should suck it’s Mother; a Breast is certainly the best Substitute: but
great Care should here be taken, in the Choice of a Nurse. She should be
young, healthy, good-humour’d, sprightly, and temperate. The newer her
Milk the better; it is best not to be above three Months old; and should
never exceed six Months, when the Child is first put to her Breast; if
beyond that, either the Child must be wean’d too soon, or suck a staler
Milk than perhaps it ought. Some are of Opinion, that Breast-milk begins
to lose of it’s nutritious Quality after the Expiration of a Year; but
let us here observe the Operations of Nature. The younger Breast-Milk is,
the thinner and lighter it is; fitted by Nature for the tender Stomachs
of new-born Babes: as it grows older, it becomes thicker, richer, and
more stubborn of Digestion; by which gradual Change it is suited to the
relative rising Powers of Digestion in the Child. Hence it would seem,
that Breast-milk, does not at this stated Time become poorer, but richer;
rich perhaps to a degree of Rancidity; which, like gross Food to others,
is sometimes stronger than Children can bear: and on this Principle it
is I recommend where a Breast is to be sought, that either the Milk be
young, or the Child wean’d soon.
But supposing a Child to have no Breast (as Arguments whether good or
bad will often be brought against it) the want of it must be supply’d by
coming as near to Nature as we can. In order thereto, it is the Opinion
of a Physician[4] in the Practice of Midwifry, whose Judgment in this
Matter ought to have weight, that Cows-milk be diluted with Water, ’till
it becomes as thin as Breast-milk, and given warm several times in the
Day; that is, as often as a Child would have the Breast were it to be
suckled: besides this, it should sometimes be fed with other Milk Diet;
viz. Bread and Water boil’d lightly together, and Milk added to it.
When a Child sucks it is usual to feed it with nothing but Water Pap,
that is, Bread and Water boil’d together, without the Addition of Milk;
from a Notion that it should not have two sorts of Milk; but this
Treatment is surely erroneous. Nay, there are some who improve upon this
Error, and give their Children (at least for the first Month) Water Pap
only, even tho’ they have no Breast.
It is both natural and commendable in Parents to inform themselves
what Distempers Children are subject to, and usually dye of; and if
we farther refer them to the Bills of Mortality, they will constantly
find, that Gripes, Looseness, and Convulsions make a great Part of the
Account. Now besides the latent Causes of these Diseases, they have a
very obvious one, _viz._ improper Food. For my own part I am convinc’d,
even to Demonstration, that many Infants owe their Death to the Mistakes
committed in this Point; and often to the false Practice of giving them
Bread and Water only, and omitting that most salutary part the Milk.
Milk (again I repeat it) is the Food of Nature; with that alone, to an
Infant, we may do almost every thing; without it, nothing.
Tho’ these first Rules here laid down should meet with general
Approbation, and Parents from seeing how natural and reasonable this
Doctrine is, be induced to follow it; they have still many things both to
do and avoid, that are greatly conducive to their Childrens Health; and
therefore demand their Attention and Regard.
As we have urg’d that Milk is the Food of Nature, so we may with equal
Propriety call Bread the Staff of Life. Breast-milk my Readers will
observe, is preferred to every other; but where that cannot be obtain’d,
then Cows-milk, made thinner and lighter by the Addition of Water,
is to supply its place; and, between whiles, the Child is to be fed
with Milk-victuals; from which, as it is thicken’d with Bread, it will
receive great Nourishment. But here great care must be taken to keep up
its Appetite for this Food at first setting out; as it is of all others
the most proper; and not spoil its Relish for it by the Admixture or
Intervention of any thing else while in Health, ’till a more advanc’d
Age.
The first Error usually run into, is, the immoderate use of Spice and
Sugar; which Physicians who have consider’d these matters positively
condemn: and if a Child is well, putting either of these in it’s
Victuals, answers not the least good End. Spice and Sugar are certainly
fine natural Productions, and of vast Use to Mankind; but the Food of
Infants should be as simple as possible; and if it is made otherwise by
the early use of these, the Effects will always be very troublesome, and
oftentimes mischievous. What is more common than to give young Children
Lumps of Sugar to eat; yet what more erroneous? Every Day’s Experience
shews us how wrong the Practice is: it vitiates their Taste; creates in
them an unconquerable Fondness for it, even to a Degree of Vulgarness;
and manifestly clogs their Stomachs.
