What Women Should Know/Chapter 16
The Babe's First Bath.—Take the babe upon the lap, and keeping it well covered except the part being washed, commence by greasing with lard the head, ears, creases of the neck and other parts where the white slimy matter shall have accumulated. Then, with a soft rag or sponge, wash carefully with warm water, using freely of white castile or glycerine soap to remove the grease. If there is much slime, it is not absolutely necessary that it should be all removed at once. The red rash which is frequently seen on new-born infants is the result of too vigorous soaping and rubbing. A second or third washing will remove whatever remains.
Washing the Babe in Whisky.—The use of whisky in the first bath of an infant is not only unnecessary, but absolutely wrong. I have not only seen it used, but a few teaspoonfuls of sweetened whisky and water given to the child at the conclusion of the oath to induce it to sleep. I cannot believe that a babe should spend the opening hours of its life in drunken stupor, and this is what the whisky bath and dose amount to.
The Babe's First Toilet.—The first article to put on the child is the band. This should be of soft, fine flannel, and must be smaller around the lower edge than around the upper one, to fit the natural shape of the body.
Before putting on the band take a piece of old cotton about four inches square, fold it four double, cut a hole in the middle of the folded piece, grease the cloth, and through the hole put the navel cord, after examining it to see that it is securely tied. Fold the lower edge up, and then over this cloth place the band, fastening it behind. The band should be only long. enough to go once around the body. The band should be loose enough to allow full and unconstrained freedom to all the organs of the chest.
Diaper and stockings come next, and then the shirt, which latter should be of fine linen. The flannel petticoat should be made with sleeves or straps, and buttoned (never pinned) loosely, so that there will not be the slightest compression about the waist. A loose, long-sleeved night-gown, gathered and fastened at the neck with a string, completes the infant's first toilet. Then, with a blanket wrapped about its shoulders, and brought well up about its head, the child is ready to be put in bed with its mother.
—It is best to defer the second washing and dressing of the infant until after the navel cord comes off, which will probably be in from four to seven days. It should in no case be hurried, but be left to take its time. Let the examination of the cord be made with the utmost care, lest it be loosened and torn away before it is quite ready to come off. When it is found detached, tear a small square of the old handkerchief already mentioned as one of the contents of the baby's basket, and greasing it with mutton tallow, lay it over the navel, to cure what soreness and tenderness may still remain there. If the navel looks red and sore, dust it daily or oftener with potters' clay. A few days will make it quite well.
Potters' Clay.—Potters' clay is indispensable in the nursery. Not only is it of use in curing an inflamed and raw navel, but it is an article of daily need. If soreness and rawness are found in the child's groins, in the creases of its neck, under its arms or behind its ears, a frequent dusting of potters' clay will heal the affected places. It can be obtained ready prepared of most druggists.
Food for the New-Born Babe.—The only food the new-born babe requires is its mother's milk. The first milk which the breasts contain is called colostrum, and is purgative in its character, and will clear the child's bowels of the meconium or tar-like substance with which they are filled previously to birth. Never under any circumstances give the child anything else, until that has been thoroughly tried and found insufficient; never in any case take any measures with the babe without a consultation with and the consent of the mother.
Artificial Food for the Babe.—If, as sometimes occurs, the milk comes very slowly for the first day or two, and the child is a healthy, vigorous one, and seems to fret with hunger, then the best and the only allowable food for it is made by taking a little cream, adding about three times its quantity of warm water, and sweetening slightly with white sugar. If cream cannot be obtained, milk will do, though it is not so good, and less water must be used. Feed the child, with either spoon or bottle, small quantities at a time, until its hunger seems appeased.
Shall the Mother nurse her Babe?—If a woman is able to nurse her babe, it is far better that she should do so. In some cases the matter is not optional, as her milk gives out at the end of a few weeks, and no effort will retain it. If the woman is liable to such a loss of milk, the more active her life, the longer she will be able to nurse her child. By activity I do not mean performance of hard labor, which, by its tax upon the system, is more likely to lessen the flow of milk than to increase it. It is far better for the babe to be nursed by its mother than to be brought up in any other manner; and I need not say to any mother that it will be far more satisfactory to her.
Use of Malt Liquors by a Nursing Mother.—Let no nursing mother be induced by physician or friend to drink porter or ale to increase her flow of milk and give her strength. It is, in my opinion, feeding the babe on poison. And if, unfortunately, the child has any hereditary tendency toward a love of strong drink (and such traits are undoubtedly transmitted by inheritance), this course is actually fostering the tendency, so that it will be all the more likely to develop itself in after years. A babe fed on such nutriment will often accumulate fat. But this accumulation is not a sign of health, even if, in ordinary circumstances, extreme fatness is desirable in an infant, which I very much doubt. Such a child is more liable to sickness than another, and will more readily succumb to it.
