Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children

by Pye Henry Chavasse

Boil the milk, and sweeten it to suit his palate. After he has been accustomed to it for a while, he will then, probably, like milk. Gradually reduce the sugar, until at length it be dispensed with. A child will often take milk this way, whereas he will not otherwise touch it.

If a child will not drink milk, he must eat meat; it is absolutely necessary that he should have either the one or the other; and, if he have cut nearly all his teeth, he ought to have both meat and milk—the former in moderation, the latter in abundance.

141. Supposing milk should not agree with my child, what must then be done?

Milk, either boiled or unboiled, almost always agrees with a child. If it does not, it must be looked upon as the exception, and not as the rule. I would, in such a case, advise one-eighth of lime water to be added to seven-eighths of new milk—that is to say, two table-spoonfuls of lime water should be mixed with half a pint of new milk.

142. Can you tell me of a way to prevent milk, in hot weather, from turning sour?

Let the jug of milk be put into a crock, containing ice—Wenham Lake is the best—either in the dairy or in the cellar. The ice may at any time, be procured of a respectable fishmonger, and should be kept, wrapped either in flannel or in blanket, in a cool place, until it be wanted.

143. Can you tell me why the children of the rich suffer so much more from costiveness than do the children of the poor?

The principal reason is that the children of the rich drink milk without water, while the children of the poor drink water without, or with very little, milk—milk being binding, and water opening to the bowels. Be sure then, and bear in mind, as this is most important advice, to see that water is mixed with all the milk that is given to your child. The combination of milk and water for a child is a glorious compound—strengthening, fattening, refreshing, and regulating to the bowels, and thus doing away with that disgraceful proceeding so common in nurseries, of everlastingly physicking, irritating and irreparably injuring the tender bowels of a child.

My opinion is, that aperients, as a rule, are quite unnecessary, and should only be given in severe illness, and under the direction of a judicious medical man. How much misery, and injury, might be averted if milk were always given to a child in combination with water!

Aperients, by repetition, unlike water, increase the mischief tenfold, and cork them up most effectually; so that the bowels, in time, will not act without them!