It is during infancy that the foundation of a good constitution is
generally laid, and it is, therefore, important that parents be taught
the best method of managing their offspring, in order to preserve their
health. Great ignorance is manifested on this subject; it is owing to
this that so many children sicken and die; and, furthermore, it is in
consequence of this ignorance in our forefathers that the present
generation have become so weak, sickly, and effeminate; and most of
these evils may be imputed to errors in diet, regimen, _mineral_ and
_depletive_ agents, &c. We have departed from the simplicity of nature,
and we must, of course, suffer the penalty.
_1st. On Diet._—If the mother or nurse has enough of milk, the child
will need little or no food for the third or fourth month. It will then
be proper to give it a little of some food that is easy of digestion
once or twice a day; 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 bread, which may be given to a
child as soon as it shows an inclination to chew; and it may at all
times be allowed as much 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.
Many are in the habit of pouring down various liquids and mixtures made
of rich substances, and so much sweetened that the tender organs of
digestion are impaired, and acidity and bowel diseases follow; articles
of this nature should be avoided: no food, except the milk of the
mother, should be given, unless absolutely necessary; nature has
designated this liquid exclusively for the nourishment of the infant,
and, indeed, we may say, for children.
There is another precaution to be observed, which is, “never to put an
infant to a wet-nurse if it can possibly be avoided;” such persons are
generally strangers, and they often communicate the most loathsome and
fatal diseases; besides, their milk is often rendered unwholesome by age
or other causes: this is a very unnatural practice.
The milk of the mother, then, should constitute the only food of the
infant, except in cases of disease, when it becomes necessary to obtain
a wet-nurse, or bring up the children on the bottle, which can be done
very easily.
We attended a lady who was almost covered with a _herpetic complaint_,
or the _salt rheum_, and that, too, when her child was born. She was
treated and cured her of the complaint. The infant was fed on milk, by
introducing a silver tube into a bottle containing it.
We never knew a child so quiet and free from pain; as much so as any
offspring of the brute creation, which are free from it merely by
following nature or instinct, which never errs. The milk should be of
the best quality, and, if possible, of the same cow.
Now, it appears to us, that if females imitated these animals, were to
live on vegetable instead of animal food, and drink nothing but water,
they would not only bring forth as easy as the Indians or these animals,
but their offspring would be free from pain, and perhaps be as exempt
from sickness. Would not this course produce a revolution in our habits,
health, and in the practice of medicine? In the present diseased state
of society it might require a long time to bring about a change in the
system; but an immediate benefit would follow by adopting these
physiological principles. Do not these facts open a new field of
investigation and improvement?
Is it not notorious that some infants are crying a great portion of
their time in consequence of pain? and is it natural, or can there be
any other cause, except the poison communicated to it, through the
medium of the blood, before and after it is born; or the disease may
proceed from the impurity of the mother’s milk, occasioned by errors in
diet? It is self-evident that it is so, from the fact that animals are
free from these symptoms.
Can there be any other cause why so many children are in distress from
birth, and generally die young, or continue weak and sickly all their
lives? There must be a reformation in the habits, taste, and education
of modern females. Many mothers are as ignorant, when they have brought
a child into the world, of what is to be done for it as the infant
itself.
Says Combe: “The leading error in the rearing of the young, I must again
repeat, is _over-feeding_, an error serious in itself, but which may
easily be avoided by the parent yielding only to the indications of
appetite, and administering food slowly and in small quantities at a
time. By no other means can the colics, and bowel-complaints, and
irritability of the nervous system, so common in infancy, be effectually
prevented, and strength and healthy nutrition be secured. Nature never
meant the infant stomach to be converted into a receptacle for
laxatives, carminatives, antacids, spicy stimulants and astringents; and
when these become necessary, we may rest assured that there is something
faulty in our management, however perfect it may seem to ourselves. The
only exception is where the child is defectively constituted, and then,
of course, it may fail to thrive under the best measures which can be
advised for its relief.
“Another cause of infantile indigestion, and which is too much
overlooked through ignorance of its importance, is _vitiation of the
quality of the milk_, caused by imprudence, neglect, or anxiety on the
part of the mother. The extent to which this cause operates in inducing
irritation and suffering in the child, is not generally understood; and,
accordingly, it is not unusual for mothers to display as much
indifference to health, regimen, and tranquillity of mind during
nursing, as if the milky secretion, and all other bodily functions, were
independent of every external and corporeal influence. Healthy,
nourishing, and digestible milk can proceed only from a healthy and
well-constituted parent; and it is against nature to expect that, if the
mother impairs her health and digestion by improper diet, neglect of
exercise, impure air, or unruly passions, she can, nevertheless, provide
a wholesome and uncontaminated fluid, as if she were exemplary in her
observance of all the laws of health.
