Advice to a wife and mother in two parts

by Pye Henry Chavasse

91. Some persons say that new-born female infants have milk in their bosoms, and that it is necessary to squeeze them, and apply plasters to disperse the milk.

The idea of there being real milk in a baby’s breast is doubtful, the squeezing of the bosom is barbarous, and the application of plasters is useless. “Without actually saying,” says Sir Charles Locock, “there is milk secreted in the breasts of infants, there is undoubtedly not rarely considerable swelling of the breasts both in female and male infants, and on squeezing them a serous fluid oozes out. I agree with you that the nurses should never be allowed to squeeze them, but be ordered to leave them alone.”[^[171]]

92. Have the goodness to mention the SLIGHT ailments which are not of sufficient importance to demand the assistance of a medical man?

I deem it well to make the distinction between serious and slight ailments; I am addressing a mother. With regard to serious ailments, I do not think myself justified, except in certain urgent cases, in instructing a parent to deal with them. It might be well to make a mother acquainted with the symptoms, but not with the treatment, in order that she might lose no time in calling in medical aid. This I hope to have the pleasure of doing in future conversations.

Serious diseases, with a few exceptions, and which I will indicate in subsequent conversations, ought never to be treated by a parent, not even in the early stages, for it is in the early stages that the most good can generally be done. It is utterly impossible for any one who is not trained to the medical profession to understand a serious disease in all its bearings, and thereby to treat it satisfactorily.

There are some exceptions to these remarks. It will be seen, in future conversations, that Sir Charles Locock considers that a mother ought to be made acquainted with the treatment of some of the more serious diseases, where delay in obtaining immediate medical assistance might be death. I bow to his superior judgment, and have supplied the deficiency in subsequent conversations.

The ailments and the diseases of infants, such as may, in the absence of the doctor, be treated by a parent, are the following: Chafings, Convulsions, Costiveness, Flatulence, Gripings, Hiccup, Looseness of the Bowels (Diarrhœa), Dysentery, Nettle-rash, Red-gum, Stuffing of the Nose, Sickness, Thrush. In all these complaints I will tell you—What to do, and—What NOT to do.

93. What are the causes and the treatment of chafing?

The want of water: inattention and want of cleanliness are the usual causes of chafing.

What to do.—The chafed parts ought to be well and thoroughly sponged with tepid rain water—allowing the water from a well-filled sponge to stream over them—and, afterward, they should be thoroughly but tenderly dried with a soft towel, and then be dusted, either with finely-powdered starch made of wheaten flour, or with violet powder, or with finely-powdered native carbonate of zinc, or they should be bathed with finely-powdered fuller’s-earth and tepid water.