Reduction in the sugar may be made by adding only one half ounce of milk sugar to each twenty ounces of the food; in severe cases the sugar may be omitted altogether.

It is often advisable to double the amount of lime-water—­i.e., use two ounces to each twenty ounces of food.

The malted foods and all other foods containing much sugar usually aggravate the symptoms.

The intervals between meals should generally be half an hour longer, and sometimes an hour longer, than when digestion is normal.

The quantity given at a feeding should generally be less than with a normal digestion.  Usually a smaller quantity of a strong food succeeds better than a larger quantity of a weak food.

What are the causes of, and food changes required by a constant and excessive formation of gas in the stomach, leading to distention and pain, or eructations (belching) of gas and often of a sour, watery fluid?

This is often associated with habitual vomiting, and is due to similar causes, but particularly to the sugar, which should be greatly reduced or omitted entirely.

What changes should be made when there is habitual colic?

This is generally due to an accumulation of gas in the intestines which forms there because the proteids (curd) of the milk are not digested.  They should be reduced by using in the early months a weaker formula—­i.e., instead of Formula V of the First or Second Series, IV might be used, or, for a short time, even III.  The proteids may be reduced in the middle period by using weaker formulas If we desire to reduce the proteids without reducing the fat, we may change from the Second to the First Series.

Another means of relieving habitual colic is the use of partially peptonized milk (page 115); still another the dilution with barley-water instead of plain water.

What change should be made if curds appear in the stools regularly or frequently?

This is usually associated with habitual colic, and has to be managed exactly like that condition, by the means just described.

How should the milk be modified for chronic constipation?

The constipation of the first weeks of life has been already referred to (page 82); it usually disappears as the food is gradually strengthened in all its proportions.

Habitual constipation at a later period is difficult to overcome by diet alone.  It sometimes depends upon the fact that the proteids are too high, and sometimes that the fat is too low.  Hence it is more frequent when infants are fed upon plain milk variously diluted (page 90), then when 7-per-cent or 10-per-cent milk is used, and diluted to a greater degree.  But it is not desirable to use a top-milk containing more than ten per cent fat for this purpose, nor is it wise to carry the fat in the food above 4 per cent (i.e., 8 ounces of 10-per-cent milk, or 12 ounces of 7-per-cent milk, in a 20-ounce mixture) or other disturbances of digestion may be produced.