Domestic medicine

by William Buchan

Of the Food of Children.

Nature not only points out the food proper for an infant, but actually prepares it. This, however, is not sufficient to prevent some who think themselves wiser than Nature, from attempting to bring up their children without her provision. Nothing can shew the disposition which mankind have to depart from Nature, more than their endeavouring to bring up children without the breast. The mother’s milk, or that of a healthy nurse, is unquestionably the best food for an infant. Neither art nor nature can afford a proper substitute for it. Children may seem to thrive for a few months without the breast; but, when teething, the small-pox, and other diseases incident to childhood, come on, they generally perish.

A child, soon after the birth, shews an inclination to suck; and there is no reason why it should not be gratified. It is true, the mother’s milk does not always come immediately after the birth; but this is the way to bring it: besides, the first milk that the child can squeeze out of the breast answers the purpose of cleansing, better than all the drugs in the apothecary’s shop, and at the same time prevents inflammations of the breast, fevers, and other diseases incident to mothers.

It is strange how people came to think that the first thing given to a child should be drugs. This is beginning with medicine by times, and no wonder if they generally ended with it. It sometimes happens, indeed, that a child does not discharge the meconium so soon as could be wished; this has induced physicians, in such cases, to give something of an opening nature to cleanse the first passages. Midwives have improved upon this hint, and never fail to give syrups, oils, &c. whether they be necessary or not. Cramming an infant with such indigestible stuff as soon as it is born, can hardly fail to make it sick, and is more likely to occasion diseases, than to prevent them. Children are seldom long after the birth without having passage both by stool and urine; though these evacuations may be wanting for some time without any danger. But if children must have something before they be allowed the breast, let it be a little thin water-pap, to which may be added an equal quantity of new milk; or rather water alone, with the addition of a little raw sugar. If this be given without any wines or spiceries, it will neither heat the blood, load the stomach, nor occasion gripes.

Upon the first sight of an infant, almost every person is struck with the idea of its being weak, feeble, and wanting support. This naturally suggests the need of cordials. Accordingly wines are universally mixed with the first food of children. Nothing can be more fallacious than this way of reasoning, or more hurtful to infants than the conduct founded upon it. Children require very little food for some time after the birth; and what they receive should be thin, weak, light, and of a cooling quality. A very small quantity of wine is sufficient to heat and inflame the blood of an infant; but every person conversant in these matters must know, that most of the diseases of infants proceed from the heat of their humours.

If the mother or nurse has enough of milk, the child will need little or no other food before the third or four month. It will then be proper to give it, once or twice a day, a little of some food that is easy of digestion, as water-pap, milk-pottage, weak broth with bread in it, and such like. This will ease the mother, will accustom the child by degrees to take food, and will render the weaning both less difficult and less dangerous. All great and sudden transitions are to be avoided in nursing. For this purpose, the food of children ought not only to be simple, but to resemble, as nearly as possible, the properties of milk. Indeed milk itself should make a principal part of their food, not only before they are weaned, but for some time after.

Next to milk, we would recommend good light bread. Bread may be given to a child as soon as it shews an inclination to chew; and it may at all times be allowed as much plain bread as it will eat. The very chewing of bread will promote the cutting of the teeth, and the discharge of saliva, while, by mixing with the nurse’s milk in the stomach, it will afford an excellent nourishment. Children discover an early inclination to chew whatever is put into their hands. Parents observe the inclination, but generally mistake the object. Instead of giving the child something which may at once exercise its gums and afford it nourishment, they commonly put into its hands a piece of hard metal, or impenetrable coral. A crust of bread is the best gum-stick. It not only answers the purpose better than any thing else, but has the additional properties of nourishing the child and carrying the saliva down to the stomach, which is too valuable a liquor to be lost.

Bread, besides being used dry, may be many ways prepared into food for children. One of the best methods is to boil it in water, afterwards pouring the water off, and mixing with the bread a proper quantity of new milk unboiled. Milk is both more wholesome and nourishing this way than boiled, and is less apt to occasion costiveness. For a child farther advanced, bread may be mixed in veal or chicken broth, made into puddings, or the like. Bread is a proper food for children at all times, provided it be plain, made of wholesome grain, and well fermented; but when enriched with fruits, sugars, or such things, it becomes very unwholesome.

It is soon enough to allow children animal food when they have got teeth to eat it. They should never taste it till after they are weaned, and even then they ought to use it sparingly. Indeed, when children live wholly on vegetable food, it is apt to sour on their stomachs; but, on the other hand, too much flesh heats the body, and occasions fevers and other inflammatory diseases. This plainly points out a due mixture of animal and vegetable food as most proper for children.

Few things prove more hurtful to infants, than the common method of sweetening their food. It entices them to take more than they ought to do, which makes them grow fat and bloated. It is pretty certain, if the food of children were quite plain, that they would never take more than enough. Their excesses are entirely owing to nurses. If a child be gorged with food at all hours, and enticed to take it, by making it sweet and agreeable to the palate, is it any wonder that such a child should in time be induced to crave more food than it ought to have?