MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN.
It is during infancy that the foundation of a good constitution is generally laid, and it is, therefore, important that parents be taught the best method of managing their offspring, in order to preserve their health. Great ignorance is manifested on this subject; it is owing to this that so many children sicken and die; and, furthermore, it is in consequence of this ignorance in our forefathers that the present generation have become so weak, sickly, and effeminate; and most of these evils may be imputed to errors in diet, regimen, mineral and depletive agents, &c. We have departed from the simplicity of nature, and we must, of course, suffer the penalty.
1st. On Diet.—If the mother or nurse has enough of milk, the child will need little or no food for the third or fourth month. It will then be proper to give it a little of some food that is easy of digestion once or twice a day; this will ease the mother, will accustom the child by degrees to take food, and will render the weaning both less difficult and less dangerous. All great and sudden transitions are to be avoided in nursing; for this purpose the food of children ought not only to be simple, but to resemble as nearly as possible the properties of milk: indeed, milk itself should make a principal part of their food, not only before they are weaned, but for some time after.
Next to milk we would recommend good bread, which may be given to a child as soon as it shows an inclination to chew; and it may at all times be allowed as much as it will eat. The very chewing of bread will promote the cutting of the teeth and the discharge of saliva, while, by mixing with the nurse’s milk in the stomach, it will afford an excellent nourishment.
Many are in the habit of pouring down various liquids and mixtures made of rich substances, and so much sweetened that the tender organs of digestion are impaired, and acidity and bowel diseases follow; articles of this nature should be avoided: no food, except the milk of the mother, should be given, unless absolutely necessary; nature has designated this liquid exclusively for the nourishment of the infant, and, indeed, we may say, for children.
There is another precaution to be observed, which is, “never to put an infant to a wet-nurse if it can possibly be avoided;” such persons are generally strangers, and they often communicate the most loathsome and fatal diseases; besides, their milk is often rendered unwholesome by age or other causes: this is a very unnatural practice.
The milk of the mother, then, should constitute the only food of the infant, except in cases of disease, when it becomes necessary to obtain a wet-nurse, or bring up the children on the bottle, which can be done very easily.
We attended a lady who was almost covered with a herpetic complaint, or the salt rheum, and that, too, when her child was born. She was treated and cured her of the complaint. The infant was fed on milk, by introducing a silver tube into a bottle containing it.
We never knew a child so quiet and free from pain; as much so as any offspring of the brute creation, which are free from it merely by following nature or instinct, which never errs. The milk should be of the best quality, and, if possible, of the same cow.
Now, it appears to us, that if females imitated these animals, were to live on vegetable instead of animal food, and drink nothing but water, they would not only bring forth as easy as the Indians or these animals, but their offspring would be free from pain, and perhaps be as exempt from sickness. Would not this course produce a revolution in our habits, health, and in the practice of medicine? In the present diseased state of society it might require a long time to bring about a change in the system; but an immediate benefit would follow by adopting these physiological principles. Do not these facts open a new field of investigation and improvement?
Is it not notorious that some infants are crying a great portion of their time in consequence of pain? and is it natural, or can there be any other cause, except the poison communicated to it, through the medium of the blood, before and after it is born; or the disease may proceed from the impurity of the mother’s milk, occasioned by errors in diet? It is self-evident that it is so, from the fact that animals are free from these symptoms.
Can there be any other cause why so many children are in distress from birth, and generally die young, or continue weak and sickly all their lives? There must be a reformation in the habits, taste, and education of modern females. Many mothers are as ignorant, when they have brought a child into the world, of what is to be done for it as the infant itself.
Says Combe: “The leading error in the rearing of the young, I must again repeat, is over-feeding, an error serious in itself, but which may easily be avoided by the parent yielding only to the indications of appetite, and administering food slowly and in small quantities at a time. By no other means can the colics, and bowel-complaints, and irritability of the nervous system, so common in infancy, be effectually prevented, and strength and healthy nutrition be secured. Nature never meant the infant stomach to be converted into a receptacle for laxatives, carminatives, antacids, spicy stimulants and astringents; and when these become necessary, we may rest assured that there is something faulty in our management, however perfect it may seem to ourselves. The only exception is where the child is defectively constituted, and then, of course, it may fail to thrive under the best measures which can be advised for its relief.
