By using oil in the first cleaning the temperature of the child’s body is not much changed. I do not propose to describe any of the abnormal liabilities of the cord circulation, that might require the use of hot or cold water, in order to save life. As medical advice should be sought in all doubtful or unnatural cases, the unnatural can only be known by close attention to the appearance of the natural.
CHAPTER VI.
NURSING FROM THE BREAST MADE EASY.
After the lapse of two or three hours, the mother is likely to feel concerned for her child; but, should both incline to be quiet, neither should be awakened for the purpose of nursing. Too early an attempt to put the child to the breast is frequently the cause of much unnecessary pain to the mother. Before a child is put to the breast, all soiled linen must be removed from the mother, the face, neck, breasts, hands, and under the arms well wiped with a cloth wrung out of warm water, then covered with a clean flannel chemise open at the nipple. Bay Rum may be added to the water if required. The private parts should be well wiped under cover, greased with lard, and covered with a large, warm napkin, after which a wide bandage should be buttoned on. The babe will not suffer by waiting. The greater number of women afford milk enough in a few hours to supply the needs of their young. The exceptions being either from some malformation or a watery condition of the blood. When the milk pores are free, the child can obtain enough to satisfy it in a short time. If, on the contrary, the glands are hard or unbroken, as they most always are in case of a first child, it becomes the indispensable duty of the nurse to soften the glands, and start the milk running; as it is impossible for the babe to do it by a few draws with its tongue. The glands may be softened by the following means: Besmear the hands with warm goose or olive oil, and anoint the breasts slowly and evenly from under the arms down to the nipple, until the glands soften and the milk begins to flow; after which nipple cups should be kept on in the intervals of nursing. Chapped or bleeding nipples may be cured by frequent sponging off with warm salt water. If through neglect an abscess gets ahead, it should be encouraged to suppurate in one spot, by the application of warm poultices of flaxseed meal, salt, hops, or honey and flour, and when ripe opened with the lancet; the babe continuing to suck through the artificial teat.
Those manufactured by Robert R. Kent are invaluable.
If, after the milk has appeared, the glands harden and the milk veins become knotty and painful, I also make use of the following means to relieve quickly: Steep half an ounce of Indian Posy, or Life Everlasting herb, in a pint of water. Oil the hands, and bathe in the same way I have described, with the decoction as hot as can be borne, the patient being in an easy, half sitting posture. In the intervals of rest, she should drink a teacupful quite hot, with or without sugar. When the tumor is considerably advanced, the process of breaking it up is often very painful, and may even cause fainting; but relief is sure if the work is patiently performed and courageously endured. The pain of that is light compared to the torture, for weeks together, of abscesses. The herb has no more specific action than that of relaxing the system through the aid of the absorbents or sweat glands. It relaxes the skin, and is safe to drink as a diet to increase the flow of milk. A child may be born perfectly healthy, yet even for days be slow to take hold of the nipple; whereas many seize hold at once. The friends fret and declare the babe is starving, if it does not desire to suck. If they could only read the meaning in those little eyes as they open and shut, they would know the secret—rest, simply rest, preparatory to the task. Many young mothers have no prominence to the nipple, so that neglect on the part of the nurse may cause such to lose the benefits of suckling. A friendly adult or child could soon draw out the nipple by sucking so that the babe can get hold; after which the nipple cups should be kept in constant use, till the babe is strong enough to keep the glands soft, and the nipple pliable. Usually, at this juncture, all sorts of teas are suggested: molasses water, milk and sugar and water; and should the child dare to cry, after the plentiful administration of one or all these teas, up steps an experienced old friend, or grandma, who declares that it must have “catnip tea.” So the world-renowned catnip tea is authoritatively given, while are related the many cases in which the drug was known to have cured wind colic, and how it quiets and fattens generally. Only when the child belches, and refuses to let any more go down its throat, does the pouring in cease. And even this is sometimes taken as an indication that the babe is full, and needs to be trotted to make room for more. Some babes are eager to suck at birth, even seizing hold of the sponge as it passes the mouth in washing the face. If babes are not fed just when they fret and whine, some knowing ones say they “suck wind.” Well, is it not natural that they should suck wind, since they are in the world? If they are allowed to lie quietly for a few hours, and are then given a few drops of sweet cream or milk, without sugar, they will give scarcely any trouble, and in due time nature will furnish strength to obtain with ease the amount of nourishment suitable to the delicate organs of digestion. It frequently happens that a babe has a rattling or wheezing noise in its throat, or air-tubes; in such cases, a feather has usually been recommended with which to tickle the back part of the tongue. I always wet the feather, to lay the down. The tickling excites a coughing or gagging, which dislodges the phlegm, so that it can be hooked out with the finger. There are reasons for suspecting that many new-born infants have strangled to death from this cause. I do not mean to cast any reflections when I say that a physician is not likely to be informed of the fact, until it is too late to remove the difficulty. And as the wheezing may assume the same sound as that of catarrh, cold in the air-tubes, bronchitis or croup, the real cause may be lost sight of. Promptness is all that is required when any such trouble presents. The fumes of tobacco, whiskey, smoking lamps or stoves,—also wetting the nipple with spittle when eating snuff, each of these may not only be disagreeable to a young infant, but may sicken it and cause instant death. It is true, however, that many children have survived all of these disadvantages, but who can tell how much has been taken from their health, and length of days. Infants should be nursed frequently at first, to give them a good start; they seldom suck more than they need. But from the beginning they should be fed, then laid down. As they grow older they will nurse well, and expect to lie down afterwards. Early and regular habits of nursing prevent the liability to mammary abscesses, ovarian or uterine tumors. Hence, suckling a child as soon as convenient after birth, not only serves to quicken the vitality of the new being by cleansing the bowels and supplying new blood, but it also serves to clear out the system of the mother.
CHAPTER VII.
THE USELESSNESS OF “BABY MEDICINES” DURING THE MONTH.
Probably the greatest amount of mischief arising from the administration of “baby teas,” lies in the fact that they are not given with the least certainty as to their effect upon the system of the child, whether to nourish the blood or physic the bowels. Let us take catnip: this is a herb described in some books as being a mild laxative, good to work off cold on the chest and bowels of infants; a sweat-promoter. About a dozen years ago a neighbor of one of my patients, thinking it for the best, gave catnip tea to her three-days’-old son. I was hastily summoned, and on arriving in the room where everything a few hours before was so tranquil, I suspected that catnip tea had been around. Of course no one would own up until, after I had staid by the little victim fifteen hours without sleep, finally succeeding in checking the frequent green discharges and thus saving the child’s life,—shame caused the disclosure of the cause of the mischief. The tea had not been given for food, as the mother had a full supply; but as the babe was moving about, it was thought that a little catnip tea would make it sleep. A lady told me with great dignity that her children ate homœopathic pills when they wished. “Why,” said she, “my children fatten on them.”
I saw that she did not know the secret of the “fattening.” Another said, “Why, my James eats castor-oil on bread.” Now we are aware that there are very many articles used as food that can be prepared and combined so as to act in place of medicine in certain cases; but as a general thing medicine will not answer to nourish the body in place of food. According to the mechanism of man, there are three stages in his life for which due preparation is made, before he comes into existence, to wit: the breasts’ milk for infancy, the teeth, with which to eat solid food, and medicine, to heal when sick. As to catnip producing sleep, I cannot agree with old ladies in general; but I do know of a truth that if a child is dosed with it in early infancy, the effect is to loosen the bowels; the fatigue from this over-distension of the stomach causes sleep. Babes should move about if they have life enough in them; they should, by no means, be stupefied. The first milk from the breast is the only medicine needed; when other mixtures are poured into the child’s stomach, as teas sweetened with sugar, honey, molasses, either of which is laxative, the danger is greatly augmented, especially if given before the bowels have moved at all. The custom of old-fashioned people, as they style themselves, of giving new-born babes castor-oil and molasses, or soot tea (for that irrepressible belly-ache), and urine and molasses, to clean them out, is, though with reluctance, fast dying out. It would be well to notice that children who are dosed during infancy for every supposed ill are seldom robust. They become physically stunted, and their peevish habits exact for them all sorts of over-indulgence. More food for the blood, and less medicine, should be the motto. Let us follow the tide of progression. There are no uniform rules by which infants are to have a discharge at birth, either from the bowels or bladder. Therefore, no efforts to induce such should be used until necessity demands it. It is no uncommon thing for infants to pass large quantities from the bowels, just as they are entering the world; a circumstance not likely to be noticed by those unaccustomed to all the incidents of childbirth. It is always safe to await the action of the first food, whether from the breast or artificial; and if it be but a few drops well digested, there need be no fear but that the napkins will be soiled as fast as desired. If such result does not follow, after waiting two or three days, a flannel cloth folded, and wrung out of hot water, laid first on your cheek, then on the child’s belly, and that covered with dry flannel, will, with perseverance, bring about the desired result. Sometimes an infant passes large quantities of the dark matter immediately after the fatigue of washing and dressing (old style); then it may pass no more for two or three days, or until time has been given for matter to accumulate. If the organs of the child are all right, all will be well. But should doubts arise as to the best course to take, surely medical advice only needs the seeking. It was formerly the custom, and is now to a great extent with old nurses, to give later in the month—certainly before their month was up, as all teas and charms had to be given before they left—saffron tea. I have seen them sit by a hot stove and feed infants with saffron tea more patiently than they would like it given to them. I once asked a high-priced nurse why she gave saffron tea. I was kindly, though decidedly, informed that it was to “push the gums.” I was none the wiser by asking. I afterward learned from the child’s older sister that the doctor said the baby had the jaundice. Well it might have the jaundice, kept in a room with a temperature of 80 degrees, with two adult persons night and day, and fed on saffron tea. Now the crocus, or saffron, sometimes grown in our gardens, is described as possessing sweating properties, being good to promote eruptions of the skin in fevers, and good in fits. Yet thousands of infants, no doubt, have been forced to swallow saffron tea, who have not given the slightest evidence of any unnatural complaint. No paregoric, laudanum, or other preparations containing opium, should ever be given to an infant for the purpose of quieting or making it sleep. Sleep-producers serve only to bind the bowels and stupefy the senses. Carminatives—medicines that expel wind—such as caraway, fennel, anise, cardamon, mints and the like, should never be given unless prescribed by those competent to vouch for their effect.
It is becoming a widespread custom to send a little girl or boy to a druggist’s to purchase some advertised baby medicine or food. The patent cough syrups, or those kept on hand in shops, I deem unsafe in the hands of the inexperienced. Most, if not all of them, contain some sleep-producing ingredient, whereby they may check a cough by paralyzing, as it were, the little nerves of sensation in the air-tubes; thus giving opportunity for the phlegm to collect in great quantities, with no possible way of escape. Doubtless in this way suffocation is frequently induced, in whooping-cough, bronchitis, or croup.
Several years ago, in the city of Boston, a mother returned from work, and found her baby, which she had left alone, a corpse. Her explanation, as it appeared in the daily papers, was to the effect that she had given the child the rinsings of the vial that contained laudanum, to keep it quiet.