How often shall I nurse or feed baby during the first month?  Ten times in twenty-four hours at intervals of two hours during the day and two times at night.

Why can I not feed baby oftener?  Because it takes nearly two hours to digest a meal at two months, about two and one-half hours at five or six months, and if another meal is given before the former meal is digested, vomiting and indigestion will result.  The following schedule is given by one authority on children for healthy infants for the first year: 

Night      No.        Quantity      Quantity
Interval   feedings   of        for           for
between    10 P. M.   feedings  one           24
meals      to         in 24     feeding,      hours,
by day.    7 A. M.    hours.    ounces.       ounces.
2d to 7th day      2 hrs.     2       10      1 to 1-1/2      10 to 15
2d to 3rd week     2 hrs.     2       10      1-1/2 to 3      15 to 30
4th to 5th week     2 hrs.     1       10      2-1/2 to 3-1/2  25 to 35
6th to 8th week   2-1/2 hrs.   1       8       3 to 5          24 to 40
3d to 5th Month    3 hrs.     1       7       4 to 6          28 to 42
5th to 9th month    3 hrs.     0       6       5 to 7-1/2      30 to 45
9th to 12th month   4 hrs.     0       5       7 to 9          35 to 45

This schedule is for healthy children.  The smaller amounts are required by smaller children with weak digestion; the larger amounts are required by large children with strong digestion.  The interval is from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of the next feeding.

[All about baby 593]

How soon can I make the intervals at two and one-half hours?  Generally at five or six weeks.

When may I increase it to three hours?  Usually at eight weeks or two months.

When should I lengthen the interval between feedings?  When there is poor stomach digestion.

How is this shown?  By habitual vomiting or regurgitation of food long after nursing is finished; also when the baby has a very poor appetite so that it always leaves some of its food.

When can I shorten the intervals?  It is not generally advisable to feed any baby oftener than given by this schedule.

REGULAR FEEDING.

How can I teach baby to take regular meals?  By commencing at birth to feed at exactly regular hours every day.

Shall I awaken baby to feed it?  Yes, for a few days.  In a short time he will waken at the same hours himself.

Should this regularity extend through the night?  Only up to nine or ten o’clock.  After ten let him sleep as long as he will.

How soon can baby go without food from 10 p. m. to 7 a. m.?  At four months usually and always at five or six months; night feeding causes restlessness and poor sleep.

STERILIZED MILK.

What do you mean by sterilizing milk?  It means to heat milk so as to destroy the germs.