INFANCY.
If the baby lives to be one year old, its chances of surviving are fairly good, but during the first year the mortality is appalling. Complete statistics are not available, but in places one-fifth or even one-fourth of the babies born perish during this time. The mortality is chiefly due to overfeeding and giving food of poor quality.
The average parent loves his baby. He loves the helpless little thing to death. In Oscar Wilde's words, "We kill the thing we love." The babies are killed by too much love, which takes the form of overindulgence. About thirty years ago the well known physician, Charles B. Page, wrote:
"How many healthy-born infants die before their first year is reached—babies that for months are mistakenly regarded as pictures of health—'never knew a sick day until they were attacked' with cholera infantum, scarletina, or something else. They are crammed with food, made gross with fat, and for a time are active and cunning, the delight of parents and friends—and then, after a season of constipation, a season of chronic vomiting, and a season of cholera infantum, the little emaciated skeletons are buried in the ground away from the sight of those who have literally loved them to death. This is the fate of one-third of all the children born. As a rule, babies are fed as an ignorant servant feeds the cook-stove—filling the fire-box so full, often, that the covers are raised, the stove smokes and gases at every hole, and the fire is either put out altogether, or, if there is combustion of the whole body of coals, the stove is rapidly burned out and destroyed. With baby, overheating means the fever that consumes him, and, in putting out the fire, too often the fire of life goes out also."
Fat babies are thought to be healthy babies. This is a mistake, for the fatter the baby, the more liable it is to fill an early grave. Thoughtful, knowing people realize that a child that weighs eight pounds or more at birth is an indication of maternal law breaking. Both the mother and the child will have to pay for this sooner or later. Overweight is a handicap. It prevents complete internal cleansing and combustion, without which health is impossible.
Because of the false ideas prevalent regarding weight of infants, it is well to put a little emphasis on the subject. If the mother has lived right during pregnancy, the child is often light at birth, sometimes five pounds or less. The average doctor will shake his head and say that the baby's chance to live is very small. The friends, neighbors and relatives will say the same. They are wrong. Let the parents remember that light children are not encumbered with fat, and rarely with disease. A light baby is generally all healthy baby, and if properly cared for and not overfed will thrive. Parents of such babies should be thankful, instead of being alarmed.
It is not natural for babies to weigh nine or ten pounds at birth, and when they do it is a sign of maternal wrong doing, whether she has been cognizant of it or not. Babies should not be fat, nor should they be fat when they grow older, if the best results are desired.
In babies it is better to strive for quality than for quantity.
Every mother who is capable of doing so should nurse her baby. There is no food to take the place of the mother's milk. The babies build greater strength and resistance when they are fed naturally than when they are brought up on the bottle. Babies thrive wonderfully in an atmosphere of love, and they draw love from the mother's breast with every swallow.
From the information available, which is not as complete and definite as could be desired, it appears that from six to thirteen bottle-babies die during the first year where only one breast-fed child perishes. The bottle-baby does not get a fair start. If a mother is ill and worn out she should not be asked to nurse the baby. If the mother has fever she should not risk the baby's health through nursing. Some mothers do not have enough milk to feed the baby. Nearly all who live properly give enough milk to nourish their infants at first. If there is not enough milk, the child should be allowed to take what there is in the breasts and this should be supplemented with cow's milk.
Dr. Thomas F. Harrington said recently:
"From 80 to 90 per cent. of all deaths from gastrointestinal disease among infants takes place in the artificially fed; or ten bottle-babies die to one which is breast-fed. In institutions it has been found that the death rate is frequently from 90 to 100 per cent. when babies are separated from their mothers. During the siege of Paris (1870-71) the women were compelled to nurse their own babies on account of the absence of cow's milk. Infant mortality under one year fell from 33 to 7 per cent. During the cotton famine of 1860 women were not at work in the mills. They nursed their babies and one-half of the infant mortality disappeared."
These are remarkable facts and bring home at least two truths. First, they confirm the superiority of natural feeding over that of artificial feeding. Second, they show that when the mother is not overfed the infants are healthier. During the siege of Paris food was scarce in that city. People of all classes had to live quite frugally. They could not overeat as in the untroubled time of peace and prosperity, and the result was that both the mothers and the babies were healthier. The infant mortality was only a little over one-fifth of what it was previously. If the French people had heeded the lesson the statesmen and philosophers of that nation would not today have to worry about its almost stationary population.
It would be much better if fewer children were born and those few were healthier. What good does the birth of the army of 425,000 children which perishes annually accomplish? It leaves the nation poorer in every way. A mother tired and worn with wakeful vigils, and at last left with an aching heart through the loss of her child, is not worth as much as she who has a crooning infant to love, and through her mother-love radiates kindness and good cheer to others. The conditions that weed out so many of our infants tend to weaken the survivors.
It costs too much to bring children into the world to waste them so lavishly. This may sound peculiar, but it is enlightened selfishness, which is the highest good, for it brings blessings upon all.
Artificial feeding lays the foundation for many troubles which may not manifest for several years. The bottle-fed babies are often plump, even fat, but they are not as strong as those who are fed naturally. They take all kinds of children's diseases very quickly. The glandular system, which is so readily disturbed in children, is more easily affected in bottle-fed babies. And so it comes about that they often have swollen salivary glands, or swelling of the glands of the neck or of the tonsils.
Do not be in a hurry to feed the baby after birth. Nature has so arranged that the infant does not require immediate feeding. It is a good plan to wait at least twenty-four hours after birth before placing the baby at the breast, for then all the tumult and excitement have had a chance to subside.
Many give the baby a cathartic within a few hours after birth. This is a mistake. Cathartics are irritants and it is a very poor beginning to abuse the mucous membrane of the intestinal tract immediately. This mucous membrane is delicate and in children the digestive apparatus is easily upset. Before birth there was no stomach or bowel digestion, all the nutritive processes taking place in the tissues of the little body. Gentle treatment is necessary to bring the best results. Cathartics with their harsh action on the delicate membranes are contraindicated. The mother's first milk is cathartic enough to stimulate the bowels to act, but it is nature's cathartic and does no harm.
As a rule the baby is fed too often and too much from the time of birth. If the child appears healthy the physician's recommendation will probably be to feed every two hours day and night, or every two hours during the day and every three hours at night. If the little one appears weakly these feedings are increased in number. From ten to twenty-four feedings in twenty-four hours are not uncommon and sometimes infants are nursed or given the bottle two and even three times an hour. The excuse for this is that the baby's stomach is small and cannot hold much food at a time and must for this reason be filled often, for the baby has to grow, and the more food it gets the faster it grows. The baby's stomach is small, because the little one needs very little food. The human being grows and develops for twenty to twenty-five years. This growth is slow and during babyhood the amount of nourishment needed is not great. The child, if properly taken care of, is kept warm. Hence it needs but little fuel. The ideas on food needs are so exaggerated that it is hard for parents to realize what moderate amount of food will keep a baby well nourished.
An adult in the best of health would be unable to stand such frequent food intake. He would be ill in a short time. Babies stand it no better, and the only proof of this fact needed is that in the United States at least 280,000 babies under one year of age perish annually. During babyhood nearly all troubles are nutritive ones. With the stomach and bowels in excellent condition baby defies all kinds of diseases, provided it is given the simple, commonsense attentions needed otherwise, such as being kept warm and clean in a well ventilated room. With a healthy alimentary canal, which comes with proper feeding, the little one can withstand the attack of the vast horde of germs which so trouble adult minds, also adult bodies, when people fail to give themselves proper care.
The results of too frequent feeding and overfeeding are appalling. The first ill effect is digestive disturbance. Then one or more of the ills of childhood make their appearance. These are called diseases, but they are only symptoms of perverted nutrition, though we insist on giving them names.
A healthy baby is one that is absolutely normal and well in every way. However, babies today pass for healthy when they are fat and suffering from all kinds of troubles, provided these ills can be tolerated. We need a new standard of health. Perfect health is a gift that every normal parent can bestow upon his children, and we should be satisfied with nothing short of this. Babies can and should be raised without illness, but, sad to relate, babies, who are always healthy are so rare that they are curiosities.
Many babies show signs of maternal overfeeding within a few hours or days of birth. One of the common signs is the discharge from the nose. This is aggravated by overfeeding the infant. And thus is laid the foundation, perhaps, for a lifelong catarrh. In due time various diseases such as rickets, swollen glands, formerly called scrofulous, mumps, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, pimples, eczema and cholera infantum, make their appearance. Parents have been taught to look for these diseases. They have been told that they belong to childhood. This is a libel on nature, for she tends in the direction of health.
