A child must not be put to the breast, if the mother’s health is very
poor, or if she has any venereal, scrofulous, consumptive taint, or
herpetic disease, St. Anthony’s fire, &c. We have conversed with females
who are subject to the last complaint, and who have communicated it to
their children, which destroyed them all. The poison is transmitted from
the mother to the child. In any of these cases, the infant must be
reared on the nursing bottle. It is best to use cream instead of milk;
the child thrives well upon it, less quantity answers, and it does not
curdle, like milk, upon the stomach.
_Atrophy from Suckling._—Some women of a delicate constitution cannot
suckle long without an evident appearance of declining health; and, if
persisted in, it might terminate in a general wasting of the body and
loss of strength, or some morbid affection of the lungs. When,
therefore, a woman finds her health declining, and that she gets weaker
every day with loss of appetite and languor, she ought immediately to
leave off suckling; she should use a generous diet, with a moderate
quantity of wine bitters daily, and, if convenient, change the air,
particularly if an inhabitant of a large and populous city or town. If
the change is not found sufficiently efficacious of itself, when
conjoined with a restorative diet, a course of _tonics_ should be given.
Gentle exercise on horseback or in a carriage will greatly assist the
effect of these remedies.