Many babies have lost their lives by excessive loss of blood from leech-bites, 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 endeavor to calm her feelings, or her milk will be disordered, and she will thus materially increase his illness. If he be laboring 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!
If an infant from his birth be properly managed,—if he has an abundance of fresh air for his lungs,—if he has plenty of exercise for his muscles (by allowing him to kick and sprawl on the floor),—if he has a good swilling and sousing of water for his skin,—if, during the early months of his life, he has nothing but the mother’s milk for his stomach,—he will require very little medicine—the less the better! He does not want his stomach to be made into a doctor’s shop! The grand thing is not to take every opportunity of administering physic, but of using every means of withholding it! And if physic be necessary, not to doctor him yourself, unless it be in extreme and urgent cases (which in preceding and succeeding Conversations I either have or will indicate), but to employ an experienced medical man. A babe who is always, without rhyme or reason, being physicked, is sure to be puny, delicate, and unhealthy, and is ready, at any moment, to drop into an untimely grave!
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON INFANCY.
115. In concluding the first part of our subject—Infancy—I beg to remark. There are four things essentially necessary to an infant’s well-doing, namely, (1) plenty of water for the skin; (2) plenty of milk for the stomach; (3) plenty of fresh air for the lungs; (4) plenty of sleep for the brain: these are the four grand essentials for a babe; without an abundance of each and all of them, perfect health is utterly impossible!
PART II.
CHILDHOOD.
Household treasures! household treasures!
Are they jewels rich and rare;