“It is no new or uncertain doctrine, that the quality of the mother’s
milk is affected by her own health and conduct, and that in its turn it
directly affects the health of the nursling. Even medicines given to the
parent act upon the child through the medium of the milk; and a sudden
fit of anger, or other violent mental emotion, has not unfrequently been
observed to change the quality of the fluid so much as to produce
purging and gripes in the child. Care and anxiety, in like manner, exert
a most pernicious influence, and not only diminish the quantity, but
vitiate the quality of the milk.
“It is a common mistake to suppose that, because a woman is nursing, she
ought, therefore, to live very fully, and to add an allowance of wine,
porter, or other fermented liquor, to her usual diet. The only result of
this plan is to cause an unnatural degree of fullness in the system,
which places the nurse on the brink of disease, and which of itself
frequently puts a stop to, instead of increasing, the secretion of the
milk. The health and usefulness of country nurses are often utterly
ruined by their transplantation into the families of rich and luxurious
employers. Accustomed at home to constant bodily exertion, exposure to
the air, and a moderate supply of the plainest food, they live in the
enjoyment of the best health, and constitute excellent nurses. But the
moment they are transplanted from their proper sphere, their habits and
mode of life undergo an unfavourable change. Having no longer any
laborious duties to perform or any daily exposure to encounter, they
become plethoric and indolent; and as they are at the same time too well
fed, the digestive functions become impaired, the system speedily
participates in the disorder, and the milk, which was at first bland,
nourishing, and plentiful, now becomes heating and insufficient, and
sometimes even stops altogether.”
_Cocoa shells_, made precisely like coffee, make a very pleasant and
nutritious drink for nursing females.
_Weaning._—“Diet for infants after weaning may be pure milk, two parts,
water, one part; slightly sweetened. This,” says Combe, “makes the
nearest approach to the nature of the mother’s milk, and, therefore, is
more suitable than any preparation of milk and flour, or any other that
can be given.” A child, as a general rule, one year old, ought to be
gradually weaned, and the appearance of the teeth shows the propriety of
giving food a little more substantial than milk. Bread a day old, mixed
with milk and sweetened, may be given in connexion with nursing. Gruel,
arrowroot, plain bread, Indian and rice puddings as they grow older, and
subsequently bread and butter, thickened milk, hasty pudding or Indian,
potatoes, and vegetables. Not a particle of flesh should ever be given.
By the use of meat the system becomes excited, and diseases of
irritation are apt to be produced, which impede nutrition, and lead
ultimately to the production of scrofula and other organic changes in
the glands and bowels, and not unfrequently also in the brain and lungs.
In these instances the child generally eats heartily, but, nevertheless,
continues thin, and is subject to frequent flushing and irregularity of
the bowels, headache, and restlessness. His mind partakes of the general
irritability of the system, and peevish impatience takes the place of
the placid good humour natural to healthy childhood. In this state the
ordinary diseases of infancy—measles, scarlet fever, and
hooping-cough—are often attended with an unusual and dangerous degree of
constitutional disturbance; and when inflammation takes place it is
borne with difficulty, and the system does not easily rally; or the
digestive organs become irritated, and the various secretions
immediately connected with digestion are diminished, especially the
biliary secretion. Constipation of the bowels soon follows; congestion
of the hepatic and abdominal veins succeeds, and is followed by the
train of consequences which have already been detailed. In reality the
wonder comes to be, not that so many children die, but that so many
survive their early mismanagement. A morbid condition of the system
arises, extremely favourable to the production of scrofulous,
consumptive, dyspeptic, and other diseases, under which, perhaps, the
infant sinks; and yet, strange to state, parents will stuff their
children with flesh and grease two or three times a day.
Says Combe, “One of the most pernicious habits in which children can be
indulged is that of almost incessant eating. Many mothers encourage it
from the facility with which, for a time, the offer of ‘something nice’
procures peace. Even from infancy the child ought to be gradually
accustomed to eat only when hungry, and when food is really required.
After two years of age an interval of four hours between meals, will
rarely be more than enough; and to give biscuit, fruit, or bread, in the
meantime, is just subtracting from the digestive power of the stomach.
Like almost every organ of the body, the stomach requires a period of
repose after the labour of digestion; and accordingly, in the healthy
state, the sensation of appetite never returns till it has been for some
time empty. To give food sooner, therefore, is analogous to making a
weary traveller walk on without the refreshment of a halt.”
“When we reflect that the object of digestion is, to furnish materials
for the growth of the body, and to supply the waste which the system is
constantly undergoing, it must appear self-evident that, if the
digestive powers be impaired by disease, by improper quantity or quality
of food, or by any other cause, the result must necessarily be the
formation of an imperfect chyle, and, consequently, of imperfect blood.
The elements of the blood are derived from the chyle, and, if _it_ be
vitiated, the blood also must suffer: if the blood be diseased, so must
necessarily be all the organs which it supplies; and if the body be thus
debilitated, can any wonder be felt that it should no longer be able to
resist the action of offending causes which full health alone can
withstand?”
_Clothing._—Infants and children are often injured by improper clothing.
It is customary for some nurses to wrap them in such a quantity as to
injure their health; moderation in this respect should be observed, due
regard being paid to that which is sufficient to render them
comfortable. Infants, when first born, have clothing enough almost to
smother them.
_Medicine._—Another very reprehensible custom is, to pour down some
nauseous drug, such as paregoric, Godfrey’s cordial, or some other
articles, every time the child begins to cry or is fretful, by which it
becomes habituated to the use of opium, and makes it necessary to
increase the dose in order to produce the same effect.
Another injurious practice is to give frequently worm lozenges (the
basis of which is calomel or mercury) upon any attack of illness, under
the impression that the disorder is occasioned by worms. By this
imprudent course both the health and life of the child are endangered.
Therefore those who wish to bring up their children in a healthy
condition must avoid these evils, and be content to follow the simple
path of nature and common sense.
Few things tend more to the destruction of children than drenching them
with drugs. Medicine may be _sometimes_ necessary for children; but that
it injures them ten times for once it does them good, I will venture to
assert. A nurse or mother, the moment her child seems to ail anything,
runs immediately to the doctor or the apothecary, who throws in his
powders, pills and potions, till the poor infant is poisoned; when the
child might have been restored to perfect health by a change of diet,
air, exercise, clothing, or some very easy and simple means.
Care must be taken to keep the bowels regular, which may be effected in
most cases by the milk of the mother alone. Most of the complaints in
children arise from flatulence or wind; to remove which give common
catnip or fennel seed tea, let them drink it freely, and let the mother
regulate her diet.
When children complain of pain in the stomach and bowels, it may be
necessary sometimes to give a moderate dose of vegetable physic; _senna_
and _manna_ is very good; after the operation of physic let the diet be
attended to. Green fruit must be avoided, and whatever is hard of
digestion. The feet should be often bathed in warm water, the bowels
must be fomented with bitter herbs, and it is also necessary to give the
child sufficient exercise in the open air.
_Bathing_ should never be neglected, as it contributes much to health.
Many complaints of the skin and the system are caused by the neglect of
this practice. Filth collects on the surface, obstructs perspiration,
which retains morbid humors, and which are thrown upon some of the
internal organs and create irritation. Is it not owing to this that
infants fret and cry so much? Daily bathe with tepid water; this is also
good for galling, chafing, excoriations, &c.
_Pure Air and Exercise._—This is very necessary; impure and confined air
with the want of exercise, causes disease; and hence children in cities
are more pale, feeble, and sickly than those who live in the country and
breathe pure air and play in the dirt. Confining children at home, in
low, confined, dirty houses, cellars, and in school-rooms, is
pernicious; also crowding too many in sleeping-rooms. When children are
confined in small apartments, the air not only becomes unwholesome, but
the heat relaxes their solids, renders them delicate, and disposes them
to colds and many other disorders. Nor is the custom of wrapping them
too close in cradles less pernicious. One would think that nurses were
afraid lest children should suffer by breathing free air, as many of
them actually cover the child’s face while asleep, and others wrap a
covering over the whole cradle, by which means the child is forced to
breathe the same air over and over all the time it sleeps. Children,
therefore, must have as much _exercise_ and _air_ as possible, and
should be employed in something useful and interesting.
Again; “The premature exertion of intellect to which the mind is
stimulated at our schools, by the constant emulation and vanity, far
from strengthening, tends to impair the health and tone of the brain,
and of all the organs depending on it; and hence we rarely perceive the
genius of the school manifesting in future years any of the superiority
which attracted attention in early life.”