A pint of cow’s milk a day for a new-born, eight-pound baby is boiled and allowed to cool, the scum taken off, and two tablespoons of sugar and eight ounces of boiled water added.
We have then 24 ounces of fluid. This should be divided into six feedings, four hours apart, and will make four ounces each.
The nipples and the bottles should be boiled before the mixture is poured into the bottles. It is best to have a simple wire basket rack to prevent the bottles from tipping. The mixture should be poured into them through a funnel with a meshed strainer. The bottles may be allowed to cool and then placed in the ice box until ready for the feeding. The milk should be heated slowly until it is lukewarm, and the bottle wrapped in a towel or piece of flannel.
Test the milk after warming by letting a few drops fall on the inside of the wrist. The correct temperature will feel lukewarm.
Hold the bottle so that the milk fills the nipple end so that the baby will not swallow air. After the feeding the baby should be held over the shoulder and patted gently on the back in order to allow it to regurgitate any air that might have been swallowed on account of too large a nipple or accidental tipping of the bottle.
The schedules of feeding are 6 a. m., 10 a. m., 2 p. m., 6 p. m., 10 p. m. and 2 a. m. Some physicians advocate four feedings every six hours. x-Ray studies of the baby’s stomach have shown that it is usually emptied after a feeding of this kind in three hours. The only way to tell which schedule of feeding is the best is by trial.