the child is awake and is nursing. Even at this early age it can be
compelled to learn a good habit. Unless it learns this habit, the mother
will be put to great inconvenience and the baby will suffer because of
the disarrangement of the systematic feeding. If he is allowed to nurse
at his own pleasure, the results will quickly make themselves manifest
in the form of colic, leading to wakefulness and bad temper.

A baby should not remain awake more than four hours in the day on the
whole, and he should be so trained that the eight hours from ten o'clock
at night to six in the morning, when his mother is sleeping, should be
for him also an uninterrupted period of slumber.

The baby should be weaned at ten months unless he is unwell at the time
or the weaning comes in the heat of the summer, when there is danger of
his becoming sickly or peevish. Preparatory to weaning, the baby should
be accustomed to the bottle. Provided the bottle holds half a pint or
four glasses, the number of bottles may be increased from one a day at
four months to two or six at eight months. The baby should certainly be
weaned by the time it is a year old, as, even though the mother
continues to have a plentiful supply of milk, this is not suited to his
needs at this stage of his physical development. By this method of
approach the act of permanently refusing the breast to the child will
not greatly offend him. After a little crying he will philosophically
accept the situation and reconcile himself to the substitute.

Weaning is rendered easier by selecting a nursing-bottle which has the
nipple in the shape of the breast. Care should be taken that the hole in
the nipple is not too large, supplying more milk than the stomach can
take care of as it comes, and so causing stomachic disorder. The nursing
bottle should at all times be kept thoroughly clean by rinsing in hot