DIET.
29. Are you an advocate for putting a baby to the breast soon after birth, or for waiting, as many do, until the third day?
The infant ought to be put to the breast soon after birth; the interest, both of the mother and of the child, demands it. It will be advisable to wait three or four hours, that the mother may recover from her fatigue; and then the babe must be put to the breast. If this be done, he will generally take the nipple with avidity.
It might be said that at so early a period there is no milk in the breast; but such is not usually the case. There generally is a little from the very beginning; which acts on the baby’s bowels like a dose of purgative medicine, and appears to be intended by nature to cleanse the system. But, provided there be no milk at first, the very act of sucking not only gives the child a notion, but, at the same time, causes a draught (as it is usually called) in the breast, and enables the milk to flow easily.
Of course, if there be no milk in the breast—the babe having been applied once or twice to determine the fact—then you must wait for a few hours before applying him again to the nipple, that is to say, until the milk be secreted.
An infant who, for two or three days, is kept from the breast, and who is fed upon gruel, generally becomes feeble, and frequently, at the end of that time, will not take the nipple at all. Besides, there is a thick cream (similar to the biestings of a cow), which, if not drawn out by the child, may cause inflammation and gathering of the bosom, and, consequently, great suffering to the mother. Moreover, placing him early to the breast moderates the severity of the mother’s after-pains, and lessens the risk of her flooding. A new-born babe must not have gruel given to him, as it disorders the bowels, causes a disinclination to suck, and thus makes him feeble.
30. If an infant show any disinclination to suck, or if he appear unable to apply his tongue to the nipple, what ought to be done?
Immediately call the attention of the medical man to the fact, in order that he may ascertain whether he be tongue-tied. If he be, the simple operation of dividing the bridle of the tongue will remedy the defect, and will cause him to take the nipple with ease and comfort.
31. Provided there be no milk AT FIRST, what ought then to be done?
Wait with patience: the child (if the mother has no milk) will not, for at least twelve hours, require artificial food. In the generality of instances, then, artificial food is not at all necessary; but if it should be needed, one-third of new milk and two-thirds of warm water, slightly sweetened with loaf sugar (or with brown sugar, if the babe’s bowels have not been opened), should be given, in small quantities at a time, every four hours, until the milk be secreted, and then it must be discontinued. The infant ought to be put to the nipple every four hours, but not oftener, until he be able to find nourishment.
If, after the application of the child for a few times, he is unable to find nourishment, then it will be necessary to wait until the milk be secreted. As soon as it is secreted, he must be applied, with great regularity, alternately to each breast.
I say alternately to each breast. This is most important advice. Sometimes a child, for some inexplicable reason, prefers one breast to the other, and the mother, to save a little contention, concedes the point, and allows him to have his own way. And what is frequently the consequence?—a gathered breast!
We frequently hear of a babe having no notion of sucking. This “no notion” may generally be traced to bad management, to stuffing him with food, and thus giving him a disinclination to take the nipple at all.
32. How often should a mother suckle her infant?
A mother generally suckles her baby too often, having him almost constantly at the breast. This practice is injurious both to parent and to child. The stomach requires repose as much as any other part of the body; and how can it have it if it be constantly loaded with breast-milk? For the first month, he ought to be suckled about every hour and a half; for the second month, every two hours,—gradually increasing, as he becomes older, the distance of time between, until at length he has it about every four hours.
If a baby were suckled at stated periods, he would only look for the bosom at those times, and be satisfied. A mother is frequently in the habit of giving the child the breast every time he cries, regardless of the cause. The cause too frequently is, that he has been too often suckled—his stomach has been overloaded; the little fellow is constantly in pain, and he gives utterance to it by cries. How absurd is such a practice! We may as well endeavor to put out a fire by feeding it with fuel. An infant ought to be accustomed to regularity in every thing—in times for suckling, for sleeping, etc. No children thrive so well as those who are thus early taught.
33. Where the mother is MODERATELY strong, do you advise that the infant should have any other food than the breast?
Artificial food must not, for the first three or four months, be given, if the parent be moderately strong; of course, if she be feeble, a little food will be necessary. Many delicate women enjoy better health while suckling than at any other period of their lives.
34. What food is the best substitute for a mother’s milk?
The food that suits one infant will not agree with another. (1.) The one that I have found the most generally useful, is made as follows: Boil the crumb of bread for two hours in water, taking particular care that it does not burn; then add only a little lump sugar (or brown sugar, if the bowels be costive), to make it palatable. When he is five or six months old, mix a little new milk—the milk of ONE cow—with it, gradually, as he becomes older, increasing the quantity until it be nearly all milk, there being only enough water to boil the bread; the milk should be poured boiling hot on the bread. Sometimes the two milks—the mother’s and the cow’s milk—do not agree; when such is the case, let the milk be left out, both in this and in the foods following, and let the food be made with water instead of with milk and water. In other respects, until the child is weaned, let it be made as above directed; when he is weaned, good fresh cow’s milk MUST, as previously recommended, be used. (2.) Or, cut thin slices of bread into a basin, cover the bread with cold water, place it in an oven for two hours to bake; take it out, beat the bread up with a fork, and then slightly sweeten it. This is an excellent food. (3.) If the above should not agree with the infant (although, if properly made, they almost invariably do), “tous-les-mois” may be given. (4.) Or, Robb’s Biscuit, as it is “among the best bread compounds made out of wheat-flour, and is almost always readily digested.”—Routh. “Tous-les-mois” is the starch obtained from the tuberous roots of various species of canna; and is imported from the West Indies. It is very similar to arrow-root. I suppose it is called “tous-les-mois,” as it is good to be eaten all the year round.
(5.) Another good food is the following: Take about a pound of flour, put it in a cloth, tie it up tightly, place it in a saucepanful of water, and let it boil for four or five hours; then take it out, peel off the outer rind, and the inside will be found quite dry, which grate. (6.) Another way of preparing an infant’s food, is to bake flour—biscuit flour—in a slow oven, until it be of a light fawn color. (7.) An excellent food for a baby, is baked crumbs of bread. The manner of preparing it is as follows: Crumb some bread on a plate; put it a little distance from the fire to dry. When dry, rub the crumbs in a mortar, and reduce them to a fine powder; then pass them through a sieve. Having done which, put the crumbs of bread into a slow oven, and let them bake until they be of a light fawn color. A small quantity either of the boiled, or of the baked flour, or of the baked crumb of bread, ought to be made into food in the same way as gruel is made, and should then be slightly sweetened, according to the state of the bowels, either with lump or with brown sugar.
(8.) Baked flour sometimes produces constipation; when such is the case, Mr. Appleton of Budleigh Salterton, Devon, wisely recommends a mixture of baked flour and prepared oatmeal, in the proportion of two of the former and one of the latter. He says: “To avoid the constipating effects, I have always had mixed, before baking, one part of prepared oatmeal with two parts of flour; this compound I have found both nourishing, and regulating to the bowels. One tablespoonful of it, mixed with a quarter of a pint of milk, or milk and water, when well boiled, flavored, and sweetened with white sugar, produces a thick, nourishing, and delicious food for infants or invalids.” He goes on to remark: “I know of no food, after repeated trials, that can be so strongly recommended by the profession to all mothers in the rearing of their infants, without or with the aid of the breast, at the same time relieving them of much draining and dragging while nursing with an insufficiency of milk, as baked flour and oatmeal.” If there is any difficulty in obtaining prepared oatmeal, Robertson’s Patent Groats will answer equally as well.
(9.) A ninth food may be made with “Farinaceous Food for Infants, prepared by Hards of Dartford.” If Hards’ Farinaceous Food produces costiveness—as it sometimes does—let it be mixed either with equal parts or with one-third of Robertson’s Patent Groats. The mixture of the two together makes a splendid food for a baby. (10.) A tenth, and an excellent one, may be made with rusks, boiled for an hour in water, which ought then to be well beaten up by means of a fork, and slightly sweetened with lump sugar. Great care should be taken to select good rusks, as few articles vary so much in quality. (11.) An eleventh is—the top crust of a baker’s loaf, boiled for an hour in water, and then moderately sweetened with lump sugar. If, at any time, the child’s bowels should be costive, raw must be substituted for lump sugar. (12.) Another capital food for an infant, is that made by Lemann’s Biscuit Powder. (13.) Or, Brown and Polson’s Patent Corn Flour will be found suitable. The Queen’s cook, in his recent valuable work, gives the following formula for making it: “To one dessertspoonful of Brown & Polson, mixed with a wineglassful of cold water, add half a pint of boiling water; stir over the fire for five minutes; sweeten lightly, and feed the baby; but if the infant is being brought up by the hand, this food should then be mixed with milk—not otherwise.”
