The doctor was struck with confusion and could not utter a word. He who had stood before great audiences of adults and taught them unblushingly the secrets of being, was silent before innocent childhood. The mother was forced to be the teacher, when she had looked to one wiser to enforce the lesson. Standing in the presence of the great doctor, she told them in pure sweet words the story of their prenatal life and of her motherhood, not forgetting to tell of the great pain which was all forgotten so soon in the gladness that her baby boys were born to her.
She finished, and there were tears upon the faces of all her listeners. “Oh, mamma, how good boys ought to be to their mothers,” said one of the twins; while the doctor exclaimed, “Madam, that was the finest lecture upon the subject to which I ever listened. Go on so teaching your boys and they will be men that the world will be proud of and greatly need.” This is the kind of seed-sowing which not only bears a rich harvest of purity and innocent knowledge, but as well keeps out the weeds of sin and impurity, which curiosity gratified by secret whisperings always sows.
“The true mother is a teacher whether she is conscious of it or not, and the true teacher uses the innate mother element—that which broods over the child and warms it into life—as much as she does her acquired knowledge.”
Just as surely as the child in prenatal life drew his nourishment mental, moral, and physical, from the mother, so surely in postnatal life will he look to her for example, for strength, for encouragement in all virtues, for warning against pitfalls, for direction in all knowledge, for comfort in sorrow, for real heart’s-ease, for cheer and inspiration in the race of life. God pity and forgive the mother, who has no storehouse from which her children can draw their supplies of comfort and courage and rest.
I like to think of the wonderful Shepherd Psalm as a prototype of what God designs the parents to be to their children. Remember the ancient shepherd led his sheep; so should the mother, in obedience to God and her higher nature, in loveliness, in patience, in hope, in cheerfulness, in sweet charity, lead her little ones in the “Paths of righteousness.”
CHAPTER XX.
COMMON AILMENTS OF CHILDREN.
Little Ailments.—Nursing Babies Affected by Condition of Mother.—Sleep and Health.—The Baby’s Food.—Why Babies are Restless when Nursed from the Right Breast.—Children’s Symptoms often More Grave than the Ailment.—Illustrations.—Fevers and Teething.—Vomiting.—The Cause of Rash.—Pallid Children.—Chafing.—Babies do not Cry without Cause.—Need of Water and Fresh Air.—Sleeping in open Air.—Relief in Constipation.—Important Suggestions.
I speak of ailments of children not diseases, since this is in no sense a “Doctor Book.” In the common ailments every mother should be so well informed that she may not distress herself at a trifling indisposition, neither show no concern when marked symptoms of disease are present. There are many ailments to which the most healthy child is susceptible, and for which no alarm need be felt, as they are trifling and usually last but a few hours.