regularity, _alternately_ to each breast.

I say _alternately_ to each breast. _This is most important
advice_. Sometimes a child, for some inexplicable reason, prefers one
breast to the other, and the mother, to save a little contention,
concedes the point, and allows him to have his own way. And what is
frequently the consequence?--a gathered breast!

We frequently hear of a babe having no notion of sucking. This "no
notion" may generally be traced to bad management, to stuffing him
with food, and thus giving him a disinclination to take the nipple at
all.

32. _How often should a mother suckle her infant_?

A mother generally suckles her baby too often, having him almost
constantly at the breast. This practice is injurious both to parent
and to child. The stomach requires repose as much as any other part of
the body; and how can it have if it be constantly loaded with
breast-milk? For the first month, he ought to be suckled, about every
hour and a half; for the second month, every two hours,--gradually
increasing, as he becomes older, the distance of time between, until
at length he has it about every four hours.

If a baby were suckled at stated periods, he would only look for the
bosom at those times, and be satisfied. A mother is frequently in the
habit of giving the child the breast every time he cries, regardless
of the cause. The cause too frequently is that he has been too often
suckled--his stomach has been overloaded, the little fellow is
consequently in pain, and he gives utterance to it by cries. How