Lectures on diseases of children Author:Robert Hutchison Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE II THE ARTIFICIAL FEEDING OF INFANTS Gentlemen,—We approach to-day a subject which exceeds, perhaps, in importance any to which I shall have occasion... more » to direct your attention throughout this course of lectures— I mean the subject of infant feeding. When you go into practice, the question, How is one to feed this baby ? is one which will occur to you with perplexing frequency; and although it is a subject upon which a great deal has been written, I think one may say this, that the more you read about it the more confused you are likely to get, for, it must be confessed, much that has been written on the subject serves only to darken counsel, and you will find it of very little use to you in practice. I shall not deal in this lecture with all the conceivable methods by which children might be or have been fed; I want rather to describe quite plainly the methods which I have tried myself, and which I think you will find most easy and simple to carry out in your ordinary work. Now, the first question you have to ask yourself is, Why should artificial feeding of children be necessary at all ? You know that in the natural state of things every woman is the source of nourishment for her own child, but you will not have been long in practice before you Fig. 2. Twin's, The One On The I.Eft Breast-fed ; The Other Botti.e-fed. A Commentary On The Advantages Of Breast-feeding. DECLINE IN BREAST FEEDING realize that under modern conditions it is the minority of women who can nurse, or do nurse, their own children. It would be unjust to the female sex generally to state that this inability to nurse their children is their own fault. I do not think that is true ; I think, in the majority of cases, one can say that the woman is unable—not unwilling—to nurse her own chil...« less