SECT. V.—ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE INFANT.
The first food given to a new-born child should be honey, and afterwards milk, twice, or at most three times a day. When it appears disposed for it, and seems able to digest it, it may get some food, care being taken not to stuff it. If this should happen to be the case, it will become more sleepy and inactive, there will be swelling of the belly and flatulence, and its urine will be more watery than natural. When this is observed, it ought to get no more food until what it has got be consumed. The child may be brought up upon milk until it be two years old, after which, its diet may be changed to food from grain.
Commentary. This Section is taken from Oribasius. (Synops. v, 5.)
Galen, in like manner, approves of the honey. He directs the body of a new-born child to be sprinkled with salt; and afterwards rubbed every day with oil. After the milk-diet is given up, the first food to be administered, he says, should be bread, and afterwards pulse and flesh. He forbids the use of wine, because the temperament of a child is hot and humid. He approves of the hot bath, but condemns the use of the cold for young children. (Hyg. pluries.)
Aëtius recommends the child to be brought up upon milk for twenty months. Moschion says, from eighteen months to two years will be sufficient. Avicenna, like our author, mentions two years. It is stated by Selden, that the Hebrew women gave suck to their children for two years. This practice is enjoined in the Koran. Aëtius is not so strict in regard to regimen as Galen; he allows us to vary the milk-diet, by giving occasionally soft eggs, mead, or sweet wine diluted with water. (iv, 28.)
Moschion, Averrhoes, and Avicenna approve of exercising the child in a cradle, and of lulling him with music. When the cord falls off, Avicenna advises that the part should be sprinkled with the powder of burnt lead.
Averrhoes disapproves of sprinkling the child’s body with salt, as recommended by Galen. (Collig. ii, 6.) He agrees with Galen, however, in condemning the use of wine. He directs exercise for the child every day; after exercise, friction, and after friction, the bath. He forbids the use of the cold bath, however, because it retards the growth. When the child does not sleep, Avicenna and Averrhoes recommend poppy in his food. (Cant. ii, 1.)
Haly Abbas directs us, when there is any malformation of the head, to reduce it to its proper shape, and bind it firm. Like Galen, he recommends that the body of a new-born child should be sprinkled with salt and powdered roses, to harden the skin. He directs us to give the child, for the first two days, sugar, triturated with the oil of sesame. He recommends the frequent use of the tepid bath. He properly directs the nurse not to expose the child’s eyes to the strong light of day, nor to allow him to sleep in a strong sun, for fear of injuring his eyes. When a child cries, it is the duty of the nurse, he says, to find out the cause, as a child never cries except when something hurts it. The most common causes, he adds, are, heat or cold, fleas or gnats, hunger or thirst, retention of urine or of the fæces. For retention of the urine, he recommends melon-seed with julep both to the child and the nurse; and when the child’s bowels are constipated, he directs the nurse to take laxative herbs, oil of olives, prunes, and so forth. It is clear, therefore, that he was aware that a child may be operated upon by medicines given to the nurse. (Pract. i, 20.)
The directions given by Alsaharavius are very similar. He remarks that violent crying may occasion a descent of the bowels.
Syrasis, one of the commentators on Avicenna, recommends the tepid bath for young children, and food after it. He directs the nurse to exercise the child before putting him into the bath.
From what we have stated, it will be seen that the ancient physicians did not approve of the cold regimen, absurdly proposed by certain modern philosophers as the most proper for infants.
According to Athenæus, the sons of Roman freemen were prohibited from drinking wine until they were thirty years old. (Deipnos, x, 23.) Plato enjoins complete abstinence from wine until the age of eighteen, and great moderation until thirty. (Leg. ii.)