Pains and Ills in Nursing.
1. Sore Nipples.—If a lady, during the latter few months of her pregnancy, where to adopt "means to harden the nipples," sore nipples during the period of suckling would not be so prevalent as they are.
2. Cause.—A sore nipple is frequently produced by the injudicious custom of allowing the child to have the nipple almost constantly in his mouth. Another frequent cause of a sore nipple is from the babe having the canker. Another cause of a sore nipple is from the mother, after the babe has been sucking, putting up the nipple wet. She, therefore, ought always to dry the nipple, not by rubbing, but by dabbing it with a soft cambric or lawn handkerchief, or with a piece of soft linen rag—one or the other of which ought always to be at hand—every time directly after the child has done sucking, and just before applying any of the following powders or lotions to the nipple.
3. Remedies.—One of the best remedies for a sore nipple is the following powder:
Take of—Borax, one drachm;
Powdered Starch, seven drachms.
Mix.—A pinch of the powder to be frequently applied to the nipple.
If the above does not cure, try Glycerine by applying it each time after nursing.
4. Gathered Breast.—A healthy woman with a well-developed breast and a good nipple, scarcely, if ever, has a gathered bosom; it is the delicate, the ill-developed breasted and worse-developed nippled lady who usually suffers from this painful complaint. And why? The evil can generally be traced to girlhood. If she be brought up luxuriously, her health and her breasts are sure to be weakened, and thus to suffer, more especially if the development of the bosoms and nipples has been arrested and interfered with by tight stays and corsets. Why, the nipple is by them drawn in, and retained on the level with the breast—countersunk—as though it were of no consequence to her future well-being, as though it were a thing of nought.