What a Young Wife Ought to Know

by Emma F. Angell Drake

In dressing the cord, wrap it in a bit of absorbent cotton four inches square. Cut or tear a hole in the middle of this, draw the loop of cord through, wrap the cotton about it and turn it up and hold it in place with the band pinned only sufficiently close to hold the cord and its dressing in place. The cord will need no further attention until it has dried and dropped off, unless the band in slipping up pulls upon the dressing and irritates the little one. Dressed in this manner the navel heals smooth and clean, and will need nothing further than a dusting with calendulated boracic acid, should it not be perfectly dry when the cord drops.

An excellent blanket to receive the child from the bath is made of coarse Germantown yarn, knitted into a strip three-quarters of a yard wide, and a yard and a half in length. This is sufficiently large to wrap the baby well in until it is dry and ready to be dressed. Some prefer the receiving apron. This is made of coarse, heavy flannel, and worn by the nurse at the time of the bath. The baby is lifted from the tub, and wrapped in the apron as in the blanket.

Now the little one is ready for its first suit, as described in the chapter on baby’s dress, and then to be put into its basket-bed for a long nap. The cradle-basket hardly needs further description, but a few words define it. It is simply a well padded clothes-basket, and may be ornamented as much or as little as the fancy dictates. It serves as a snug nest for the little one, as deep in the folds of the soft blankets and dainty pads it is securely sheltered from any draft, and artificial warmth can be easily applied by hot water bottles at the sides and foot.

This basket should be its bed for months, or until it is outgrown. “But,” mothers sometimes say to me, “it is so difficult to reach over and get the baby for feeding in the night;” and I respond, “A well trained baby will have no night feeding.” Remember that more can be taught the little one in the first few weeks, than it can unlearn in the next few months without very diligent effort and patient persistence.

Should the little one make its advent in the night, it is more easily broken to good habits, than when it comes in the daytime. Why? Because it will sleep the remainder of the night and wake to be put to the breast some time during the day, and then again toward night, when it will be ready for another night of sleep. Of course this may seem a theoretical baby, and not at all real; and I will admit that some of these perverse little specimens of humanity put to flight every theory that has been or can be made, while a few are models from the beginning.

If he does not like his surroundings, and refuses to be comforted, the night may have to be turned in to day for a short time, when gradually he must be gotten into line for sleeping at night, and having his wakeful time in the day. Fed at nine or ten at night, if he is properly adjusted, he will make no trouble until five or six in the morning. Should he nestle and fret, often a change in its position, a dry napkin, and a few drops of warm water, will send him off to sleep again for the remainder of the night.

That this can be done and the babies be heartier and stronger for it, I have proven with three of my very own, and many others under my care. That the mother will be stronger for having her night’s sleep uninterrupted goes without saying. Should the baby be troublesome at first and so get into bad habits, the sooner it is broken of them and gotten into right ways the better for the mother and child.

However much the mother may enjoy it, it is better for the little one not to be rocked to sleep. Fed and placed in its bed, it will soon fall asleep, and wake when its nap is over to lie there in content, should it not be time for another meal.

The answer to the question, how often shall the child be fed, is, that it depends upon the baby. The rule, however, is once in two hours the first two months, then lengthen the time by half an hour, each month thereafter, until it gets down to four meals a day, which will be needed until it is a year old. Should it be so unfortunate as to be a bottle-fed baby, then the quantity must be regulated as well. Beginning with two ounces, gradually increase until the limit of six ounces has been reached.

This is the rule, we have said, but not quite all babies submit kindly to the rule. You may be obliged to begin with a meal once in an hour and a half, but if so, you can soon regulate it to the proper time, and all will be well. In talking with Dr. Shipman, who was at the head of a large foundlings’ home in Chicago, he said, “The first rule when a baby is brought in is to break it from night feeding, and we have little difficulty in doing this after the first two or three nights.” The trouble too often is, the parents need breaking in, before they can patiently and persistently train a child in the right way. Their own habits are not fixed and methodical, and they find it difficult to train their children into right ways of living and doing.