The Error next in rank to these, or rather a part of the same, as Sugar
is greatly concern’d in it, is, the Custom Parents have of giving
Children Tea. Tea, to a young Child, if we omit the Milk, has not a
single Ingredient to recommend it: the Sugar in it has already been
treated of; the Water, (as Tea is usually drank too hot,) serves to scald
it’s Mouth and Throat, or at best to relax the Stomach and weaken the
Tone of it; and the Plant or Shrub it self has Qualities, which, to say
the least of it, seldom contributes to promote it’s Health.
That this Herb of which our Tea is made has had many Tongues to speak
it’s Praise, I am convinc’d; or it would not have obtain’d that universal
use we now see made of it: and some likewise have taken up their Pen, and
with great Labour describ’d its Virtues and Utility to Mankind: but all
this is too weak to stand against that infallible Guide, Experience. To
insist that Tea has no good Qualities would be offering an Affront to the
Judgment and Experience of many wise People, and is very far from being
my Design; on the contrary, I am convinc’d it has. Bohea Tea is esteem’d
balsamic, and Green is allow’d to be an astringent Stomachic. Still these
or any other particular Qualities, do not justify it’s general use; for
while the same Experience proves that for one who receives Benefit by
drinking it, ten receive Harm, it must upon the Whole be condemned.
Tea may be consider’d like some certain Drugs, which in skilful hands
are safe and useful, but in ignorant ones, poisonous. That the
intemperate and indiscriminate use of Tea is hurtful, is too well known
to be disputed; some it is true are manifestly refresh’d, comforted and
enliven’d by it; others feel not the least sensible effect from the
longest use of it, and drink it purely thro’ Custom; but again there are
others, and those much the Majority, who impair their Health so visibly
by this pernicious Practice, that they shorten their Lives, or at least
render them comfortless, if not miserable. Now who that considers these
things well, or but once reflects that ’tis at least ten to one that
their Children are Sufferers by it, can reasonably speaking be hasty in
bringing them to it; especially too if we farther reflect, that by a
seeming magic Power it often enslaves People even to Infatuation. Infants
then have nothing to do with this darling deluding Liquor; and when at a
more advanc’d Age, Parents should still give it them very sparingly, if
at all; and be careful to keep them if possible from ever being attach’d
to it.
Before I take my leave of this Article, let me recommend to Parents some
Observations for their farther guidance herein. Those Children who have
weak Nerves should not by any means drink Tea at all. Tea should never
be made strong; nor drank in large quantities, nor hot, nor without Milk,
nor very sweet. Tea should not be drank in a Morning by those who cannot
eat; nor can it in general be drank in the Afternoon with Safety, but by
those who have eat a hearty Dinner, and drink it soon. Bohea Tea is found
to affect the Nerves the most sensibly; and Green, from its Astringency,
is not only the most grateful, but its Effects prove it to be least
hurtful.
Many are the Errors which Parents fall into in the Management of
Children, especially at first setting out. I have often seen Children
wash’d away with the watry Gripes, when upon inquiry it appear’d they had
no other Food but Water Pap: others reject this, and fall into the Error
of giving Children Broth; which alone, is in it’s Nature too laxative for
Infants. But Water Pap must be condemn’d as far the most improper; for
it is manifest that Bread, of which it is made, besides the Fermentation
it undergoes in the Hands of the Baker, has, according to the Juices it
meets with, a farther Power of fermenting in the Stomach: therefore,
should Nature by chance be thwarted, should universal Observation be
for once contradicted, by shewing a Child whom Milk is unfit for; in
that case I recommend, that Broth be added to the Pap; which will bring
the Food nearest to the Quality of that animal Fluid, Milk, the natural
Nourishment. And as watry Gripes are often owing to ill-digested Pap,
Broth, tho’ laxative, would certainly from its Smoothness prevent or
lessen the Stimulation in the Bowels; as we find in the Cure of such
Gripes great Service from Glysters of Oil, Chickens-guts, and other
things of the like Kind.
But farther; I am clearly of Opinion, that the first Change in Childrens
Diet should be from Milk to Broth, and not from Milk to Meat: their
tender Stomachs ought not to be put too early upon the Office of
digesting the fleshy Fibres of Meat; but they may, as they approach to a
Year old, by way of Introduction to eating Flesh, and by way of changing
Diet, sometimes have Broth; but by no means for constant use, to the
neglect of Milk.
It is universally confess’d, that in _England_ we eat too much Flesh;
and were I to urge all that might be said on that Head, it would be
dwelling too long on a single Point. But since this Error of our Country
is acknowledg’d by many of the wisest Men in it, let it serve as a
general Caution to Parents; let them turn it to the Advantage of the
rising Generation; by being neither hasty in giving Flesh Meat to their
Children, nor even permitting them to be intemperate in the Use of it.
To enforce this Precept, and prove the Reasonableness of not giving
Children Meat so soon as is usual, I will here observe, that Physicians
say the first Digestion should be in the Mouth, the second in the
Stomach; whence it appears that Children have no Business with Meat ’till
they have Teeth to chew it; nay, not ’till they have their Mouths almost
full of Teeth; for they have not the Power of grinding down their Meat
sufficiently ’till they have got some of their strongest Teeth, and those
every one is sensible do not come first. Hence we are furnished with an
admirable Hint, which not to endeavour to reduce to Practice, would be
injuring our Children, and baffling the Labours of learned Men, who make
the Good of Mankind the Study of their Lives. Parents by the same Lesson
are instructed likewise, to make their Children accustom themselves to
chew their Meat well their whole Lives; for it is certain they would
thereby prevent many ill Effects arising from Indigestion.
Having thus, as near to Nature as I am able, led Parents into the first
Steps of the Management of their Childrens Health, I shall now touch
on Art; a little of which may, and will be necessary. It is plain that
Children are born full of Foulness, full of Excrement; and Nature to
remedy this, gives a purgative Quality to the Mother’s first Milk; which
Quality, as the Child cleanses, goes off. But if this first Milk be
drawn away by another, as is frequent, in order to ease the Breasts; or
the Child does not suck it’s Mother, but an older Milk; in that Case
it should most certainly be purged three or four times in the Month.
For my own Part I have gone farther, and tho’ my Children had the first
Milk, I always began by giving them a little Syrup of Rhubarb and Oil
of Almonds; which has constantly had a good Effect, not only on them,
but on many others under my Care: the Rhubarb scours and cleanses them,
and the Oil in some measure blunts its griping Quality, and prevents its
leaving a Costiveness so common to that Drug. But tho’ I have frequently
given this, yet Rhubarb in Substance, corrected with a small Portion of
Aromatic, or mix’d with Gascoign’s Powder, is found by Experience to
agree very well: Syrup of Violets or Marshmallows, join’d with Oil of
Almonds, are frequently given in order to cleanse the first Passages, and
are very proper; tho’ not so efficacious as Rhubarb. Nor are there any
better Purges than these for new-born Infants, unless, (which very seldom
happens) in great Costiveness, and then a little Manna. What farther
relates to Physic and physical People, shall be spoken of hereafter.
In a Treatise of this Kind nothing must pass unobserved that is
important; and nothing is more so, than the destructive Practice of
drinking spirituous Liquors. For a Woman to have a Habit of Dram-drinking
is always detestable; but for one who gives Suck, it is horrible beyond
Expression: it is fraught with double Mischief, Destruction to herself,
and Destruction to the Child. One would imagine, that so odious a Vice
wanted not to be inveigh’d against; or at most that the Caution could no
where be useful, but amongst Basket-women and Billingsgates. ’Tis true
indeed, that the Illiterate and Vulgar are the most addicted to it; but
melancholy Experience shews us, that Women every way happy in Life, Women
of the best Understanding, and the best Education, are but too often
tainted with it.
