What can we use for this purpose?  Barley or oatmeal water or gruel is best.

What is cream?  It is the part of the milk containing the most fat.

How is cream now obtained?  By skimming after it has stood for twenty-four hours, “gravity cream”; by a separator, and it is then known as “centrifugal cream”; (most of the cream now sold in cities is “centrifugal cream").

How much fat has the usual “gravity cream?” Sixteen to twenty per cent.

How much fat is contained in cream removed from the upper one fifth of a bottle of milk?  About sixteen per cent.

How much does the usual centrifugal cream contain?  Eighteen to twenty per cent fat.

How much does the heavy centrifugal cream contain?  Thirty-five to forty per cent fat.

Should the milk be boiled for babies in the summer time?  No, not usually.

FOOD FOR HEALTHY INFANTS.—­FOR EARLY MONTHS.

These directions, etc., are for healthy infants.  Directions for such as are suffering from digestive disturbances will be given later.  I have in preceding pages given formulas for feeding children.  I give these additional, because not all children can be fed the same way and it may be well to have the two sets of formulas.

What important parts are to be remembered when we are modifying cow’s milk for the early month’s feeding?  That sugar is the most easily digested, fat comes next, while the proteids (curd) are the most difficult.

What relation should the fat and proteids bear to each other during the earlier periods?  Usually in healthy infants the fat (cream) should be three times the proteids (curds).  Some healthy infants do not digest fat so well and they should have only twice as much fat as proteids (curds—­skim-milk).

What per cent milk must be used to obtain three times as much fat as proteids?  Ten per cent milk.

How can we obtain ten per cent milk?  As top milk, described on another page, or by using plain milk and ordinary cream (sixteen per cent), in equal parts mixed; or it may be obtained directly from the milk laboratories.

[All about baby 581]

Which is better to do, use the top-milk or mix plain milk and ordinary cream?  If the milk is fresh from the cows, it is best then to use the top-milk, because the food can then be made up after it is only a few hours old.

If one uses bottled milk, in cities, the upper third may be used, but if milk and cream are bought separately it is usually more convenient to mix these, as cream will not rise uniformly upon the milk a second time.

What per cent milk must be used to obtain twice as much fat as proteids?  Use for dilution a seven per cent milk, that is, milk containing seven per cent fat, as in this milk the fat is just twice the proteids.

How is this obtained?  Same as top-milk, described on another page; or by mixing three parts of plain milk and one part of ordinary cream (sixteen per cent), or by obtaining it directly from the milk laboratories.