The first few months the child’s feet are most comfortable in crocheted socks. The first shoes may be made like moccasins, of broadcloth or chamois skin. A lady in Cincinnati makes many of the latter for the trade, supporting her children and an invalid husband by their sale.
These directions for infants’ clothing are so simple that many may think they are not worth following, but when we see the little ones bandaged and burdened as we do, is it not time to make a protest that will reach every mother? A child’s dress should always serve the purposes of protection and warmth without any hindrance to its activity and development.
Habits of cleanliness can be taught every child. The clumsy diaper can be dispensed with by the time it is three or four months old. Let the mother practice holding out her baby immediately after nursing it, and it will easily be taught to urinate at this time, and also to have a passage from the bowels at a stated time in the morning and evening. The actual comfort secured to mother and child through this habit, more than repays for the labor and patience in securing it. Teach your children to be cleanly. A dirty child is a mother’s disgrace. When a child begins to creep and walk, the diaper (necessarily large and bulky) has to be pinned too tightly for comfort and health, in order to keep it in place.
A bath may be given to the child every day or every other day. By the time it is two months old, it can be put into a bath daily. Should remain in the water not more than five minutes. The temperature should not exceed 90°, and it is quite as well to accustom the child to a lower temperature gradually. Don’t trust the hand to determine the heat. Always have a thermometer. Do not bathe a child immediately after nursing. Avoid the use of soap. A child’s skin is naturally oily, and should be preserved so.
NURSING.
“The starting beverage meets the thirsty lip;
’Tis joy to yield it, and ’tis joy to sip.”
The newborn infant needs no artificial food. It should be put to the breast whenever it shows an inclination. The true mother will delight in the privilege of nursing her child, and will allow nothing but the most entire inability to prevent the exercise of this maternal office.
The mother’s milk is the natural food, and nothing can fully take its place. Every means should be used to secure and maintain this natural nutriment before resorting to artificial food. The nursing process, by sympathetic action, assists in restoring the uterus to normal conditions. A few years since everybody supposed the baby must be fed artificially the first two days of its life, that there was a break in nature’s provision for its sustenance. The consequence was the poor little victim was dosed with all sorts of slops, catnip tea, panada, gruel, cracker water, cream tea, etc., etc. Remember, it needs nothing but the secretion that is in the breast, which is laxative at first, and removes the meconium from the bowels. If for any reason the mother has not milk for her child, or is separated from it, the best substitute is a wet nurse, whose babe should be near the same age. The nurse should be well and strong, having abundant and nourishing milk.
The best artificial food is cream reduced and sweetened with sugar of milk. Analysis show that the human milk contains more cream and sugar and less casein than the milk of animals. The reduced cream, sweetened, closely approximates human milk. The difference in the quality of cream presents a great difficulty. No rule can be given for its reduction. Most nurses leave it too rich, and the child’s system is soon deranged.