3.  Children being fed on food lacking fat generally have their teeth come late; their muscles will be flabby and bones soft.  Children will be too fat when their food contains too much sugar.  Sugar always makes their flesh soft and flabby.

4.  During the first two months the baby should be fed every two hours during the day, and two or three times during the night, but no more.  Ten or eleven feedings for twenty-four hours are all a child will bear and remain healthy.  At three months the child may be fed every three hours instead of every two.

5.  Children can be taught regular habits by being fed and put to sleep at the same time every day and evening.  Nervous diseases are caused by irregular hours of sleep and diet, and the use of soothing medicines.

6.  A child five or six months old should not be fed during the night from nine in the evening until six or seven in the morning, as overfeeding causes most of the wakefulness and nervousness of children during the night.

7.  If a child vomits soon after taking the bottle, and there is an appearance of undigested food in the stool, it is a sign of overfeeding.  If a large part of the bottle has been vomited, avoid the next bottle at regular time and pass over one bottle.  If the child is nursing the same principles apply.

8.  If a child empties its bottle and sucks vigorously its fingers after the bottle is emptied, it is very evident that the child is not fed enough, and should have its food gradually increased.

9.  Give the baby a little cold water several times a day.

* * * * *

INFANTILE CONVULSIONS.

DEFINITION.—­An infantile convulsion corresponds to a chill in an adult, and is the most common brain affection among children.

CAUSES.—­Anything that irritates the nervous system may cause convulsions in the child, as teething, indigestible food, worms, dropsy of the brain, hereditary constitution, or they may be the accompanying symptom in nearly all the acute diseases of children, or when the eruption is suppressed in eruptive diseases.

SYMPTOMS.—­In case of convulsions of a child parents usually become frightened, and very rarely do the things that should be done in order to afford relief.  The child, previous to the fit, is usually irritable, and the twitching of the muscles of the face may be noticed, or it may come on suddenly without warning.  The child becomes insensible, clenches its hands tightly, lips turn blue, and the eyes become fixed, usually frothing from the mouth with head turned back.  The convulsion generally lasts two or three minutes; sometimes, however, as long as ten or fifteen minutes, but rarely.

REMEDY.—­Give the child a warm bath and rub gently.  Clothes wrung out of cold water and applied to the lower and back part of the head and plenty of fresh air will usually relieve the convulsion.  Be sure and loosen the clothing around the child’s neck.  After the convulsion is over, give the child a few doses of potassic bromide, and an injection of castor oil if the abdomen is swollen.  Potassic bromide should be kept in the house, to use in case of necessity.