For an older baby it may be slightly cooler, but should not be cold enough to chill or frighten him.

If the water is very hard a tablespoonful of borax dissolved in a little water may be added to three quarts of water to soften it. Very little soap should be used and that a very bland, simple soap, like castile. Never rub the soap directly on the baby's skin, and be sure that it is thoroughly rinsed off, as a very troublesome skin disease may result if a harsh soap is used or if soap is allowed to dry on the skin.

Use a soft wash cloth from a piece of old table linen, towel, knitted underwear, or any other soft material, and have two pieces, one for the face and head and one for the body. The towel should be soft and clean also. Even in summer the baby should be protected from a direct draft when being bathed lest he be too suddenly chilled.

But

A young baby should be carefully held while in the tub. The mother puts her left hand under the baby's left arm and supports the neck and head with her forearm. an older baby can sit alone and in summer may be allowed to splash about in the cool water for a few minutes.

When the bath is finished the baby should be patted dry, and the mother should take great care to see that the folds and creases of the skin are dry. Use a little pure talcum powder or sifted corn starch under the arms and in the groin to prevent chafing. If any redness, chafing or eruption like prickly heat develops on the skin, no soap at all should be used in the bath. Sometimes a starch, or bran, or soda bath will relieve such conditions.

Bran Bath. Make a little bag of cheesecloth and put a cupful of ordinary bran in it and sew or tie the top. Let this bag soak in the bath, squeezing it until the water is milky.

Starch Bath.-Use a cupful of ordinary cooked starch to a gallon of water. (If the laundry starch has had anything added to it, such as salt, lard, oil, bluing, it must not be used for this purpose.)

Soda Bath.-Dissolve a tablespoonful of ordinary baking soda in a little water and add it to four quarts of water.

Clothing. Do not be afraid to take off the baby's clothes in summer. All he needs in hot weather are the diaper and one other garment. For a young baby this may be a sleeveless band which leaves the arms and chest bare, and for an older baby, only a loose, thin cotton slip or apron, or wrapper, made in one piece with short kimono sleeves. Toward nightfall when the day cools, or if the temperature drops when a storm arises, the baby should, of course, be dressed in such a way as to protect him from chill.

Cotton garments are best for the baby in summer. All-wool bands, shirts and stockings should not be worn at any time of the year, and in hot summer weather only the thinnest, all-cotton clothing should touch the baby's skin, unless he is sick, when a very light part-wool band may be added.

In general, neither wool nor starch should be allowed in the baby's clothing in summer. Wool is too hot and irritating and starched garments scratch the baby's flesh.

The baby should be kept day and night in the coolest place that can be found. The kitchen is usually the hottest room in the house, especially if coal or wood is burned for fuel. While the mother is busy with her work the baby should be kept in another room, or better, out of doors, if he can be protected from flies and mosquitoes. A play pen, such as is described in Infant Care, a booklet published by the Children's Bureau and sent free on request, makes it possible to leave the baby safely by himself on the porch or in the yard, after he is old enough to creep.

A screened porch on the shady side of the house is a boon to every mother, affording a cool, secure place for the baby to play and also to sleep. Let him have his daytime naps on the porch and sleep there at night during the heat.

Do not be afraid of fresh air for the baby. He can not have too much of it. Night air is sometimes even better than day air, because it has been cooled and cleaned of dust by the dew.

The essentials in the summer care of babies are:

1. Proper food, given only at regular intervals.

5.

Cool places to play and sleep in.

Do not give the baby medicine of any sort unless it is ordered by the doctor. Never give him patent remedies which are said to relieve the pain of teething, or to make him sleep, or to cure diarrhea, for such medicines are likely to do the baby more harm than good, especially in summer when the digestion is so easily disturbed. It is so much easier to keep the baby well than it is to cure him when he is sick that wise mothers try to take such care of the baby that he will not be sick.

Do not be afraid to give the baby a drink of cool water several times a day in hot weather. Boil the water first, then cool it, and offer it to the baby in a cup, glass or nursing bottle. Babies and young children sometimes suffer cruelly for lack of drinking water.

Bottle-Feeding.

Nothing is so important to the health of the baby in summer as the right kind of food. When for any reason breast milk can not be had a substitute must be found.

Experience in many thousands of cases has shown that cows' milk is the only food that can take the place of mother's milk with even a fair prospect of having it agree with the baby. Neither condensed milk nor the infant foods sold in the stores are so good as clean cows' milk for the baby who can not have breast milk.

