Remarks on the Feeding of the Healthy Infant

During the last decade the problem of infant feeding has been a peculiarly interesting one in this country. While European writers are fairly well agreed on fundamental methods, there has grown up a system of infant feeding in this country that in its elaboration is unique. This so-called percentage, or American, system has received such universal and unqualified approval among our pediatricians that it seems almost like heresy to doubt its tenets, and yet an overwhelming mass of evidence has appeared in the last few years that to my mind discredits the fundamental principles of that system. I shall first outline what I believe to be a rational dietary for the first year of life and will then advance briefly some objections to the percentage method. It is important at the start to define the term "healthy" baby, because there is an essential difference between a healthy and a sick