AIDS TO THE MILK SUPPLY
Believing that many more mothers than do so should nurse their babies, we have carefully tabulated a number of aids to the milk supply, which we hope will be most earnestly tried before the baby is taken from the breast—for so many, many more bottle-fed babies die during the first year than the breast fed. The dangers of infection, the worry of the food preparation, the uncertainty of results, all call for a most untiring effort on the part of every doctor, nurse, and mother, in their endeavors to secure maternal nursing. The following is a summary of "aids to the milk supply:"
1. Regular periodical sucking of the breasts from the day of baby's birth.
2. Systematic applications of alternate hot and cold compresses, followed by massage to the breasts.
3. Three good nourishing meals each day, eaten with merriment and gladness of heart.
4. A glass of "cream gruel," milk, cocoa, or eggnog at the close of each meal, with a glass just before retiring.
5. Three outings each day in the open air.
6. Nurse the baby regularly and then turn its care over to another, you seek the out of doors and engage in walking, rowing, riding and other pleasurable exercise.
7. Take a daily nap.
8. You can bank on fretting and stewing over the hot cook stove to decrease your milk. It seldom fails to spoil it.
9. Regular body bathing, with cold friction rubs to the skin.
10. A happy, carefree mental state. Nothing dries up milk so rapidly as worry, grief, or nagging.
11. The administration, preferably in the early days, of desiccated bovine placenta; although it may be given at any time during the period of nursing.