The prevalent idea at present is that various germs, which are found in water, food, air and earth, are responsible for these diseases, but they are not. The fact that infants properly cared for do not develop one of them is proof enough that germs per se are unable to cause these ills. The germs play their part in most of these diseases, but it is a kindly part. They are scavengers, and attempt to rid the body of its debris and poisons. Through false reasoning they are blamed for causing disease, when in fact their multiplication is an effect. They are a by-product of disease. The so-called pathogenic bacteria never thrive in the baby's body until the infant has been overfed or fed on improper food long enough to break down its resistance.
The improper feeding not only kills an army of babies each year, but it handicaps the survivors very seriously. The degenerated condition of the system leaves every child with some kind of weakness. The foundation may be laid for indigestion, catarrhal troubles, which may or may not be accompanied with adenoids and impeded breathing, glandular troubles, often precursors of tuberculosis, in fact children may be acquiring any disease during infancy from chronic catarrh to rheumatism.
Mental ills are also results of senseless feeding. A healthy baby is happy. A sick baby is cross. Crossness and anger are mental perversions. Anger is temporary insanity. Enough overfeeding often results in mental perversity, epilepsy and even in real insanity. A healthy body gives a healthy mind. If people would care for their bodies properly, especially in the line of eating, the asylums for the insane would not be needed for their present purposes.
Another serious trouble that takes root from infant overfeeding is an abnormal craving for stimulants. This craving may later on be satisfied in many ways. Some use coffee, alcohol, habit-forming drugs. Others try to satisfy it by overeating. No matter how the sufferer proceeds to satisfy this craving, he does not cure it, for it grows upon what it is fed. Morphine calls for more morphine. Tobacco calls for more tobacco. An oversupply of food calls for more food or alcohol. The victim at last dies a martyr to his abnormal appetites.
Comparatively few of those who see the error of their ways have the will power to thrust off the shackles of habit. Very few think clearly enough and go far enough back to realize that disease and early death are so largely due to the habits formed for the infant or unborn babe by the parents. And the parents received the same kind of undesirable legacy from their parents, and so it goes, the children suffering for the sins of the parents. The cheerful part of such a retrospect is that there is much room for improvement, that we need not continue this seemingly unending chain of physical bondage to the next generation, and that if the children are not born right or treated right during infancy, there is still time to make a change for the better. Nature is kind and with will and determination a change can be made at any time that will result in betterment, provided such grave diseases have not taken hold of the body that recuperation is impossible. This is no excuse for making delays, for the longer errors are permitted the harder they are to overcome.
Three or four feedings a day are sufficient for any baby. The feedings should be arranged so that they are evenly distributed during the day, and nothing is to be given at night except water. Get a nursing bottle or two. Keep the bottles and the nipples scrupulously clean. These are to be used as water bottles. The water must also be clean. Heat it to 103 or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, so that it will be from 98 to 100 degrees warm when it enters the baby's mouth Let the baby have some water three or four times during the day, and perhaps it will want some once or twice during the night, but give it no milk at night.
Overfed babies are irritable and cry often. The mothers interpret this as a sign of hunger. Most babies do not know what hunger is. Like adults they become thirsty, but instead of getting water to quench their thirst they are given milk. This satisfies for a little while, then the irritability due to milk spoiled, in the alimentary tract causes more restlessness and crying, and they are fed again. The comedy of errors continues until it is turned into a tragedy.
How much should the baby be fed at a time? When the parents are healthy and the baby is born right and then fed but three times a day, the food intake will regulate itself. The child will not usually want more than it should have of milk, supplemented with water. The best way to begin is to let the infant take what it desires. That is, let the nursing continue while the infant manifests great pleasure and zest. When the child begins to fool with the breast or bottle, the source of nourishment should be removed immediately. The child will increase its intake gradually.
Some of the babies will take too much. The evil results will soon be evident, and then the mother must not compromise, but reduce the intake at once. The signs of over-consumption of food by the infants are the same as those shown by adults. They are discomfort and disease. The former manifests in crossness and irritability. The disease may be of any kind, ranging from a rash to a high fever.
