approximately as................................... 1 is to 8

The fat in the child's food is to that in the woman's approximately as......................................... 1 is to 1.8

The carbohydrate in the child's food is to that in the woman's approximately as.......................... 1 is to 8

The calories in the child's food is to that in the woman's approximately as................................... 1 is to 5

When these statements are examined, one is struck with the relatively numerous calories generated by the infant's food. Much of this energy is needed to maintain bodily temperature. It must be remembered that the child's small body exposes to the air relatively to an adult's three times as much surface from which heat can radiate. About one-fifth of the energy that a mother's food will generate is given to her infant. It is evident that much of this heat is generated by fat. The infant consumes more than half as much fat as an adult. Its food contains also relatively a large amount of proteins and carbohydrates. It is, in other words, most generous in all ingredients, but especially so in fats.

If ' fore-milk' is examined bacteriologically, it will usually be found to contain a few bacteria. They are not found later unless the mammary gland is diseased. It is evident, however, that micro-organisms do find their way a short distance into the lacteals, and that they are quickly washed out when the milk begins to flow. The micro-organisms most frequently found in human milk are those that commonly cause purulent inflammations - the streptococci and staphylococci. Thorough cleanliness of nipples and of clothing over them greatly reduces the number of these organisms. The mother's nipples should be washed frequently with a bland and slightly antiseptic solution, such as one of boric acid. Care should be exercised also to have only the cleanest clothing over the breasts.