“Another cause of infantile indigestion, and which is too much overlooked through ignorance of its importance, is vitiation of the quality of the milk, caused by imprudence, neglect, or anxiety on the part of the mother. The extent to which this cause operates in inducing irritation and suffering in the child, is not generally understood; and, accordingly, it is not unusual for mothers to display as much indifference to health, regimen, and tranquillity of mind during nursing, as if the milky secretion, and all other bodily functions, were independent of every external and corporeal influence. Healthy, nourishing, and digestible milk can proceed only from a healthy and well-constituted parent; and it is against nature to expect that, if the mother impairs her health and digestion by improper diet, neglect of exercise, impure air, or unruly passions, she can, nevertheless, provide a wholesome and uncontaminated fluid, as if she were exemplary in her observance of all the laws of health.
“It is no new or uncertain doctrine, that the quality of the mother’s milk is affected by her own health and conduct, and that in its turn it directly affects the health of the nursling. Even medicines given to the parent act upon the child through the medium of the milk; and a sudden fit of anger, or other violent mental emotion, has not unfrequently been observed to change the quality of the fluid so much as to produce purging and gripes in the child. Care and anxiety, in like manner, exert a most pernicious influence, and not only diminish the quantity, but vitiate the quality of the milk.
“It is a common mistake to suppose that, because a woman is nursing, she ought, therefore, to live very fully, and to add an allowance of wine, porter, or other fermented liquor, to her usual diet. The only result of this plan is to cause an unnatural degree of fullness in the system, which places the nurse on the brink of disease, and which of itself frequently puts a stop to, instead of increasing, the secretion of the milk. The health and usefulness of country nurses are often utterly ruined by their transplantation into the families of rich and luxurious employers. Accustomed at home to constant bodily exertion, exposure to the air, and a moderate supply of the plainest food, they live in the enjoyment of the best health, and constitute excellent nurses. But the moment they are transplanted from their proper sphere, their habits and mode of life undergo an unfavourable change. Having no longer any laborious duties to perform or any daily exposure to encounter, they become plethoric and indolent; and as they are at the same time too well fed, the digestive functions become impaired, the system speedily participates in the disorder, and the milk, which was at first bland, nourishing, and plentiful, now becomes heating and insufficient, and sometimes even stops altogether.”
Cocoa shells, made precisely like coffee, make a very pleasant and nutritious drink for nursing females.
Weaning.—“Diet for infants after weaning may be pure milk, two parts, water, one part; slightly sweetened. This,” says Combe, “makes the nearest approach to the nature of the mother’s milk, and, therefore, is more suitable than any preparation of milk and flour, or any other that can be given.” A child, as a general rule, one year old, ought to be gradually weaned, and the appearance of the teeth shows the propriety of giving food a little more substantial than milk. Bread a day old, mixed with milk and sweetened, may be given in connexion with nursing. Gruel, arrowroot, plain bread, Indian and rice puddings as they grow older, and subsequently bread and butter, thickened milk, hasty pudding or Indian, potatoes, and vegetables. Not a particle of flesh should ever be given. By the use of meat the system becomes excited, and diseases of irritation are apt to be produced, which impede nutrition, and lead ultimately to the production of scrofula and other organic changes in the glands and bowels, and not unfrequently also in the brain and lungs. In these instances the child generally eats heartily, but, nevertheless, continues thin, and is subject to frequent flushing and irregularity of the bowels, headache, and restlessness. His mind partakes of the general irritability of the system, and peevish impatience takes the place of the placid good humour natural to healthy childhood. In this state the ordinary diseases of infancy—measles, scarlet fever, and hooping-cough—are often attended with an unusual and dangerous degree of constitutional disturbance; and when inflammation takes place it is borne with difficulty, and the system does not easily rally; or the digestive organs become irritated, and the various secretions immediately connected with digestion are diminished, especially the biliary secretion. Constipation of the bowels soon follows; congestion of the hepatic and abdominal veins succeeds, and is followed by the train of consequences which have already been detailed. In reality the wonder comes to be, not that so many children die, but that so many survive their early mismanagement. A morbid condition of the system arises, extremely favourable to the production of scrofulous, consumptive, dyspeptic, and other diseases, under which, perhaps, the infant sinks; and yet, strange to state, parents will stuff their children with flesh and grease two or three times a day.