The baby's stomach is sensitive and resents the excessive amount of food supplied. So the infant often vomits curdled milk, and some times vomits before the milk has time to curdle. This is a form of self-protection. If the mother would heed this sign by withdrawing all food until the stomach is settled, substituting water in the meanwhile, and then reduce the baby's food to within digestive capacity, there would be no more trouble. Vomiting is the infant's way of saying, "Please do not feed me until my stomach becomes normal again, and then don't give me more than I need, and that is less than I have been getting." Remember that it is nature's sign language, which never misleads, and it is so plain that any one with ordinary understanding should get its meaning, in spite of the erroneous popular teachings. After the child has vomited, feed moderately and increase its food supply as its digestive ability increases.
If the vomiting is wrongly interpreted and overfeeding is continued, either the baby dies or the stomach establishes a toleration, passing the trouble on to other parts of the body. One organ never suffers long alone. The circulation passes the disease on to other parts, assisted by the sympathetic nerves, which are present in all parts of the body.
When the stomach has established its toleration, several things may happen, only a few of which will be discussed, for the process is essentially the same, though the results appear so different. In infants whose digestive power is not very strong the excessive amount of milk curdles, as does the part that is digested. The water of the milk is absorbed, but the curds pass into the colon without being digested and they are discharged in the stool as curds. They are partly decomposed on the journey through the alimentary canal, producing poisons, a part of which is absorbed. A part remains in the colon, making the bowel discharges very offensive.
The passage of curds in the stool is a danger signal indicating overfeeding and should be heeded immediately. If it is not, the chances for a ease of cholera infantum, especially in warm weather, are great. Cholera infantum is due to overfeeding, or the use of inferior milk, or both. It is a form of milk poisoning, in which the bowels are very irritable. As a matter of self-protection they throw out a large quantity of serum, which soon depletes the system of the poor little sufferer, and death too often claims another young life. If cholera infantum makes its appearance the baby is given its best chance to live if feeding is stopped immediately, warm water given whenever desired, but not too large quantities at a time. Give no cathartics, for they irritate an already seriously disturbed mucous membrane, but give a small enema of blood-warm water once or twice a day. Keep the baby comfortable, seeing that the feet and abdomen are kept warm, but give plenty of fresh air. Medicines only aggravate a malady that is already serious enough. This disease is produced by abuse so grave that in spite of the best nursing, the baby often dies. It is easily prevented.
Strong babies with great digestive power are often able to digest and assimilate enormous quantities of milk, several quarts a day. They can not use all this food. If they could their size would be enormous within a short time. They do not find it so easy to excrete the excess as to assimilate it. The skin, kidneys, lungs and the bowels find themselves overtaxed. Often the mucous membrane of the nose and throat are called upon to assist in the elimination. These are the babies who are said to catch cold easily. Their colds are not caught. They are fed to them. This constant abuse of the mucous membrane results in inflammation, subacute in nature, or it may be so mild that it is but an irritation. The result in time may be chronic catarrh or thickening of the mucous membrane of nose and throat. While the catarrh is being firmly established adenoids are quite common.
In other cases too much of the work of excretion is thrown upon the skin. The same thing happens to this structure as happens to the mucous membrane. It is made for a limited amount of excretion and when more foreign matter, much of it of a very irritating nature, is deposited for elimination through the skin, it becomes inflamed. It itches. In a little while there is an attack of eczema. The baby scratches, digging its little nails in with a will. The infant soon has its face covered with sores and the scalp is scaly. The proper thing to do is to reduce the feeding greatly. Then the acid-producing fermentation in stomach and bowels will cease, but enough food to nourish the body will be absorbed, the skin will have but its normal work to perform, the cause of the irritation is gone and the effects will disappear in a short time. Two weeks are often sufficient to bring back the smooth, soft skin that every baby should have. The sufferers from these troubles are almost invariably overweight, and the parents wonder why their babies, who are so healthy, should be troubled thus!
Mothers owe it to their nursing babies to lead wholesome, simple lives. It is not always possible to live ideally, but every mother can eat simply and control her temper. Wholesome food and equanimity will go far toward producing healthful nourishment for the child. Stimulants and narcotics should be avoided. Meat should not be eaten more than once a day, and it would be better to use less meat and more eggs or nuts. Fresh fruits and vegetables should be partaken of daily. They are the rejuvenators and purifiers. The cereal foods should be as near natural as possible. The bread should be made of whole wheat flour mostly. If rice is eaten it should be unpolished. Refined sugar should be taken in moderation, if at all. The potatoes are best baked. Pure milk is as good for the mother as it is for the child. Highly seasoned foods or rich made dishes should be avoided. In short, the mother should live as near naturally as possible.
The importance of cheerfulness can hardly be overestimated. A nervous mother who frets or worries, or becomes mastered by any of the negative, depressing passions, poisons her babe a little with each drop of milk the child takes.
Some mothers are unable to nurse their babies. This is so because of lack of knowledge principally, for women who give themselves proper care are nearly always able to furnish nourishment for their infants. It may be that this function will be largely lost if the present preponderance of artificial feeding continues, and if various inoculations are not stopped. Some mothers find it a great pleasure to nurse their babies. Others refuse to do so for fear of ruining their figures.
No matter what the reason is for depriving the infant of its natural food, the parents should realize that its chances for health and life are diminished by this act. If intelligence and care are used in raising the bottle-fed babies only a few will die, in fact none will die under the circumstances, provided they were born with a normal amount of resistance. So it behooves parents of such babies to be extremely careful. That there are difficulties in the way, or rather inconveniences, can not be denied, but there are no insurmountable obstacles.
The best common substitute for mother's milk is cow's milk. If clean and given in moderation it will agree with the child and produce no untoward results.
Instead of using the same bottle all the time, there should be a number, so that there will be plenty of time to clean them. If three feeds are given each day, there should be six bottles. If four feeds are given, eight bottles. Use a set every other day. The bottles should be rinsed out after being used. Then boil them in water containing soda or a little lye, rinse in several waters and set them aside. If it is sunny, let them stand in the sun. Before using, rinse again in sterile water. The nipples should have equally good care. In feeding babies cleanliness comes before godliness.
Each bottle is to be used for but one feeding, and as many bottles are to be prepared as there are to be feedings for the day.
If the people live in the country it is easy to get pure milk. If in the city one should make arrangements with a reliable milk man possessed of a conscience. It is well to get the milk from a certain cow, instead of taking a mixture coming from many cows. Select a healthy animal that does not give very rich milk, such as the Holstein. She should have what green food she wants every day, grass in summer, and hay of the best quality and silage in winter. The grain ration should be moderate, for cows that are forced undergo quick degeneration. They are burned out. The cow should not be worried or whipped. She should be allowed to be happy, and animals are happy if they are treated properly. The water supply should be clean, not from one of the filthy tubs or troughs which disgrace some farms. The barn should be light and well ventilated. It should be kept clean and free from the ammonia fumes which are found in filthy stables. The cow should be brushed and the udder washed before each milking. The milker should wash his hands and have on clothes from which no impurities will fall. The first part of the milk drawn should not be put in with that which is to supply the baby. The milk should be drawn into a clean receptacle and immediately strained through sterile surgeon's cotton into glass bottles. These are to be put aside to cool, the contents not exposed to the dust falling from the air. Or the milk may be put directly into the nursing bottles and put aside in a cold place until needed. Then warm milk to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pardon a little repetition: If possible let the child nurse. If there is not enough milk, let the baby take what there is and give cow's milk in addition. If it is impossible to feed the baby at the breast, get the milk from a healthy cow that is kept clean, well fed and well treated. The cow's milk should be prepared as follows: Take equal parts of milk and water. Or take two parts of milk and one part of water. Mix, and to this may be added sugar of milk in the proportion of one level teaspoonful to the quart. Before feeding raise the temperature of the milk to about 104 degrees Fahrenheit, so that it will be about 100 degrees when fed. It is best to do the warming in a water bath.
Milk should not be kept long before being used. Limit the age to thirty-six hours after being drawn from the cow. Twenty-four hours would be better. The evening milk can safely be given to the infant the next day, if proper precautions have been taken. Ordinary milk is quite filthy and upon this babies do not thrive. Make an effort to get clean milk for the baby.
