Mother, Nurse and Infant / A Manual Especially Adapted for the Guidance of Mothers and Monthly Nurses, Comprising Full Instruction in Regard To Pregnancy, Preparation for Child-birth, and the Care of Mother and Child, and Designed to Impart so Much Knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Midwifery, and the Proper Use of Medicines as Will Serve Intelligently to Direct the Wife, Mother and Nurse in All Emergencies.

by S. P. Sackett

For the sick have hot things very hot, and cold things very cold. Food should never be prepared in the presence of the sick, nor so that the smell of cooking be allowed to reach them if it can be avoided.

Never taste of the patient’s food in her presence or with her spoon; give food regularly, but in most cases the patient should not be roused from sleep for food; some light food at night will often serve to send the patient to sleep.

Rice forms an excellent diet for the sick and for convalescents.

COOKING FOR THE SICK AND FOR YOUNG PERSONS.

Preliminary remarks. Cleanliness is eminently essential in cooking for the sick and for infants. The vessel in which milk or gruel is boiled should not be used for anything greasy or seasoned; a sauce pan in which broth has been made, flavored perhaps with onions or parsley, unless very nicely cleaned will impart a disagreeable taste to delicate food. Whatever vessel is used the food should not be allowed to remain in it, but should be poured out as soon as done, and the vessel put to soak in cold water. If it is of tin it should soon be cleansed with wood ashes, but enameled sauce pans or granitized iron ware may be washed clean; when taken down for use wipe with a clean, dry cloth.

For stirring use either a silver or wooden spoon; not one of iron or other metal.

The earthenware dishes, basins or whatever else may be used for keeping food already cooked, or for milk, should be scalded after using, made perfectly dry with a clean cloth, and left to become quite cold before milk broth or whatever it may be, is put into them. For preserving liquids (broth, gruel, or milk), a wide, shallow vessel is better than a thin, narrow one; milk should never be kept in a jug; cooked food should not be shut in with a lid; a hair sieve, or wire cover, or common colander may preserve from cats, mice, slugs, &c.

The cake of fat which collects on the top of broth tends to preserve the liquor while it remains unbroken; but if the skin or fat at top is broken, and if the broth or gruel is designed for use at a subsequent meal, the fat should be removed, and the remainder should be transferred to a clean, dry vessel.

FOOD FOR CONVALESCENTS.

Many questions in regard to diet are left by the physician to the nurse, especially while she has the care of convalescents. I give for her guidance a few more aphorisms and directions: