_What value do these substances possess as infant foods?_

Some of the starch is digested and absorbed; but the chief value of
gruels is believed to be that when added to milk they render the curd
more easily digested by preventing it from coagulating in the stomach
in large tough masses. This is certainly true with many infants, but
there are others who are not at all benefited, and not a few young
infants whose digestion is made distinctly worse by the use of
farinaceous food, particularly when employed in considerable quantity.
The addition of gruels to milk for all infants is not to be
recommended.

_What further additions may be made to the diet of healthy infants
during the first year?_

Beef juice, the white of egg, and orange juice.

_How and when may beef juice be used?_

With infants who are strong and thriving satisfactorily it may be
begun at ten or eleven months; two teaspoonfuls may be given daily,
diluted with the same quantity of water, fifteen minutes before the
midday feeding; in two weeks the quantity may be doubled; and in four
weeks six teaspoonfuls may be given. The maximum quantity at one year
should not be more than two or three tablespoonfuls.

With delicate infants who are pale and anæmic, beef juice is more
important, and it may often be wisely begun at five or six months in
half the quantities mentioned.