THE NURSE
It is often wise to secure the services of a trained nurse, and if the family purse will allow such services, a good, sincere, capable, practical nurse should be engaged, for her firm kindness will often accomplish much more than the unintentional irritability and anxious solicitude of an overworked and nervous mother.
Usually the mother not only attempts the care of the sick baby with the long night vigil—often not having the opportunity to take a bath or change her raiment day in and day out—but she often attempts to manage the entire household as well, including the getting of the meals and keeping the house cleaned, and it is not to be wondered at that her nerves become overtaxed and in an unlooked for moment she becomes irritable and cross with the sick child.
No matter how low the financial conditions of the family may be, outside help is always essential in cases of severe or long-continued illness of the children. Should the mother insist upon caring for the baby herself, then all household duties should be given over to outside help, and as she takes the rôle of the nurse, the same daily outing and sleep that an outside nurse would receive should be hers to enjoy.
Dr. Griffith has so ably detailed the "features of disease" that we can do no better than to quote the following:[[3]]