THE NURSING MOTHER
Breast milk vs. artificial foods
If the mother supplies enough milk, this is infinitely superior to any artificial combination of so-called infant foods. Unfortunately a large majority of children are not breast-fed, and must depend upon the various commercial infant-foods, or upon the judgment of the untrained nurse, or the mother.
The lives of babies often depend upon the mother's diet
The majority of mothers, if so disposed, could, by studying their own diet, supply the most robust child with ample breast-nourishment until it is ten or twelve months old, after which period the infantile crisis would be passed, and millions of little lives would thereby be saved. However, the confinement and the trouble to which the mother is subjected by the nursing baby causes the majority of infants to be weaned within a few weeks after birth, and turned over to the hazard of prepared food, soporific drugs, and nurses.
Child-love stimulated by nursing
If mothers could realize the love that is daily kindled and strengthened; if they could be made to know how much more their children would love them, and they would love their children; if they could look into the years and see how the link of love between them and their children had been shaped, molded, and fashioned by the simple act of nurturing them from the breast (to say nothing of the lives that would be saved), the artificially-fed baby would be a rarity, and the mother would be queen in the hearts of the nation's children.
The most beautiful thing that ever graced the canvas of art, or shed its love into the cold realism of nature, is a nursing baby pushing from its satisfied lips the mother's breast, and smiling its sweet content into her face.
It is almost criminal to withdraw the breast from an infant, and to turn it over to the treachery of prepared foods, when, by devoting a little time each day to the study of the science of eating, it is possible for the mother to supply the child with her own milk.