The Care of Premature Infants

3. All feeding utensils should be boiled. There should be as few visitors as possible and they should not handle the infant. Any slight infection, particularly the common cold, may rapidly prove fatal to the premature infant. The child's skin, particularly about the buttocks and navel, must be inspected daily for signs of sepsis, and should be kept dry with sterile dusting powder. 4. Writer's favourite treatment is with cestroform tablets (British Drug Houses preparation). Take one tablet (1,000 I.U.) of cestroform, dissolve it in 2 drachms of water, give one drachm in the morning and one drachm in the evening until the child is progressing satisfactorily. Twenty premature infants responded very well with this line of treatment. Now comes another important item, viz, feeding according to Steen's recommendation giving breast milk diluted with equal quantity of boiled water for the first few days. Commence with half to one ounce of breast milk per pound of body weight daily or one to two drachms per feed. By the fourth day try giving two ounces of breast milk per pound of body weight per day and by the tenth day or so