It is not my Design in general to write on the Foibles or Vices of
Parents, but of Children; yet it must be owned, that where the Actions
of the one have an Influence on the other, where the Connection is so
close that the Health or Morals of Children are affected by the Conduct
of Parents, it is perfectly consistent with the Plan I have laid down;
and consequently is within my Province. Thus then I observe, that there
are many Women who never tasted spirituous Liquors ’till they gave Suck.
A Child is kept lugging at the Breast ’till the Mother is ready to
sink, and a Friend recommends a Dram: the innocent Woman starts at the
Proposition; but it being strenuously urg’d that it will do her good and
the Child too, she follows the Counsel and drinks it. How reluctantly
and with how much dislike may be known by her shaking her Head at the
very Smell of it, making Faces when it is down, and declaring it is nasty
Stuff. Now for a while let me talk like an Apothecary. The Nerves give
Sensation to our whole Frame whether of Pain or Pleasure. This Dram acts
immediately on the Nerves of the Stomach, and instantly communicates
itself to those of the Brain, which are exquisitely fine; the Sensation
is pleasing, a general Glow is felt, and the temporary Relief it gives,
persuades her that Drams are not so pernicious as People pretend. But by
and by the Languor returns, and she has recourse to her Dram again; tho’
perhaps with this Difference, that instead of being persuaded into it
she seeks it herself; and thus by a Return of Wants, she finds a Return
of Desire; she flies so often to her fancied Remedy, that at length she
is innocently and insensibly led into a Habit which infatuates her: even
so far as often to rob her of the Power of getting rid of it. But the
Habit contracted, what is the Effect? Why, that which at first was only a
slight Injury, by this means becomes a mortal Wound.
The Human Frame, that Master-Piece of infinite Wisdom, is compos’d of a
great variety of Parts, of different Make, Texture and Quality; each of
which has it’s Use, and proper Office assign’d it. But that I may not
confound any of my Readers by nice or obscure Physical Divisions, I will
say it is compos’d of Solids and Fluids: the Fluids, that is, the Blood
and other Juices, are allotted to nourish and preserve the Solids; and
the Solids, that is, the Flesh and other hard Parts, serve as Pipes or
Channels to convey in a due Course the several Fluids to their destin’d
End. Now to preserve Health, it is necessary that our whole Machine acts
regularly; which it cannot do for any long Time with the pernicious
Habit we have been speaking of. Drams, which at first give only a slight
Wound to the Nerves, by frequent Repetition enfeeble them; and in the
End totally disable them; as is evident by their bringing on Tremblings,
weakening the Memory, and impairing the Understanding. To maintain
Health, the Solids are to keep up their due Force or Spring, that they
may propel the Fluids, and prevent their breaking them down by too great
a Resistance. The Fluids are to be kept in such a state, that they may
neither run too rapidly, nor clog by the way for want of the circulating
Power. Thus in Rivers, where the Banks and Fences are weak, the Pressure
of the Water will break them down; or if the Water be clogg’d and
render’d foul by any Mixture foreign to it’s Nature, or is otherwise
obstructed in it’s Course, it cannot reach those various Meanders, those
small Canals it was allotted to fill.
Hence every Eye may see how destructive this unnatural Habit must be
to our Frame. The Tone of the Stomach is weaken’d, and with it, the
Power of Digestion; Obstructions of the Liver and other Parts ensue; the
Solids are broke, and the Fluids forsake their proper Channels: hence
Jaundice, Dropsies, Palsies, and various other Distempers, fatal in their
Consequences, and doubly acute to those who reflect, that they have
brought them on themselves: for however thoughtless or indifferent they
may be while in Health, when bitter Remembrance accompanies the severe
Effects, the Situation must be dreadful.