But to have clean milk it is necessary to

have clean cows, clean barns, clean milkers, clean pails and clean handling. Later articles in this series will deal more particularly with the subject of milk. The country mother is often able to see the conditions under which the milk she uses is produced. City mothers, on the other hand, have the protection that is afforded when the city inspects its own milk supply.

In some cities it is possible to buy what is known as "certified" milk. This costs a little more than ordinary milk, but its purity is guaranteed by the authorities. But when certified milk can not be had, and when it is impossible for a mother to see for herself how the milk she uses is produced, she should heat all the milk she uses for the baby, in order to kill the disease germs which it may be carrying. Among the disease germs which thrive in milk are those of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever and diarrhea.

Germs multiply very rapidly in milk, so rapidly in fact, that even if it is reasonably clean when drawn it may become dangerous food if left standing in a warm place for some time. These germs may be killed by heating the milk. Boiling it for half an hour is a safe method, and is sometimes advisable in very hot weather, but the method of heating the milk without boiling it called pasteurizing is usually employed. An easy method of home pasteurization is as follows:

Put a gallon of water over the fire in a clean pan or kettle. When the water is boiling hard take the kettle from the fire and allow it to stand on a table for ten minutes uncovered, then put in the filled and corked nursing bottles and leave them for half an hour, covering the kettle meanwhile with a basket. At the end of the half hour remove the bottles and cool them as quickly as possible to 50 degrees and put them where they will keep cold until needed.

When it is time to feed the baby take out a bottle and set it in a pail of warm water over the fire to heat. The mother may test the warmth of the milk by sprinkling a few drops on her arm. If it feels just slightly warm it will be right for the baby.

After the baby has finished, the bottle should be emptied, rinsed, and filled with cold water. At some convenient hour in the day the mother will wash all the used bottles with soap and warm water, using a bottle brush to clean the inside of them. She should then rinse them and boil them in the same pan or kettle in which they were pasteurized. This kettle and all the dishes used in preparing the baby's food should be kept for at purpose alone.

The nipples should be washed carefully. A little salt rubbed on the inside will remove the milk. They should then be rinsed and dropped into boiling water for a few moments. They will dry with their own heat when removed. They should then be put away in a dry glass jar that has also been boiled, covered and kept out of the light.

When handling the sterilized nipples take

hold of them by the lower rim. Do not touch the part which is to go into the baby's mouth. Never put the nipple into the mouth to test the milk, as the baby might easily be made sick if the mother happened to have a cold or throat trouble.

It will be found convenient to have enough bottles, nipples and clean bottle corks for the entire twenty-four hours, and it will be a great saving of time if all the feedings are made up at once. This will also insure their being of uniform quality.

A later article will give a few directions for modifying the milk for babies of different ages. Whenever possible, it is best for a mother to have the advice of a good physician in regard to feeding her baby.

For

Whenever possible the baby's bottle should be kept on ice. A homemade refrigerator which will keep the milk sweet for 24 hours is easily and cheaply made at home. this purpose procure a lard or candy pail or a galvanized bucket, or even a wooden box with a cover. In the bottom place a layer of sawdust an inch thick. Inside the box or pail place another smaller receptacle such as a ten-quart pail (tin), with a cover, and fill all the space around it with sawdust. This inner pail holds the ice and the milk.

The ice may be kept longer if it is broken up and inclosed in a small covered pail. Put the little pail in the bottom of the refrigerator and pack the bottles around it, and put the cover on. Then close the outer cover, which for additional protection may be lined with newspapers, or with a cushion stuffed with hay or straw. Where ice can not be had, the bottles may stand in a pail under a stream of running water.

A bottle baby should be fed with the same regularity as a nursing baby. The bottles may be given at 6 and 9 a. m., at 12 noon, and at 3, 6 and 9 p. m. Up to the age of four months the baby will need one more night feeding. After that he should sleep all night.

Beginning at the fifth month the time between feedings should be lengthened a quarter of an hour each week until the interval is four hours, when the baby is six months old. Give no other food than the bottle feedings and drinking water in the first few months of the baby's life.

The baby should nurse slowly, but ought to finish his feeding in about 20 minutes. If he is inclined to take his food too greedily, withdraw the nipple from his mouth several times during the feeding and let him rest a moment.

