If, on the other hand, to
obviate this evil, the solid matter, whether animal or vegetable, be
previously broken into small masses, the infant will instantly swallow
it, but it will be unmixed with saliva. Yet in every day's observation
it will be seen, that children are so fed in their most tender age; and
it is not wonderful that present evils are by this means produced, and
the foundation laid for future disease."[FN#11]
[FN#11] Dr. John Clarke's Commentaries.
The diet pointed out, then, is to be continued until the second year.
Great care, however, is necessary in its management; for this period of
infancy is ushered in by the process of teething, which is commonly
connected with more or less of disorder of the system. Any error,
therefore, in diet or regimen is now to be most carefully avoided. 'Tis
true that the infant, who is of a sound and healthy constitution, in
whom, therefore, the powers of life are energetic, and who up to this
time has been nursed upon the breast of its parent, and now commences
an artificial diet for the first time, disorder is scarcely
perceptible, unless from the operation of very efficient causes. Not
so, however, with the child who from the first hour of its birth has
been nourished upon artificial food.
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