Advice to a wife and mother in two parts

by Pye Henry Chavasse

The best medicine is the old-fashioned one of borax, a combination of powdered lump sugar and borax being a good one for the purpose: the powdered lump sugar increases the efficacy and the cleansing properties of the borax; it tends, moreover, to make it more palatable:

Take of—Biborate of Soda, half a drachm;

Lump sugar, two scruples:

To be well mixed together, and made into twelve powders. One of the powders to be put dry on the tongue every four hours.

The best local remedy is honey of borax, which ought to be smeared frequently, by means of the finger, on the parts affected.

Thorough ventilation of the apartment must be observed; and great cleanliness of the vessels containing the milk should be insisted upon.

In a bad case of thrush, change of air to the country is most desirable; the effect is sometimes, in such cases, truly magical.

If the thrush be brought on either by too much or by improper food, in the first case, of course, a mother must lessen the quantity; and, in the second, she should be more careful in her selection.

What NOT to do.—Do not use either a calf’s teat or wash-leather for the feeding-bottle; fortunately, since the invention of india-rubber teats, they are now nearly exploded; they were, in olden times, fruitful causes of thrush. Do not mind the trouble of ascertaining that the cooking-vessels connected with the baby’s food are perfectly clean and sweet. Do not leave the purity and the goodness of the cow’s milk (it being absolutely necessary to feed him on artificial food) to be judged either by the milkman or by the nurse, but taste and prove it yourself. Do not keep the milk in a warm place, but either in the dairy or in the cellar; and, if it be summer time, let the jug holding the milk be put in a crock containing lumps of ice. Do not use milk that has been milked longer than twelve hours, but, if practicable, have it milked direct from the cow, and use it immediately—let it be really and truly fresh and genuine milk.

When the disease is severe, it may require more active treatment—such as a dose of calomel; which medicine must never be given, unless it be either under the direction of a medical man, or unless it be in an extreme case,—such as dysentery;[^[181]] therefore, the mother had better seek advice.