Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children

by Pye Henry Chavasse

Do not let him be put on his feet early; but allow him to crawl, and sprawl, and kick about the floor, until his body and his ankles become strong.

Do not, on any account, without having competent advice on the subject, use iron instruments, or mechanical supports of any kind: the ankles are generally, by such artificial supports, made worse, in consequence of the pressure causing a further dwindling away and enfeebling of the ligaments of the ankles, already wasted and weakened.

Let him wear shoes with straps over the insteps to keep them on, and not boots: boots will only, by wasting the ligaments, increase the weakness of the ankles.

113. Sometimes there is a difficulty in restraining the bleeding of leech bites. What is the best method?

The difficulty in these cases generally arises from the improper method of performing it. For example—a mother endeavours to stop the haemorrhage by loading the part with rag; the more the bites discharge, the more rag she applies. At the same time, the child probably is in a room with a, large fire, with two or three candles, with the doors closed, and with perhaps a dozen people in the apartment, whom the mother has, in her fright, sent for. This practice is strongly reprehensible.

If the bleeding cannot be stopped,—in the first place, the fire most be extinguished, the door and windows should be thrown open, and the room ought to be cleared of persons, with the exception of one, or, at the most, two; and every rag should be removed. "Stopping of leech bites.—The simplest and most certain way, till the proper assistance is obtained, is the pressure of the finger, with nothing intervening. It cannot bleed through that." [Footnote: Sir Charles Locock, in a Letter to the Author.]

Many babies, by excessive loss of blood from leech bites, have lost their lives from a mother not knowing how to act, and also from the medical man either living at a distance, or not being at hand. Fortunately for the infantile community, leeches are now very seldom ordered by doctors.

114. Supposing a baby to be poorly, have you any advice to give to his mother as to her own management?

She must endeavour to calm her feelings or her milk will be disordered, and she will thus materially increase his illness. If he be labouring under any inflammatory disorder, she ought to refrain from the taking of beer, wine, and spirits, and from all stimulating food; otherwise, she will feed his disease.

Before concluding the first part of my subject—the Management of Infancy—let me again urge upon you the importance—the paramount importance—if you wish your babe to be strong and hearty,—of giving him as little opening physic as possible. The best physic for him is Nature's physic—fresh air, and exercise, and simplicity of living. A mother who is herself always drugging her child, can only do good to two persons—the doctor and the druggist!