The composition of human milk and cow's milk is about as follows:
==================================================================== Water Albumin Fat Sugar Salts —————————————————————————————————— Human ………. 87.58 2.01 3.74 6.37 .30 Cow's ………. 87.27 3.39 3.68 4.97 .72 ——————————————————————————————————
The albumin in human milk is largely of a kind which is not coagulated by souring, while nearly all the albumin in cow's milk coagulates. The uncoagulated albumin is digested and taken up more easily by the baby's nutritive system than that which is coagulated. This is one of the reasons that babies do not thrive so well on cow's milk as on their natural food.
The sugar of milk is not like refined sugar. Although it is not so easily dissolved in water, and therefore does not taste as sweet as refined sugar, it is better for the child. If sugar is added to the milk, milk sugar should be used. The druggists have it in powder form.
The addition of barley water and lime to the baby's milk is folly. The various forms of modified milk do not give as good results as the addition of water and a little milk sugar, as previously described. If you believe in such modifications as the top milk method and the addition of starchy substances and lime water, I refer you to your family physician or text-books on infant feeding.
It is difficult to improve on good cow's milk. It is well to remember that the human organism is very adaptable, even in infancy. The principal factors in infant feeding are cleanliness and moderation.
Bottle-fed babies should be given fruit or vegetable juices, or both, very early and it would be well to give a little of these juices to breast-fed babies too. The latter do not require as much as the former. Begin during the first month with a teaspoonful of orange juice put into the drinking bottle once a day. Increase gradually until at four or five months the amount may be from one to two tablespoonfuls. Do not be afraid to give the orange juice because it is acid, for it splits up quickly in the stomach and is rearranged, forming alkaline salts. It is the fruit that can be obtained at nearly all seasons. It is best to get mild oranges and strain the juice. The fruit is to be in prime condition. Instead of orange juice, the juice of raw celery, spinach, cabbage, apples, blackberries and other juicy fruits and vegetables may be employed, but these juices must all come from fruits or vegetables that are in prime condition. No sugar is to be added to either the fruit or the vegetable juices.
The mother's milk coagulates in small flakes, easily acted upon by the digestive juices, after which they are readily absorbed. Cow's milk coagulates into rather large pieces of albumin which are tough and therefore rather difficult to digest. This happens when the milk is taken rapidly and undiluted. However, when diluted and taken slowly this tendency is overcome to a great degree. For this reason it is best to get nipples with small perforations.
Either pasteurization or sterilization of milk is almost universally recommended by medical men. Even those who do not believe in such procedures generally fail to condemn them without qualifying statements. For a discussion of this fallacy I refer you to the chapter on milk.
Do not give the little ones any kinds of medicines. They always do harm and never any good. If any exception is made to this, it is in the line of laxatives or mild cathartics, such as small doses of castor oil, cascara segrada or mineral waters, but there is no excuse for giving metallic remedies, such as calomel. If the babies are fed in moderation on good foods they will not become constipated. If they are imprudently handled and become constipated it is necessary to resort to either the enema or some mild cathartic. Bear in mind that such remedies do not cure. They only relieve. The cure will come when the errors of life are corrected so that the body is able to perform its work without being obstructed.
Inoculations and vaccinations are serious blunders, often fatal. The animal products that are rubbed or injected into the little body are poisonous. They are the result of degenerative changes—diseases—in the bodies of rabbits, horses, cows and other animals. Nature's law is that health must be deserved or earned. Health means cleanliness, so it really is absurd to force into the body these products of animal decay. Statistics can be given, showing how beneficial these agents are, but they are misleading. In the days of public and official belief in witchcraft it was not difficult to prove the undoubted existence of witches. Whatever the public accepts as true can with the utmost ease be bolstered up with figures.
The use of serums, bacterins, vaccines and other products of the biologic laboratory is almost an obsession today. Their curative and preventive values are taken for granted. Most of the time the children are strong enough to throw off the poisons without showing prolonged or pronounced effects, but every once in a while a child is so poisoned that it takes months for it to regain health and too often death is the end. Sometimes the death takes place a few minutes after the injection, but we are informed that the medication had nothing to do with it. To poison the baby's blood deliberately is criminal. Give the little one a fair chance to live in health. A properly cared for baby will not be ill for one single day. Knowledge and good care will prevent sickness.
A baby that is able to remain well a month or a week or a day can remain well every day.