It is especially important in summer not to over-feed the baby. It is far better to keep him on rather a low diet than to bring on an attack of diarrhea by giving him too much food, or that which is unsuitable, or by feeding him at irregular intervals.

Weaning and Supplementary Feeding. Weaning is the process by which breast feeding is stopped and another food given in its place. It should be done gradually.

At first give one bottle instead of one of the breast feedings; after a week or two add another bottle, and then continue adding them until bottle feedings are entirely substituted for the breast.

Never hurry the weaning. Give the baby time to get used to the new food. When it is agreeing with its digestion, there is no belching of gas or spitting up of milk, and the bowel movements are soft, yellow and smooth. If any disturbance appears, stop the bottle until it is over, giving only the breast milk.

A baby should never be weaned in the heat of summer, if it is possible to avoid it. He is much more likely to be made sick by a strange food when the weather is hot than at other times of the year. Even if the baby has to be fed partly on the bottle the mother should nurse him often enough (three or four times a day) to keep the breast milk from drying up; for if the baby should be attacked by diarrhea, the mother's milk may be the means of saving his life.

Some mothers are able to nurse their babies a full year, but many find that their milk begins to fail by the time the baby is 6 or 8 months old, so that some additional food will be required. Practically all babies should be entirely weaned from the breast by the time they are a year old, unless that brings the weaning in hot weather.

Babies born in the late summer or early fall should be nursed through the following summer, if the breast milk is sufficient in quantity, in order to carry them past the danger period in July and August. When breast milk lessens in quantity, it does not change in quality. By the addition of a bottle or two, therefore, the deficient quantity can be made up.

It is sometimes quite difficult to wean a baby and great patience is required on the part of the mother, but if the baby has been taught at an early age to take his drinking water from a bottle or from a cup, weaning will be easier. If the baby is nursed until he is ten months old or longer, he should be weaned directly to a cup. Earlier it will probably be easier to use a nursing bottle and nipple; but the bottle should not be used much beyond the end of the first year, save for the bed-time feeding.

Remember when feeding from a cup, that the milk must be taken very slowly, just as slowly as when feeding from a bottle. It is better to feed from a small spoon than to teach the baby to drink from a cup.

The second summer has gained the reputation of being the most critical period of a baby's life largely because mothers are apt to feed the baby many different things after he is weaned. Very much of the food that is given these older babies is as unfit for them as artificial food is at birth.

These improper foods cause troublesome, dangerous and unnecessary illnesses which are aggravated by the heat. Careful feeding would prevent most of them.

Later articles in this series will deal with

the feeding of babies from nine to twelve months, and during the second year.

When a breast fed baby cries a good deal from hunger and does not gain in weight, the mother is apt to feel that her milk does not agree with him, and so weans him, often because of the well-meaning advice of some neighbor. This is a mistake. The trouble is not with the quality of her milk, but with the quantity.

Instead of weaning the baby, she should increase her own diet, by drinking plenty of milk, eating eggs, meat, bread and fresh vegetables, and by taking moderate exercise in the open air, regular periods of rest, and by avoiding worry and excitement. This will usually increase the milk supply sufficiently; if it does not do so, the baby must be given some additional food.

This additional food, or "supplementary" feeding, as has been said, is given when it is necessary to supplement the mother's milk with one or more bottle feedings, or for the purpose of weaning the baby. Cows' milk is the only supplementary food to use. It should be the best and cleanest milk that it is possible to get, mixed with water and sugar as described in the preceding article. A very much weaker solution than that normally required for a baby of the given age should be tried at first, increasing the strength slightly day by day if the baby shows no signs of indigestion, until the full strength food is reached.

If

To begin with, give the baby one bottle feeding in place of one breast feeding. he shows a gain in weight, this may be enough. If after a week there is no gain, two bottles may be given each day. The mother should meanwhile be doing all she can by rest and increased food to build up the breast milk, but if with all these measures the baby still fails to gain or gives evidence of illness, the advice of a good doctor must be sought and followed. Do not delay in securing this advice until the baby is seriously ill.

The preceding article gave directions for the proper amount of milk mixture for babies of given ages. If the mother desires fuller information she may write to the Children's Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor at Washington, D. C., for a bulletin called Infant Care, which gives simple directions for preparing the baby's feedings and shows what amount will suit the baby of a given age. This book is sent free to everyone who asks for it. A post card request will do. The name and the address of the applicant should be written very plainly.

Weaning from the bottle should begin by the end of the first year, and after the baby is 14 months old he should have the bottle only when he goes to bed at night. Teach him to drink from a cup and eat from a spoon.