I have observ’d that many are innocently led into this grievous Habit:
and they are the more liable to it, as the Goodness of their Constitution
preserves some longer than others, from being sensible of it’s ill
Effects. But they must beware of Illusions, and convince themselves of
one Truth at least; that instead of that Nutrition which proper Food
yields, the Blood and other Juices are by this means vitiated; and with
them that most salutary Fluid the Milk. It is true indeed that all Drams
are not alike pernicious; nor do they, as I have just hinted, act alike
on all Constitutions. Yet thus much is certain; that they all contain
fiery Particles, a Portion of caustic inflammable Matter, in general
very injurious to our whole Frame; very unfit to circulate in our Blood
and Juices; and above all, extremely prejudicial to those Infants who
imbibe the Infection by sucking at a Breast thus unhappily tainted.
But besides this dreadful Habit in the Mother or Nurse, there is a
Practice among the Vulgar still more shocking; and which must make
every reasonable Creature shrink with Horror; that of giving Drams to
the Children themselves, even while Infants. Nothing is more strongly
urg’d by all moral Writers than the Force of Example; and when they mean
to paint a bad Parent, they describe a Child imitating those Vices his
Father acts before him. But here Description is too weak; no Language has
Force enough to express the Horror of this Vice! These unhappy wretched
Parents forestall Imitation; they stay not ’till the Child has Power to
follow their Example; but pour the deadly Poison down the poor Babe’s
Throat, even before it can speak! What, I say again, what Language can
describe the Horror of this Vice? Surely none.
All wise Men agree, that Virtues flow, or ought to flow, from the Head;
that the Inferior receive their Influence from the Superior; and most
act by Imitation of their Betters: but Experience shews us, that the
Little can sometimes teach the Great Virtues they were before Strangers
to; and by a still stranger Inversion of the natural Order of Things,
it often happens, that the Great imitate the Vices of the Little. But
here I cannot refrain from exhorting Parents of every Rank never to
suffer themselves to fall into so dreadful an Error as that just hinted
at. Those who are already tainted with it are perhaps too abandon’d to
be reclaim’d; or have it not in their Power to remove the Mischief they
have caused: but those who are happily Strangers to it, must keep their
Attention awake; must live in a constant Resolution never to let a Child
so much as touch so dangerous a Weapon; unless they choose to be their
Childrens Murderers; choose to have them fall a Sacrifice to some dire
Disease; or become Cripples, Idiots, or Brutes.
Before I quit this Head, I must take Notice of an inferior Degree of the
same Error; less a Vice indeed, because there is an Intention of Good in
it, tho’ generally a mistaken one; I mean that of putting Brandy and
other spirituous Liquors into Childrens Victuals. How this Practice came
to be introduced is amazing! But tho’ the general Pretence is preventing
or curing Wind and Gripes, it is highly erroneous: for where these
Disorders really exist they should be treated in another Manner; and by
People whose Judgment can be depended on.
The next Degree of Error to this, is the early Custom Parents have of
giving their Children Wine. Grown People, even among the Temperate, often
drink much more of it than is either needful or beneficial; but Children
want it not at all. To give Wine to Infants is a gross Error; and even to
those who have pass’d that Stage, the Practice is very wrong.
Wine, tho’ a general Term for the Juice produced from Grapes, is
undoubtedly a very different Liquor, not only in Colour and Flavour,
but in Quality, according to the Country it grows in; as is manifest
by the different Effects of it on the Human Body. One Sort is found to
constringe too much; another is loaded with Tartar; a third abounds with
a large Portion of inflammable Spirit; and so on. But not to enter into
a physical Analysis of Wine, we will say it is allow’d to assist the
Digestion, to warm the Blood, and give a certain Sprightliness, which, in
other Words, we call a Flow of Spirits. Now in the Case of Children we
injure them if we give them gross Food, such as requires Wine to digest;
and if Wine be added to it, we put Fuel to Fire, Flame to Flame; nor does
the Blood and Spirits need this foreign Assistance while young: the one
is by Nature sufficiently warm’d; and the other are best supported by
Temperance and a chearful Disposition.
I will not take upon me to fix precise Rules on this Head, both because
it is very difficult, and in general they would not be adher’d to: but
thus much I seriously recommend, that Children in the first Septenary
taste no Wine at all; in the second be vastly sparing; and in the third
fix a Temperance built on solid Principles of Reason and Virtue; such as
will best secure to them Health and Happiness for their whole Lives.