At first a normal baby sleeps nearly all the time, from twenty to twenty-two hours a day. The infant should not be disturbed. All that should be done for it is to feed it three times a day, give it some water from the bottle three or four times a day, and keep it clean, dry and warm, but not hot.
Most babies are bathed daily. This is all right, but the baths are to be given quickly. The water should be about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The soap should be of the mildest, such as a good grade of castile, and it should be well rinsed off, for soap permitted to remain in the pores acts as an irritant. Dry the skin so well with a soft cloth that there will be no chapping or roughness. Sores, eruptions and inflammations are signs of mismanagement. Use no powders that are metallic in character, such as zinc oxide. A dusting powder of finely ground talcum is good. If the child is kept dry and dean and moderately fed the skin will remain in good condition.
Babies do not thrive without good air. Keep the room well ventilated at all times by admitting fresh air from a source that will produce no draughts. It is not necessary to have the baby's room warm. In fact a cool room is better. When the child is to be exposed to the air, take it into a warm room. Soft coverings will keep the infant warm. The limbs should be free so that exercise can be had through unrestricted movements.
The baby should not be bothered unnecessarily. Young parents make the mistake of using the baby for show purposes. For the sake of politeness, others praise the "only baby in the world" unduly, though there are millions of others just as good. Let the child alone, thus giving it an opportunity to become as superior as the parents think it is. The showing off process creates excitement and lays the foundation for fretfulness, irritability and nervousness. The child thrives in a peaceful atmosphere. When it is awake it is well to talk to it quietly and soothingly, for thus the infant begins to learn its mother's tongue. Good language should be employed. Those who teach their children baby-talk are handicapping them, for they will soon have to unlearn this and learn real language. Baby-talk may be "cute" at eighteen months, but when children retain that mode of expression beyond the age of four or five it sounds silly.
At about the age of nine or ten months the breast-fed babe should be weaned. Gradual weaning is perhaps the best. First give one feeding of cow's milk a day and two breast feeds; then two feedings of cow's milk and one at the breast, and at last cow's milk entirely. Between the ages of nine and twelve months begin giving starchy foods. At first the child will take very little, and gradually increase. Give bread so stale that the child has to soak it with its saliva before it can swallow the bread. Working away this way, sucking the stale bread, the child learns to go through the motions of chewing, and this is valuable training. Never give bread soaked in milk and never feed milk while bread is being eaten. If the meal is to be bread and milk, give the bread either before any milk is taken, or afterwards. Starches are not to be washed down with liquids. Instead of giving stale bread, zwieback may be used. Occasionally feed a few spoons of very thin and well cooked oatmeal or whole wheat gruel, but the less sloppy food given the better, for it does not get the proper mouth treatment. The wheat products fed the child should be made from whole wheat flour, or at least three-fourths whole wheat and only one-fourth of the white flour. The refined flour is lacking in the salts that the child needs for health and growth.
Many mothers begin feeding starches when the baby is four or five months old. The child is given potatoes, bread or any other starchy food that may be on the table. This is a mistake, for the child is not prepared to digest starches at that early age. Some of the digestive ferments are practically absent during the first few months of life. Such feeding will invariably cause trouble. The baby should not be taken to the table.
It is quite generally believed that a baby should cry to exercise its lungs. A healthy, comfortable baby will do little or no crying, and it is not necessary. It is not difficult to give the little ones some exercise to fill their lungs. Babies can hang on to a finger or a thin rod tenaciously. Elevate the infant that does not cry thus a few times above the bed and let it hang for a few seconds each time. This throws the chest forward and exercises the lungs. What is more, this small amount of gymnastic work is thoroughly enjoyed. It helps to build strength and good temper. The crying helps to make the baby ill-tempered and fretful. A little crying now and then is all right, but much indicates discomfort, disease or a spoiled child. It would surprise most mothers how good babies are when they have a chance to be good.
After reading this, some are sure to ask how many ounces to feed the baby. I don't know. No one else knows. Different babies have different requirements. The key is given above. If the babies become ill it is nearly always due to overfeeding and poor food, so the proper thing to do is to reduce the food intake.
A healthy baby is a source of unending joy, while a sick one saps the mother's vitality. It is too bad that the art of efficient child culture is so little known.