719. If the mother, during the daytime, cannot resist having her child in the room with her, then I should advise her to make a paste of aloes—that is to say, let her mix a little powdered aloes with a few drops of water, until it be of the consistence of paste—and let her smear it on the nipple every time just before putting him to the breast; this will be quite enough for him; and one or two aloe applications to the nipple will make him take a disgust to the bosom, and thus the weaning will be accomplished. A mother need not be afraid that the aloes will injure her baby; the minute quantity he will swallow will do no harm; for the moment he tastes it, the aloes being extremely bitter, he will splutter it out of his mouth.
720. Another application for the nipple, to effect weaning, is wormwood. There are two ways of applying it, either (1) by sprinkling a very small pinch of powdered wormwood on the nipple; or (2) by bathing the nipple with a small quantity of wormwood tea just before applying the babe to it—either the one or the other of these plans will make him take a dislike to the breast, and thus the weaning will be accomplished. Wormwood is excessively bitter and disagreeable, and a slight quantity of it on the nipple will cause an infant to turn away from it with loathing and disgust—the wormwood, the minute quantity he will taste, will not at all injure him. Wormwood was in Shakspeare’s time used for the purpose of weaning:
“And she was wean’d,—I never shall forget it—
Of all the days of the year upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug [breast],
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall,
My lord and you were then at Mantua:
Nay, I do bear a brain: but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool!