Homemade refrigerator. An ice box to keep the baby’s milk in good condition may be made in the following way at very little cost: In a wooden box about eighteen inches square and of about the same depth, put a layer of sawdust three inches deep. Then put a ten-quart pail (or a larger one) in the center of the box. Add more sawdust and put a cardboard collar around the pail, to keep the sawdust in place. It is also well to put a layer of cheesecloth over the sawdust. Inside this pail place another (smaller) one, to hold the ice. The bottles are put in the larger pail, which should be securely covered, and a bag of sawdust is placed over it. The box should be tightly closed by a wooden cover lined with several thicknesses of newspaper. The inner pail should be taken out and cleaned every morning.

The box described above will keep cold for twenty-four hours with five cents’ worth of ice in it. The cover should not be left off any longer than is necessary to remove the bottles.

Care of bottles. New bottles should be placed in a kettle of cold water, put on the stove, and boiled for twenty minutes. They should then be removed from the stove, but left in the kettle until the water cools. Bottles treated in this way will not break easily.

As soon as the baby has finished feeding, the bottles should be rinsed with cold water, cleaned with a bottle brush in clear hot water, then filled with fresh water and set aside. In the morning, before the day’s food is prepared, all bottles should be scrubbed with hot water and Ivory soap; they should then be rinsed thoroughly in several waters, boiled in a solution consisting of two teaspoonfuls of soda to one quart of water, and rinsed in clear boiled water.

Care of bottle nipples. New nipples should always be scrubbed and boiled for three minutes before being used. It is better to buy nipples that can be turned inside out. There should always be at least two nipples clean and ready for use. Immediately after the feeding the nipple should be removed from the bottle, washed in cold water, scrubbed inside and outside, rinsed well, and placed in a jar of sterile water or a two per cent solution of boric acid. Nipples should be boiled daily for about three minutes.

When it is time to feed the baby the bottle should be taken from the ice box and placed (still corked) in a dish of water deep enough to come above the milk line. The water is to be heated until the milk is warmed. The water should not boil, as that renders the milk less easy to digest and is apt to make the baby constipated. A clean cloth should be placed in the bottom of the dish or kettle, to prevent the bottle from slipping and breaking. The temperature of the milk should be tested by dropping some of it on the inner surface of the arm. If it feels warm to the skin, it is the correct temperature for the baby.

The mother should never put the nipple into her own mouth to test the temperature. The nipple should be handled only by the neck; the part that goes into the baby’s mouth should never be touched.

Holding the baby while feeding. The baby should be held by the mother or nurse in the same position as for breast feeding. The bottle should be held so that the neck is continually filled, in order that the baby may not suck in air. The feeding should be finished in twenty minutes. If the baby nurses too rapidly, withdraw the nipple for a moment several times during the feeding. If the baby falls asleep, the bottle should be removed, and no more milk should be given until the next feeding time; he should not be permitted to nurse a little and then sleep a little, and thus unduly prolong the feeding.

Sterile water to drink. The water which is given the baby to drink should first be boiled and then put where it will cool. Before it is given it should be slightly warmed.