(14.) The following is a good and nourishing food for a baby: Soak, for an hour, some best rice in cold water; strain, and add fresh water to the rice; then let it simmer till it will pulp through a sieve; put the pulp and the water in a saucepan, with a lump or two of sugar, and again let it simmer for a quarter of an hour; a portion of this should be mixed with one-third of fresh milk, so as to make it of the consistence of good cream.
When the baby is five or six months old, new milk should be added to any of the above articles of food, in a similar way to that recommended for boiled bread.
(15.) For a delicate infant, lentil powder, better known as Du Barry’s “Revalenta Arabica,” is invaluable. It ought to be made into food, with new milk, in the same way that arrow-root is made, and should be moderately sweetened with loaf sugar. Whatever food is selected ought to be given by means of a nursing-bottle.
If a child’s bowels be relaxed and weak, or if the motions be offensive, the milk must be boiled. The following (16.) is a good food when an infant’s bowels are weak and relaxed: “Into five large spoonfuls of the purest water rub smooth one dessertspoonful of fine flour. Set over the fire five spoonfuls of new milk, and put two bits of sugar into it; the moment it boils, pour it into the flour and water, and stir it over a slow fire twenty minutes.”
Where there is much emaciation, I have found (17.) genuine arrow-root a very valuable article of food for an infant, as it contains a great deal of starch, which starch helps to form fat and to evolve caloric (heat)—both of which a poor, emaciated, chilly child stands so much in need of. It must be made with good fresh milk, and ought to be slightly sweetened with loaf sugar; a small pinch of table salt should be added to it.
I have given you a large and well-tried infant’s dietary to choose from, as it is sometimes difficult to fix on one that will suit; but remember, if you find one of the above to agree, keep to it, as a baby requires a simplicity in food—a child a greater variety.
Let me, in this place, insist upon the necessity of great care and attention being observed in the preparation of any of the above articles of diet. A babe’s stomach is very delicate, and will revolt at either ill-made, or lumpy, or burnt food. Great care ought to be observed as to the cleanliness of the cooking utensils. The above directions require the strict supervision of the mother.
Broths have been recommended, but, for my own part, I think that, for a young infant, they are objectionable; they are apt to turn acid on the stomach, and to cause flatulence and sickness; they sometimes disorder the bowels and induce griping and purging.
Whatever artificial food is used ought to be given by means of a bottle, not only as it is a more natural way than any other of feeding a baby, as it causes him to suck as though he were drawing it from the mother’s breast, but as the act of sucking causes the salivary glands to press out their contents, which materially assists digestion. Moreover, it seems to satisfy and comfort him more than it otherwise would do.
The food ought to be of the consistence of good cream, and should be made fresh and fresh. It ought to be given milk-warm. Attention must be paid to the cleanliness of the vessel, and care should be taken that the milk be that of ONE cow, and that it be new and of good quality; for if not, it will turn acid and sour, and disorder the stomach, and will thus cause either flatulence or looseness of the bowels, or perhaps convulsions. I consider it to be of immense importance to the infant, that the milk be had from ONE cow. A writer in the Medical Times and Gazette, speaking on this subject, makes the following sensible remarks: “I do not know if a practice common among French ladies, when they do not nurse, has obtained the attention among ourselves which it seems to me to deserve. When the infant is to be fed with cow milk, that from various cows is submitted to examination by the medical man, and, if possible, tried on some child, and when the milk of any cow has been chosen, no other milk is ever suffered to enter the child’s lips, for a French lady would as soon offer to her infant’s mouth the breasts of half-a-dozen wet-nurses in the day, as mix together the milk of various cows, which must differ even as the animals themselves, in its constituent qualities. Great attention is also paid to the pasture, or other food of the cow thus appropriated.”
