Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife

by Marion Mills Miller

THE MOTHER

Nursing the Child—The Mother's Diet—Weaning—The Nursing-bottle—Milk for the Baby—Graduated Approach to Solid Diet—The Baby's Table Manners—His Bath—Cleansing His Eyes and Nose—Relief of Colic—Care of the Diaper.

But one upon earth is more beautiful and better than the wife—that is the mother.—L. SCHEFER.

Tennyson says, "The bearing and the training of a child is woman's wisdom." Herein nature is ever urging her to the proper course. Thus the love of the newborn infant prompts the mother to feed him with her own milk, and this supplies exactly the elements he requires for healthy development. No other milk, however skillfully modulated, no "infant's food," however scientifically prepared, can fully take its place.

Unless illness prevents her from feeding her own child, or she is of a moody and unhappy disposition, it is the mother's place to give her breast to the infant. The condition of mind of the mother has a great deal to do with the quality of the milk. A despondent and excitable temperament is often more productive of harm than a low physical condition. It is hardly necessary to warn the mother to be careful of her diet, as this has immediate effect on the quality of the milk. Of course, any drink containing alcohol must be avoided. Tea and coffee, except when taken in weak strength, have also a deleterious effect. Milk, and next to it, cocoa, are the best beverages for the mother. Mothers should also avoid taking medicine except when positively required.

There is no need for the mother to vary greatly her solid diet. She will naturally select that which is most nutritious and easily digested. Anything that tends to make her costive, such as fruits or green vegetables, should be partaken of with discrimination.

The baby should be fed with systematic regularity from the beginning. While a child does not need food for the first day after birth, nevertheless it is well to put it to the breast about six hours after birth, since for the first few days after child-birth the breasts secrete a laxative element which acts as a sort of physic upon the child, clearing its bowels of a black, tarry substance, that fills them. The full supply of normal milk comes after the third day. After the first feeding the baby should be put to the breast every four hours for the first day and after that every two hours, being kept there about twenty minutes each time. The mother should be watchful and see that the child is awake and is nursing. Even at this early age it can be compelled to learn a good habit. Unless it learns this habit, the mother will be put to great inconvenience and the baby will suffer because of the disarrangement of the systematic feeding. If he is allowed to nurse at his own pleasure, the results will quickly make themselves manifest in the form of colic, leading to wakefulness and bad temper.

A baby should not remain awake more than four hours in the day on the whole, and he should be so trained that the eight hours from ten o'clock at night to six in the morning, when his mother is sleeping, should be for him also an uninterrupted period of slumber.

The baby should be weaned at ten months unless he is unwell at the time or the weaning comes in the heat of the summer, when there is danger of his becoming sickly or peevish. Preparatory to weaning, the baby should be accustomed to the bottle. Provided the bottle holds half a pint or four glasses, the number of bottles may be increased from one a day at four months to two or six at eight months. The baby should certainly be weaned by the time it is a year old, as, even though the mother continues to have a plentiful supply of milk, this is not suited to his needs at this stage of his physical development. By this method of approach the act of permanently refusing the breast to the child will not greatly offend him. After a little crying he will philosophically accept the situation and reconcile himself to the substitute.

Weaning is rendered easier by selecting a nursing-bottle which has the nipple in the shape of the breast. Care should be taken that the hole in the nipple is not too large, supplying more milk than the stomach can take care of as it comes, and so causing stomachic disorder. The nursing bottle should at all times be kept thoroughly clean by rinsing in hot water and washing in hot soapsuds. The milk for the child's bottle should, wherever possible, be what is called "certified," that is, the milk from a herd of cows which have been declared by the proper authorities to be all in good health, and which have been milked under sanitary conditions. This milk is delivered in clean, sealed bottles, preventing the admission of any dirt or deleterious substance from the time it leaves the dairy till opened. The milk for the baby should not be purchased from the can.