To wean a baby from the bottle, begin by giving him a little of his food from a spoon, gradually increasing the amount at each feeding until all of his food is taken in this way.

EARLY AUTUMN FASHIONS.
By Eleanor Bell.

The coming season is not bringing us any radical changes in our various garments, but there is a subtle difference between the models of the present time and those of the preceding months.

The keynote of everything is simplicity and even austerity and when we think that even now our inspiration comes to us from stricken France there is no wonder that this is the case. Sombre colors have taken the place of the vivid tones that were seen during the heated months and the only place for these at present is in the trimmings of costumes, such as pipings, cordings, collars, revers and the like.

Black is in the lead and closely following it the darker shades of blue. Brown is not as much worn as last season and the tender putty and sand shades have disappeared from the streets, although still liked for afternoon and reception costumes.

Collars are showing a tendency toward the high close styles and all sleeves are long, most of them finished plainly at the hand, in points, scallops or with straight edge.

Skirts offer no decided novelty. They remain full, but with discretion. The circular cut is used in gored models and shirrings, gathers, flounces, etc., are as much worn as ever. The box pleated models are prime favorites, both those made with a yoke and those made without it. Pleated sections are also introduced into skirts, but always below the hip line, as the fit around the body is plain.

The waistline is now normal or lower in most cases.

Waists continue to show fullness and the open neck is fast disappearing.

Two excellent models for the blouse now worn are shown in the accompanying illustrations.

No. 7328 has the full fronts with overlapping closing, faced on the inner side. The collar is so made that it may be rolled back as shown, leaving the neck open, or buttoned tightly around the throat. To make this change there is no difference in making and the same waist finish may serve for either adjustment. The back of the waist is plain and the sleeves loose and plain, gathered into a band cuff at the wrist.

Such waists as these are made of wash silk, crepe de chine, challie, silk cashmere and other dress materials.

The waist pattern, No. 7328, is cut in sizes 34 to 46 inches bust measure.

The second waist shown, No. 7313, has the raglan sleeve, which extends to the neck edge and forms a small shoulder yoke. This waist is also full in front, but it has the duchess closing, edges just meeting and the collar leaves the front of the neck exposed.

The various shirt materials are used for these waists and also crepe fabrics, silks of various kinds and numbers of novelty

weaves.

The waist pattern, No. 7313, is cut in sizes 34 to 44 inches bust measure.

A very graceful frock for a young girl to wear at school or college or at home is shown in No. 7315. The bodice is in the shirt waist style, with plain back and full fronts, closed in the center. The neck is a little open with a small, flat collar. The sleeves are shaped to the arm and may be worn long or short. The skirt has four gores and is gathered at the top where it is joined to the waist.

These frocks are very pretty when made of the new soft finish serves and also in cheviot, cashmere and the novelty weaves. The trimmings may be of plain or figured silk contrasting in color.

The dress pattern, No. 7315, is cut in sizes 14, 16, 18 and 20 years.

No. 7331 provides a very attractive frock for a small girl and one easy to keep fresh and clean. There is a guimpe which is seen at the opening of the neck and to this the sleeves are attached. The little overdress is of sacque cut, closing at the side of the front and held in at the waist line by a loosely worn belt.

The guimpe may be made of something that launders while the overdress is of warm serge or other woolen fabric; or, the guimpe may be of silk or similar weave while the dress is woolen.

The dress pattern, No. 7331, is cut in sizes 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 years.

No. 7326 is quite effective when made of two materials. The collar and chemisette are in one, while the outer waist is made plain, with surplice closing and long or short sleeves. The skirt is plain with a long tunic over it and this may be omitted.

It is not necessary to use two materials for this frock, but combinations are always effective. In one color woolen goods and silk may be used together with good results.

The dress pattern, No. 7326, is cut in sizes 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 years.

No. 7311 is as comfortable as it is attractive. It is made with a short Empire bodice, with or without a seam in the center of the back and with elbow sleeves. The skirts of the garments are shaped so as to be plain at the top and somewhat flaring at the lower edge. Bands of contrasting material trim all the edges and a piping marks the lower edge of the waist.

There are numbers of printed cotton materials which are very pretty for gowns like this and then we have also challie, cashmere and the nameless novelties which are brought out with each new season.

The wrapper pattern, No. 7311, is cut in sizes 36, 40 and 44 inches bust measure.