The only way to be sure of having it from one cow, is (if you have not a cow of your own) to have the milk from a respectable cow-keeper, and to have it brought to your house in a can of your own (the London milk-cans being the best for the purpose). The better plan is to have two cans and to have the milk fresh, and fresh every night and morning. The cans, after each time of using, ought to be scalded out; and, once a week, the can should be filled with cold water, and the water should be allowed to remain in it until the can be again required.
Very little sugar should be used in the food, as much sugar weakens the digestion. A small pinch of table salt ought to be added to whatever food is given, as “the best savor is salt.” Salt is most wholesome—it strengthens and assists digestion, prevents the formation of worms, and, in small quantities, may with advantage be given (if artificial food be used) to the youngest baby.
35. Where it is found to be absolutely necessary to give an infant artificial food WHILE SUCKLING, how often ought he to be fed?
Not oftener than twice during the twenty-four hours, and then only in small quantities at a time, as the stomach requires rest, and at the same time can manage to digest a little food better than it can a great deal.
Let me again urge upon you the importance, if it be at all practicable, of keeping the child entirely to the breast for the first three or four months of his existence. Remember there is no real substitute for a mother’s milk; there is no food so well adapted to his stomach; there is no diet equal to it in developing muscle, in making bone, or in producing that beautiful plump rounded contour of the limbs; there is nothing like a mother’s milk alone in making a child contented and happy, in laying the foundation of a healthy constitution, in preparing the body for a long life, in giving him tone to resist disease, or in causing him to cut his teeth easily and well; in short, the mother’s milk is the greatest temporal blessing an infant can possess.
As a general rule, therefore, when the child and the mother are tolerably strong, he is better without artificial food until he has attained the age of three or four months; then it will usually be necessary to feed him twice a day, so as gradually to prepare him to be weaned (if possible) at the end of nine months. The food mentioned in the foregoing conversation will be the best for him, commencing without the cow’s milk, but gradually adding it, as less mother’s milk and more artificial food be given.
36. When the mother is not able to suckle her infant herself, what ought to be done?
It must first be ascertained, beyond all doubt, that a mother is not able to suckle her own child. Many delicate ladies do suckle their infants with advantage, not only to their offspring, but to themselves. “I will maintain,” says Steele, “that the mother grows stronger by it, and will have her health better than she would have otherwise. She will find it the greatest cure and preservative for the vapors [nervousness] and future miscarriages, much beyond any other remedy whatsoever. Her children will be like giants, whereas otherwise they are but living shadows, and like unripe fruit; and certainly if a woman is strong enough to bring forth a child, she is beyond all doubt strong enough to nurse it afterward.”
Many mothers are never so well as when they are nursing; besides, suckling prevents a lady from becoming pregnant so frequently as she otherwise would. This, if she be delicate, is an important consideration, and more especially if she be subject to miscarry. The effects of a miscarriage are far more weakening than those of suckling.
A hireling, let her be ever so well inclined, can never have the affection and unceasing assiduity of a mother, and, therefore, cannot perform the duties of suckling with equal advantage to the baby.
The number of children who die under five years of age is enormous—many of them from the want of the mother’s milk. There is a regular “parental baby slaughter”—“a massacre of the innocents”—constantly going on in England, in consequence of infants being thus deprived of their proper nutriment and just dues! The mortality from this cause is frightful, chiefly, occurring among rich people who are either too grand, or, from luxury, too delicate, to perform such duties: poor married women, as a rule, nurse their own children, and, in consequence, reap their reward.
If it be ascertained, past all doubt, that a mother cannot suckle her child, then, if the circumstances of the parents will allow—and they ought to strain a point to accomplish it—a healthy wet-nurse should be procured, as, of course, the food which nature has supplied is far, very far superior to any invented by art.
Never bring up a baby, then, if you can possibly avoid it, on artificial food. Remember, as I proved in a former conversation, there is in early infancy no real substitute for either a mother’s or a wet-nurse’s milk. It is impossible to imitate the admirable and subtle chemistry of nature. The law of nature is, that a baby, for the first few months of his existence, shall be brought up by the breast; and nature’s law cannot be broken with impunity. For further reasons why artificial food is not desirable at an early period of infancy, see answer to 35th question. It will be imperatively necessary, then—
“To give to nature what is nature’s due.”
