The married woman's private medical companion

by A. M. Mauriceau

“It is no new or uncertain doctrine, that the quality of the mother’s milk is affected by her own health and conduct, and that in its turn it directly affects the health of the nursling. Even medicines given to the parent act upon the child through the medium of the milk; and a sudden fit of anger, or other violent mental emotion, has not unfrequently been observed to change the quality of the fluid so much as to produce purging and gripes in the child. Care and anxiety, in like manner, exert a most pernicious influence, and not only diminish the quantity, but vitiate the quality of the milk.

“It is a common mistake to suppose that, because a woman is nursing, she ought, therefore, to live very fully, and to add an allowance of wine, porter, or other fermented liquor, to her usual diet. The only result of this plan is to cause an unnatural degree of fullness in the system, which places the nurse on the brink of disease, and which of itself frequently puts a stop to, instead of increasing, the secretion of the milk. The health and usefulness of country nurses are often utterly ruined by their transplantation into the families of rich and luxurious employers. Accustomed at home to constant bodily exertion, exposure to the air, and a moderate supply of the plainest food, they live in the enjoyment of the best health, and constitute excellent nurses. But the moment they are transplanted from their proper sphere, their habits and mode of life undergo an unfavourable change. Having no longer any laborious duties to perform or any daily exposure to encounter, they become plethoric and indolent; and as they are at the same time too well fed, the digestive functions become impaired, the system speedily participates in the disorder, and the milk, which was at first bland, nourishing, and plentiful, now becomes heating and insufficient, and sometimes even stops altogether.”

Cocoa shells, made precisely like coffee, make a very pleasant and nutritious drink for nursing females.

Weaning.—“Diet for infants after weaning may be pure milk, two parts, water, one part; slightly sweetened. This,” says Combe, “makes the nearest approach to the nature of the mother’s milk, and, therefore, is more suitable than any preparation of milk and flour, or any other that can be given.” A child, as a general rule, one year old, ought to be gradually weaned, and the appearance of the teeth shows the propriety of giving food a little more substantial than milk. Bread a day old, mixed with milk and sweetened, may be given in connexion with nursing. Gruel, arrowroot, plain bread, Indian and rice puddings as they grow older, and subsequently bread and butter, thickened milk, hasty pudding or Indian, potatoes, and vegetables. Not a particle of flesh should ever be given. By the use of meat the system becomes excited, and diseases of irritation are apt to be produced, which impede nutrition, and lead ultimately to the production of scrofula and other organic changes in the glands and bowels, and not unfrequently also in the brain and lungs. In these instances the child generally eats heartily, but, nevertheless, continues thin, and is subject to frequent flushing and irregularity of the bowels, headache, and restlessness. His mind partakes of the general irritability of the system, and peevish impatience takes the place of the placid good humour natural to healthy childhood. In this state the ordinary diseases of infancy—measles, scarlet fever, and hooping-cough—are often attended with an unusual and dangerous degree of constitutional disturbance; and when inflammation takes place it is borne with difficulty, and the system does not easily rally; or the digestive organs become irritated, and the various secretions immediately connected with digestion are diminished, especially the biliary secretion. Constipation of the bowels soon follows; congestion of the hepatic and abdominal veins succeeds, and is followed by the train of consequences which have already been detailed. In reality the wonder comes to be, not that so many children die, but that so many survive their early mismanagement. A morbid condition of the system arises, extremely favourable to the production of scrofulous, consumptive, dyspeptic, and other diseases, under which, perhaps, the infant sinks; and yet, strange to state, parents will stuff their children with flesh and grease two or three times a day.

Says Combe, “One of the most pernicious habits in which children can be indulged is that of almost incessant eating. Many mothers encourage it from the facility with which, for a time, the offer of ‘something nice’ procures peace. Even from infancy the child ought to be gradually accustomed to eat only when hungry, and when food is really required. After two years of age an interval of four hours between meals, will rarely be more than enough; and to give biscuit, fruit, or bread, in the meantime, is just subtracting from the digestive power of the stomach. Like almost every organ of the body, the stomach requires a period of repose after the labour of digestion; and accordingly, in the healthy state, the sensation of appetite never returns till it has been for some time empty. To give food sooner, therefore, is analogous to making a weary traveller walk on without the refreshment of a halt.”

“When we reflect that the object of digestion is, to furnish materials for the growth of the body, and to supply the waste which the system is constantly undergoing, it must appear self-evident that, if the digestive powers be impaired by disease, by improper quantity or quality of food, or by any other cause, the result must necessarily be the formation of an imperfect chyle, and, consequently, of imperfect blood. The elements of the blood are derived from the chyle, and, if it be vitiated, the blood also must suffer: if the blood be diseased, so must necessarily be all the organs which it supplies; and if the body be thus debilitated, can any wonder be felt that it should no longer be able to resist the action of offending causes which full health alone can withstand?”

Clothing.—Infants and children are often injured by improper clothing. It is customary for some nurses to wrap them in such a quantity as to injure their health; moderation in this respect should be observed, due regard being paid to that which is sufficient to render them comfortable. Infants, when first born, have clothing enough almost to smother them.

Medicine.—Another very reprehensible custom is, to pour down some nauseous drug, such as paregoric, Godfrey’s cordial, or some other articles, every time the child begins to cry or is fretful, by which it becomes habituated to the use of opium, and makes it necessary to increase the dose in order to produce the same effect.

Another injurious practice is to give frequently worm lozenges (the basis of which is calomel or mercury) upon any attack of illness, under the impression that the disorder is occasioned by worms. By this imprudent course both the health and life of the child are endangered. Therefore those who wish to bring up their children in a healthy condition must avoid these evils, and be content to follow the simple path of nature and common sense.

Few things tend more to the destruction of children than drenching them with drugs. Medicine may be sometimes necessary for children; but that it injures them ten times for once it does them good, I will venture to assert. A nurse or mother, the moment her child seems to ail anything, runs immediately to the doctor or the apothecary, who throws in his powders, pills and potions, till the poor infant is poisoned; when the child might have been restored to perfect health by a change of diet, air, exercise, clothing, or some very easy and simple means.