NECESSITY OF AGREEABLE AND SOOTHING SURROUNDINGS.
No Bay Rum, perfume, puff powders or other unnatural substances should
be tolerated about young infants. But after the patients have been made
comfortable, all soiled clothing or slops should be quietly removed. All
loud talking or laughing should be strictly prohibited. To insure this,
no sly jokes should be indulged in by any one present; for by so doing
convulsions of an alarming nature may be brought on. Judging from the
actions of some women, when around a confinement bed, it is not at all
unlikely that many cases of internal convulsions, both of mother and
child, are the results of inward or suppressed laughter soon after
delivery, and before the womb has had time to get in place, or when the
babe is nursing.
Infants should be accustomed to a change of apparel as soon as possible.
It is an error to suppose that a child should be kept hot, and tucked
down in soiled wrappings till after the navel drops off. After
twenty-four hours it can be wiped with clean warm water, close around
the navel. The napkins, too, should be changed and washed out just as
often as soiled. Also there should be clean day wraps and night slips in
constant readiness during the child’s helpless period. Heavy or wadded
coverlets should be discarded, even in the coldest weather, for the
reason that they are heavier than woollen, retain the moisture from
breaths, are not so easily washed as woollen blankets, nor are they so
warm. The science of our nature teaches us that woollen is the best
covering during the hours of sleep. For instance, the pores of our skin
permit the escape of all gases not necessary for the renewal of the
tissues of the body; in like manner woollen goods permit the odors to
escape from our bodies.
The face of an infant should never be covered when asleep, especially
when in the bed with adults; it induces lung difficulties. The blood
must pass through the heart and lungs, uninterrupted, day and night, in
order to supply all parts of the body. The hours for sleep are intended
for the repair of worn material, while at the same time the useless
matter is passing off in breath or perspiration. I believe that all
infants should be supplied with a light covering for the head day and
night, until the hair grows out. The old style lace cap, for instance,
deserves a conspicuous place among the relics of health preservers.
Later on, the hair becomes the only proper covering for the head day or
night. By all means, a child should be closely watched, and its wraps
changed and adapted to atmospherical changes. If infants are too tightly
wrapped, or are allowed to get too hot, they generally make it known by
writhing or whining in their sleep.
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.