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

1. While it is true that as a general rule people who like salt, vinegar, &c., ought to be allowed to gratify their taste, and that the cravings of a sick person are not always to be denied, yet appetite and taste were intended to govern the choice and quantity of food in health; and even then, they should be guided by reason and experience. Such articles as fruit, jam, cake, cheese, butter, and milk may generally be taken if there is a craving for them, but if they are not digested, the stomach must be consulted, and not the cravings. Milk and eggs are important articles of food, but they must not be forced upon the patient; cheese is sometimes craved; it is concentrated nutriment, but in some person’s stomachs it is digestible, and it may perhaps favor digestion of other food; do not entirely disregard the desires and taste of the patient; as a rule if meat is craved it is allowable, and it is better to chew and swallow it, than it is to chew it and spit out its nutritive contents.

2. During convalescence, as soon as ANIMAL FOOD can be taken with impunity, that which is most digestible should be selected. With the exception of poultry the flesh of middle aged animals affords the most digestible food. Keeping animal food for a certain time before it is cooked lessens the density of the fibre and renders it more tender, but the utmost caution is requisite to prevent the change from advancing so far as to present the slightest trace of taint in the food.

3. Gellatine in the form of BOUILLON or concentrated broths is valuable in fevers, &c., as an addition to other diet, as it prevents or rather retards the process of denutrition.

4. Sour milk is to some sick persons and convalescents an agreeable beverage, and in cases of atonic dyspepsia and many other cases, it is a good adjuvant in the treatment of slow digestion, where flatulence and a sensation of cramp in the stomach are prominent symptoms. The good effects of drinking a tumbler full or half a tumbler full of ordinary cold sour milk or BUTTERMILK, is probably owing in a measure, to the lactic acid which it contains. It may be taken regularly half an hour after each meal, in cases of weak stomach.

5. Milk is digestible when it is drunk immediately after it is drawn from the udder of the cow or that of the goat, but it is often necessary in convalescence to dilute it in water. It may be kept for some time from souring in warm weather by adding to each quart fifteen grains of bicarbonate of soda. When there is evidence of over-acidity of the stomach, lime water may be added in any proportion up to one-half.

6. Raw egg somewhat in the form of an emulsion, has been useful in certain diseases. Four raw eggs may be beaten up in a pint of cold water, a little flavoring and sugar added, and the patient may take it by sips during the day. This is a light and nutritive diet, but eggs are much less digestible in this form than when they are lightly boiled.

7. Raw oysters are somewhat nutritive, but are not easy of digestion. Lobsters, CRABS, PRAWNS, CRAYFISH, SCALLOPS, and other shell fish are more objectionable than oysters. Fish, especially of the white kind, is not stimulating; if it is simply boiled it is admissable for convalescents, and for those laboring under some acute diseases. In the decline of fevers some animal food may be given; first beef tea, chicken broth, and mutton broth, and other liquid animal decoctions; then white fish and a more generous diet.

8. The value of soups depends upon the freshness of the meat, the manner in which they are boiled, and the delicacy with which they are seasoned; for the latter any of the vegetable condiments may be used according to the taste of the consumer.

9. The nurse should know that certain articles in a certain form cannot be digested in the stomach, because they cannot be dissolved in the fluid contained there. Rich pastry, pieces of hard potato, rich puddings and dumplings, hard stringy meat, and greasy fibred meat, new bread, and rolls that are not well baked are, in general, indigestible. Pie is not essentially indigestible; indeed indigestibility cannot be affirmed of any article of food, apart from a consideration of the digestive capacity of the particular stomach, the powers of which are to be tested.

10. Some mild ESCULENT ROOTS are fitted for the use of the sick if they are boiled in two waters, but they are not well adapted to those who are liable to sour stomachs. Some vegetables, on account of their peculiar qualities, have peculiar effects as remedies. It is asserted that spinach and asparagus act as diuretics, dandelion as a tonic and laxative, tomatoes as a cholagogue, beets and turnips as a tonic, onions, garlic, and leeks as stimulants and narcotics, the red onion as a narcotic in neuralgia and insomnia, and cabbages, tomatoes, and other salad material as anti-scorbutics.