Again, in case of a severe illness occurring during the first nine months of a child’s life, what a comfort either the mother’s or the wet-nurse’s milk is to him! it often determines whether he shall live or die.
But if a wet-nurse cannot fill the place of a mother, then, asses’ milk will be found the best substitute, as it approaches nearer, in composition, than any other animal’s, to human milk; but it is both difficult and expensive to obtain. The next best substitute is goats’ milk. Either the one or the other ought to be milked fresh and fresh, as it is wanted, and should be given by means of a feeding-bottle.
Asses’ milk is more suitable for delicate infants, and goats’ milk for those who are strong.
If neither asses’ milk nor goats’ milk can be procured, then the following from the very commencement should be given:
New milk, the produce of ONE healthy cow,
Warm water, of each, equal parts;
Table salt, a few grains;
Lump sugar, a sufficient quantity to slightly sweeten it.
Liebig, the great chemist, asserts that a small quantity of table salt to the food is essential to the health of children. The milk itself ought not to be heated over the fire, but should, as above directed, be warmed by the water; it must, morning and evening, be had fresh and fresh. It now and then happens that if the milk be not boiled, the motions of an infant are offensive; when such is the case let the milk be boiled, but not otherwise. The milk and water should be of the same temperature as the mother’s milk, that is to say, at about ninety to ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit. It ought to be given by means of a feeding-bottle, and care must be taken to scald the bottle out twice a day, for if attention be not paid to this point the delicate stomach of an infant is soon disordered. As he grows older the milk should be gradually increased, and the water decreased, until nearly all milk be given.
There will, in many cases, be quite sufficient nourishment in the above; I have known some robust infants brought up on it alone. But if it should not agree with the child, or if there should not be sufficient nourishment in it, then the food recommended in answer to No. 34 question ought to be given, with this only difference—a little new milk must from the beginning be added, and should be gradually increased, until nearly all milk be used.
The milk, as a general rule, ought to be unboiled; but if it purge violently, or if it cause offensive motions—which it sometimes does—then it must be boiled. The moment the milk boils up it should be taken off the fire.
Food ought, for the first month, to be given about every two hours; for the second month, about every three hours; lengthening the space of time as the baby advances in age. A mother must be careful not to over-feed a child, as over-feeding is a prolific source of disease.
Let it be thoroughly understood, and let there be no mistake about it, that a babe, during the first nine months of his life, MUST have—it is absolutely necessary for his very existence—milk of some kind, as the staple and principal article of his diet, either mother’s, or wet-nurse’s, or asses’, or goat’s, or cow’s own milk.
37. How would you choose a wet-nurse?
I would inquire particularly into the state of her health; whether she be of a healthy family, or a consumptive habit, or if she or any of her family have labored under “king’s evil;” ascertaining if there be any seams or swellings about her neck; any eruptions or blotches upon her skin; if she has a plentiful breast of milk, and if it be of good quality (which may readily be ascertained by milking a little into a glass. “It should be thin, and of a bluish-white color, sweet to the taste, and when allowed to stand should throw up a considerable quantity of cream.”—Maunsell and Evertson on the Diseases of Children.) If she has good nipples, sufficiently long for the baby to hold; that they be not sore; and if her own child be of the same or nearly of the same age as the one you wish her to nurse. Ascertain whether she menstruates during suckling; if she does, the milk is not so good and nourishing, and you had better decline taking her. Sir Charles Locock considers that a woman who menstruates during lactation is objectionable as a wet-nurse, and “that as a mother with her first child is more liable to that objection, that a second or a third child’s mother is more eligible than a first.”—Letter to the Author. Assure yourself that her own babe is strong and healthy, and that he is free from a sore mouth and from a “breaking-out” of the skin. Indeed, if it be possible to procure such a wet-nurse, she ought to be from the country, of ruddy complexion, of clear skin, and of between twenty and five-and-twenty years of age, as the milk will then be fresh, pure, and nourishing.
I consider it to be of great importance that the infant of the wet-nurse should be, as nearly as possible, of the same age as your own, as the milk varies in quality according to the age of the child. For instance, during the commencement of suckling, the milk is thick and creamy, similar to the biestings of a cow, which, if given to a babe of a few months old, would cause derangement of the stomach and bowels. After the first few days, the appearance of the milk changes; it becomes of a bluish-white color, and contains less nourishment. The milk gradually becomes more and more nourishing as the infant becomes older and requires more support.
In selecting a wet-nurse for a very small and feeble babe, you must carefully ascertain that the nipples of the wet-nurse are good and soft, and yet not very large: if they be very large, the child’s mouth being very small, he may not be able to hold them. You must note, too, whether the milk flows readily from the nipple into the child’s mouth; if it does not, he may not have strength to draw it, and he would soon die of starvation. The only way of ascertaining whether the infant actually draws the milk from the nipple, can be done by examining the mouth of the child immediately after his taking the breast, and seeing for yourself whether there be actually milk in his mouth.
Very feeble new-born babes sometimes cannot take the bosom, be the nipples and the breasts ever so good. In such a case, cow’s milk and water, sugar and salt, as recommended at page [45], must be given in small quantities at a time—from two to four teaspoonfuls—but frequently; if the child be awake, every hour or every half hour, both night and day, until he be able to take the breast. If, then, a puny, feeble babe is only able to take but little at a time, and that little by teaspoonfuls, he must have little and often, in order that “many a little might make a mickle.”
I have known many puny, delicate children who had not strength to hold the nipple in their mouths, but who could take milk and water (as above recommended) by teaspoonfuls only at a time, with steady perseverance, and giving it every half hour or hour (according to the quantity swallowed), at length be able to take the breast, and eventually become strong and hearty children; but such cases require unwearied watching, perseverance, and care. Bear in mind, then, that the smaller the quantity of the milk and water given at a time, the oftener must it be administered, as, of course, the babe must have a certain quantity of food to sustain life.
38. What ought to be the diet either of a wet-nurse, or of a mother who is suckling?
It is a common practice to cram a wet-nurse with food, and to give her strong ale to drink, to make good nourishment and plentiful milk! This practice is absurd; for it either, by making the nurse feverish, makes the milk more sparing than usual, or it causes the milk to be gross and unwholesome. On the other hand, we must not run into an opposite extreme. The mother, or the wet-nurse, by using those means most conducive to her own health, will best advance the interest of her little charge.
A wet-nurse ought to live somewhat in the following way: Let her for breakfast have black tea, with one or two slices of cold meat, if her appetite demand it, but not otherwise. It is customary for a wet-nurse to make a hearty luncheon; of this I do not approve. If she feel either faint or low at eleven o’clock, let her have either a tumbler of porter, or of mild fresh ale, with a piece of dry toast soaked in it. She ought not to dine later than half-past one or two o’clock; she should eat, for dinner, either mutton or beef, with either mealy potatoes, or asparagus, or French beans, or secale, or turnips, or brocoli, or cauliflower, and stale bread. Rich pastry, soups, gravies, high-seasoned dishes, salted meats, greens, and cabbage must one and all be carefully avoided, as they only tend to disorder the stomach, and thus to deteriorate the milk.
It is a common remark, that “a mother who is suckling may eat anything.” I do not agree with this opinion. Can impure or improper food make pure and proper milk, or can impure or improper milk make good blood for an infant, and thus good health?
The wet-nurse ought to take with her dinner a moderate quantity of either sound porter, or of mild (but not old or strong) ale. Tea should be taken at half-past five or six o’clock; supper at nine, which should consist either of a slice or two of cold meat, or of cheese if she prefer it, with half a pint of porter or of mild ale; occasionally, a basin of gruel may with advantage be substituted. Hot and late suppers are prejudicial to the mother or to the wet-nurse, and, consequently, to the child. The wet-nurse ought to be in bed every night by ten o’clock.
It might be said that I have been too minute and particular in my rules for a wet-nurse; but when it is considered of what importance good milk is to the well-doing of an infant, in making him strong and robust, not only now, but as he grows up to manhood, I shall, I trust, be excused for my prolixity.
39. Have you any more hints to offer with regard to the management of a wet-nurse?
A wet-nurse is frequently allowed to remain in bed until a late hour in the morning, and during the day to continue in the house, as if she were a fixture! How is it possible that any one, under such treatment, can continue healthy?