Says Combe, “One of the most pernicious habits in which children can be indulged is that of almost incessant eating. Many mothers encourage it from the facility with which, for a time, the offer of ‘something nice’ procures peace. Even from infancy the child ought to be gradually accustomed to eat only when hungry, and when food is really required. After two years of age an interval of four hours between meals, will rarely be more than enough; and to give biscuit, fruit, or bread, in the meantime, is just subtracting from the digestive power of the stomach. Like almost every organ of the body, the stomach requires a period of repose after the labour of digestion; and accordingly, in the healthy state, the sensation of appetite never returns till it has been for some time empty. To give food sooner, therefore, is analogous to making a weary traveller walk on without the refreshment of a halt.”
“When we reflect that the object of digestion is, to furnish materials for the growth of the body, and to supply the waste which the system is constantly undergoing, it must appear self-evident that, if the digestive powers be impaired by disease, by improper quantity or quality of food, or by any other cause, the result must necessarily be the formation of an imperfect chyle, and, consequently, of imperfect blood. The elements of the blood are derived from the chyle, and, if it be vitiated, the blood also must suffer: if the blood be diseased, so must necessarily be all the organs which it supplies; and if the body be thus debilitated, can any wonder be felt that it should no longer be able to resist the action of offending causes which full health alone can withstand?”
Clothing.—Infants and children are often injured by improper clothing. It is customary for some nurses to wrap them in such a quantity as to injure their health; moderation in this respect should be observed, due regard being paid to that which is sufficient to render them comfortable. Infants, when first born, have clothing enough almost to smother them.
Medicine.—Another very reprehensible custom is, to pour down some nauseous drug, such as paregoric, Godfrey’s cordial, or some other articles, every time the child begins to cry or is fretful, by which it becomes habituated to the use of opium, and makes it necessary to increase the dose in order to produce the same effect.
Another injurious practice is to give frequently worm lozenges (the basis of which is calomel or mercury) upon any attack of illness, under the impression that the disorder is occasioned by worms. By this imprudent course both the health and life of the child are endangered. Therefore those who wish to bring up their children in a healthy condition must avoid these evils, and be content to follow the simple path of nature and common sense.
Few things tend more to the destruction of children than drenching them with drugs. Medicine may be sometimes necessary for children; but that it injures them ten times for once it does them good, I will venture to assert. A nurse or mother, the moment her child seems to ail anything, runs immediately to the doctor or the apothecary, who throws in his powders, pills and potions, till the poor infant is poisoned; when the child might have been restored to perfect health by a change of diet, air, exercise, clothing, or some very easy and simple means.
Care must be taken to keep the bowels regular, which may be effected in most cases by the milk of the mother alone. Most of the complaints in children arise from flatulence or wind; to remove which give common catnip or fennel seed tea, let them drink it freely, and let the mother regulate her diet.
When children complain of pain in the stomach and bowels, it may be necessary sometimes to give a moderate dose of vegetable physic; senna and manna is very good; after the operation of physic let the diet be attended to. Green fruit must be avoided, and whatever is hard of digestion. The feet should be often bathed in warm water, the bowels must be fomented with bitter herbs, and it is also necessary to give the child sufficient exercise in the open air.
Bathing should never be neglected, as it contributes much to health. Many complaints of the skin and the system are caused by the neglect of this practice. Filth collects on the surface, obstructs perspiration, which retains morbid humors, and which are thrown upon some of the internal organs and create irritation. Is it not owing to this that infants fret and cry so much? Daily bathe with tepid water; this is also good for galling, chafing, excoriations, &c.
Pure Air and Exercise.—This is very necessary; impure and confined air with the want of exercise, causes disease; and hence children in cities are more pale, feeble, and sickly than those who live in the country and breathe pure air and play in the dirt. Confining children at home, in low, confined, dirty houses, cellars, and in school-rooms, is pernicious; also crowding too many in sleeping-rooms. When children are confined in small apartments, the air not only becomes unwholesome, but the heat relaxes their solids, renders them delicate, and disposes them to colds and many other disorders. Nor is the custom of wrapping them too close in cradles less pernicious. One would think that nurses were afraid lest children should suffer by breathing free air, as many of them actually cover the child’s face while asleep, and others wrap a covering over the whole cradle, by which means the child is forced to breathe the same air over and over all the time it sleeps. Children, therefore, must have as much exercise and air as possible, and should be employed in something useful and interesting.
Again; “The premature exertion of intellect to which the mind is stimulated at our schools, by the constant emulation and vanity, far from strengthening, tends to impair the health and tone of the brain, and of all the organs depending on it; and hence we rarely perceive the genius of the school manifesting in future years any of the superiority which attracted attention in early life.”