Milk

In preparing modified milk or other fluid foods for infants, where top milk is used, it is very important that the milk contain the same amount of cream for each feeding, or else digestive disturbance and irregularity of bowel movements will occur.

If milk, fresh from the cow and run through the cooler, is put into bottles or jars and kept at the same temperature, the same percentage of top-milk will be obtained daily. Five hours is generally sufficient to obtain the desired quality". The best means of removing it is by a spoon or siphon.

If raw milk is used without being sterilized, the desired amount for each meal should be put into sterile bottles directly after delivery and lightly covered by cheese-cloth or cotton and kept on ice or other cold place. In this way each bottle will contain the same amount of cream.

Preparation Of Modified Milk (Raw)

Put the desired amount of top-milk into as many bottles as are required for feeding during twelve hours. Prepare a solution of water and milk-sugar by dissolving the sugar with the desired amount of boiling water. Let cool and keep on ice for twenty-four hours. At each feeding, add the prescribed amount of water to the milk, shake and heat in, a water bath. Add a tablespoonful of lime water or barley water. If the milk cannot be obtained fresh twice per day, it is safer to scald the milk which is used during the night.

All milk, even if handled carefully, contains a large number of germs. When one is not certain that the cows from which the milk is obtained are healthy, the milk should be sterilized.

During the summer it is safer to scald or sterilize all milk for infants.

Scalded Milk (Modified)

Dissolve the desired amount of milk sugar in boiling water in a clean saucepan, add the milk, stir over a quick fire until it foams, which means that the milk is heated to about 2000 F. The most harmful germs are generally destroyed by this process. Pour the milk into a clean pitcher and set the latter in a pan of cold water. Stir the milk until cold and change the water several times. The stirring makes the milk homogeneous and easier to digest. If any scum has formed on top, through careless preparation, the milk should be strained through a cheese-cloth before putting it into bottles. Put a cotton stopper in the bottles and set on ice. Milk prepared in this manner is generally suitable for the average healthy infant.

Sterilized Milk (Modified)

Dissolve the milk sugar as directed for scalding milk. Add the desired amount of milk, top-milk or cream, and prepare as directed in the chapter under "Sterilized Milk."

Pasteurized Milk

Put the desired amount of milk or milk and cream mixture into sterile bottles, put on a stopper and set in a water bath; heat the water to 1550 or 1700 F., and keep it at that temperature for 30 minutes. Then remove the bottles at once, cool them in a pan of cold water and set on ice.