A wet-nurse ought to rise early, and, if the weather and season will permit, take a walk, which will give her an appetite for breakfast and will make a good meal for her little charge. This, of course, cannot, during the winter months, be done; but even then, she ought, some part of the day, to take every opportunity of walking out; indeed, in the summer time she should live half the day in the open air.
She ought strictly to avoid crowded rooms; her mind should be kept calm and unruffled, as nothing disorders the milk so much as passion and other violent emotions of the mind; a fretful temper is very injurious, on which account you should, in choosing your wet-nurse, endeavor to procure one of a mild, calm, and placid disposition.
“The child is poisoned.”
“Poisoned! by whom?”
“By you. You have been fretting.”
“Nay, indeed, mother. How can I help fretting?”
“Don’t tell me, Margaret. A nursing mother has no business to fret. She must turn her mind away from her grief to the comfort that lies in her lap. Know you not that the child pines if the mother vexes herself?”—The Cloister and the Hearth. By Charles Reade.
A wet-nurse ought never to be allowed to dose her little charge either with Godfrey’s Cordial, or with Dalby’s Carminative, or with Syrup of White Poppies, or with medicine of any kind whatever. Let her thoroughly understand this, and let there be no mistake in the matter. Do not, for one moment, allow your children’s health to be tampered and trifled with. A baby’s health is too precious to be doctored, to be experimented upon, and to be ruined by an ignorant person.
40. Have the goodness to state at what age a child ought to be weaned?
This, of course, must depend both upon the strength of the child and upon the health of the parent; on an average, nine months is the proper time. If the mother be delicate it may be found necessary to wean the infant at six months; or if he be weak, or laboring under any disease, it may be well to continue suckling him for twelve months; but after that time the breast will do him more harm than good, and will, moreover, injure the mother’s health, and may, if she be so predisposed, excite consumption.
41. How would you recommend a mother to act when she weans her child?
She ought, as the word signifies, do it gradually—that is to say, she should, by degrees, give him less and less of the breast, and more and more of artificial food; at length she must only suckle him at night; and lastly, it would be well for the mother either to send him away, or to leave him at home, and, for a few days, to go away herself.
A good plan is, for the nurse-maid to have a half-pint bottle of new milk—which has been previously boiled—in the bed, so as to give a little to him in lieu of the breast. The previous boiling of the milk will prevent the warmth of the bed turning the milk sour, which it would otherwise do. The warmth of the body will keep the milk of a proper temperature, and will supersede the use of lamps, of candle-frames, and other troublesome contrivances.
42. While a mother is weaning her infant, and after she has weaned him, what ought to be his diet?
Any one of the foods recommended in answer to question 34, page [36].
43. If a child be suffering severely from “wind,” is there any objection to the addition of a small quantity either of gin or of peppermint to his food to disperse it?
It is a murderous practice to add either gin or peppermint of the shops (which is oil of peppermint dissolved in spirits) to his food. Many children have, by such a practice, been made puny and delicate, and have gradually dropped into an untimely grave. An infant who is kept, for the first three or four months, entirely to the breast—more especially if the mother be careful in her own diet—seldom suffers from “wind;” those, on the contrary, who have much or improper food, suffer severely. For the first three or four months never, if you can possibly avoid it, give artificial food to an infant who is sucking. There is nothing, in the generality of cases, that agrees, for the first few months, like the mother’s milk alone.
Care in feeding, then, is the grand preventive of “wind;” but if, notwithstanding all your precautions, the child be troubled with flatulence, the remedies recommended under the head of Flatulence will generally answer the purpose.
44. Have you any remarks to make on sugar for sweetening a baby’s food?
A small quantity of sugar in an infant’s food is requisite, sugar being nourishing and fattening, and making cows’ milk to resemble somewhat in its properties human milk; but, bear in mind, it must be used sparingly. Much sugar cloys the stomach, weakens the digestion, produces acidity, sour belchings, and wind.
If a baby’s bowels be either regular or relaxed, lump sugar is the best for the purpose of sweetening his food; if his bowels are inclined to be costive, brown sugar ought to be substituted for lump sugar, as brown sugar acts on a young babe as an aperient, and, in the generality of cases, is far preferable to physicking him with opening medicine. An infant’s bowels, whenever it be practicable (and it generally is), ought to be regulated by a judicious dietary rather than by physic.