How a Nursing Mother should obtain Strength.—There are other ways than this for a mother to obtain strength. More nutritious food, more exercise in the open air and less hard work will generally be found quite as apparently beneficial in their results as the use of porter and ale, and far more so in reality.
Circumstances Forbidding further Nursing of a Babe.—When a mother finds herself again pregnant, she should immediately discontinue the nursing of her babe. Most women continue nursing as long as possible, seeing no harm to any one but themselves, and believing that, as long as their strength permits, they are justified in this double drain upon their systems. But as bad as such a course is for a woman, it is still worse for one or both babes. The mother's milk no longer possesses the same nutritive properties, and one or both children are very liable, in consequence of this double drain upon the mother, to be weakly or even to develop rickets, the traces of which, though the disease itself be outgrown, they will probably bear to the end of their lives in some deformity more or less unshapely. Mothers are ignorant in this matter, and it is something that seldom comes to the knowledge of a physician until too late for remonstrance. Many a mother has mourned over the weakness and deformity of her little child. who had not the slightest suspicion that she herself was to blame.
Suitable Wet-Nurse.—If the mother finds it impossible to nurse her babe, a wet-nurse whose confinement corresponds as nearly as possible to her own is the best substitute.
Cow's Milk for a Babe.—Wet-nurses are, however, beyond the means of many people. The next best thing is to obtain fresh cow's milk from a cow recently "come in." (The milk should be from one cow.) Cream is better than milk, but it is not always attainable. Milk should be used at the first in a little more than an equal quantity of water, the whole slightly sweetened. As the child increases in age the water may be diminished, until at last it is omitted altogether.
Nursing Bottle.—An ordinary glass bottle holding from two to four ounces, and with a top small enough to allow a rubber nipple to go over it without tearing, will serve every purpose of a nursing bottle. Do not on any account obtain those patent affairs with long rubber tubes. They are convenient inasmuch as they allow the child to nurse without the necessity of holding the bottle to its mouth. But there is no possible way of keeping the rubber tube clean; and the coating of milk in various stages of decomposition which must of necessity cling to its sides, and through which the infant's food must pass, cannot fail to make that food unwholesome and cause derangement of the child's stomach.
Failure of the Babe to Make Water.—If the babe should not pass its water for a day or two following its birth, no apprehensions need be felt. But if a longer time should elapse, it may be well to administer to it a little watermelon-seed, pumpkin-seed, or flaxseed (illegible text)ea, either of which will probably produce the desired effect.
Colic and Acidity of the Stomach.—If the babe seems to suffer from colic and acidity of the stomach and bowels, a quarter of a teaspoonful of pulverized slippery-elm bark, thoroughly mixed with sugar and added to the milk with which the babe is fed, may give relief.
Carminatives and Soothing Syrups.—Do not on any account give carminatives or soothing syrups of any kind whatever to an infant, no matter how widely they may be advertised or how universally recommended. They all contain opiates, and are unqualifiedly injurious to the child. Nor can the direct use of opiates be condemned in too strong words. The mother who gives her babe paregoric or laudanum in any form is administering a deadly poison, which, if it do not result in early death, is sure to injure the constitution and ruin the nervous system of the babe.
How often to Nurse a Babe.—Do not nurse or feed a babe too often. Once in an hour and a half is often enough to put a new-born infant to the breast, and as it grows older the time may be slightly extended. Children sometimes cry from other reasons than hunger. Their clothing may be uncomfortable in some manner; or they may be tired of the position in which they are lying or sitting, and want a change; or they may have been spoiled from too much holding (no one but a mother knows how early a babe can contract bad habits in this respect), and may object to lying unnoticed in their cradles, and want to be taken up in arms.
General Management of a Babe.—The rule for a mother of a healthy infant to adopt is that it is best both for herself and her child that it shall give her as little trouble as possible. A babe should seldom be in arms except to have its wants attended to. It may be sometimes taken up for a change, but these times should be exceptional ones. It should be accustomed to be laid down awake in its cradle, and to go to sleep of itself with little or no rocking. It should acquire the habit of going to sleep for the night at an early hour in the evening, and of remaining quiet, with the exception of being nursed twice perhaps, until morning. This last is one of the most important of rules, for it leaves the evening and night free for the tired and perhaps overtaxed mother.
Personal Experience with a Family.—I am giving all these directions concerning the management of infants, not from a theorist's standpoint, but from actual experience with a large family of as happy healthy, well-behaved infants as any one could desire—infants concerning whom it has been repeatedly said, when necessity or inclination called me away from them for a few hours, that they gave so little trouble and were so quiet that one would never have known there was a baby in the house.
True Kindness to a Babe.—It is not cruelty to treat a child thus. It is the very best of kindness. It saves the mother, the child and everybody concerned a great deal of trouble. It is, besides, beginning the education of the infant from its very birth, and after it gets old enough to play and notice things throwing it upon its own resources for amusement and teaching it to be self-dependent and self-reliant.
Improper Feeding of a Babe.—Another thing of the utmost importance in the management of an infant is never to feed it anything beyond its regular milk food until it is nearly or quite a year old, or until teething has well commenced. The results of a disregard of this rule are everywhere seen in fretful infants whose bowels are constantly out of order, who are subject to attacks of summer complaint, and who suffer severely, and even lose their lives, in teething. Children who are thus fed are certain to suffer in teething, as the use of solid food causes the hardening of the teeth and jaws beyond what nature intends, and makes the growth of the former much more painful.
Still, in adhering strictly to this rule parents will have to combat a host of friends and relatives, all deeply interested in the well-being of the babe, and whose beliefs and practices have all been the reverse.
In my own experience, when I held scrupulously to the milk diet, the results were most satisfactory Trouble and pain in teething were unknown, and my babes' "second summer" was no harder than the first.
"Longings" of the Babe.—Let no young mother be persuaded to try her babe with one article of food after another in the belief that, because it happens to put out its tongue occasionally, it wants something which it must certainly have, if the right thing can be found.
"Why," said one excellent woman, "I gave my babe a pickled bean to suck when he was only six weeks old because he put out his tongue for it and wanted it."
"Well," I replied, "I should judge from his present state of health, that he had been fed upon pickled beans and things of a like appropriate character when he was a baby."
There might have been a slight touch of cruelty in the answer, but my excuse must be that I was exasperated beyond my powers of patience. There was, besides, such an opportunity for a retort, as the man who, as a babe, had sucked pickled beans, was a confirmed dyspeptic, dating back his sufferings as far, at least, as memory would carry him; and had probably never known a day of perfect health in his life.
Weaning.—A child should be weaned when it is about a year old. If the second summer is approaching, it may be well to carry the nursing through the hot months, as that is the most trying period in an infant's life. The change from one sort of food to another should be gradual; milk should still form an important article of diet, and it should be long before any but the simplest articles of food are given it.
Shall the Babe Sleep with its Mother?—There is a difference of opinion regarding the expediency of the babe sleeping with its mother. Much can be said on both sides of the question. I think in warm weather it is not an injudicious plan for the babe to lie in a separate bed, the mother rising twice perhaps during the night to suckle it. By this plan the babe acquires regular habits in nursing, and the mother is secured that quiet sleep which she could not have if the babe was in her arms and making frequent demands upon her. However, in this case she should be a light sleeper, that she may waken at the least sign of disquiet on the part of the babe.
In the winter I believe the safest and best place for a babe at night is in its mother's arms. A child will not keep itself protected from the cold. Its little arms and legs instinctively throw off all burdens, without any regard to the temperature, so that the mother can only keep it properly warmed by having it with her. Otherwise she may be awakened some night by the hoarse bark of croup; or the severe colds contracted by exposure may result in inflammation of the lungs.
Temperature of Infant's Sleeping-Room.—Notwithstanding all that has been said and written against fires in sleeping-apartments, I cannot believe that it is well for any one to sleep in a perfectly cold room. Those in robust health may be able to endure it without injury or inconvenience, but even they run a risk. For persons of ordinary health and endurance the temperature of a sleeping apartment should seldom be allowed to descend below 55° or 60° Fahrenheit. And it should never be less than this in an infant's sleeping-room. This temperature should be maintained at the same time with a thorough system of ventilation.
How long to Retain the Band upon an Infant.—A month is a sufficiently long time for a healthy infant to wear its belly-band. If this band is taking off in cool or cold weather, flannel shirts should be put at once upon the child, so that it will feel no evil effects from its removal.
Daily Bath.—An infant should almost from the first day of its life be subject to a daily bath. As soon as expedient it should take its bath in a tub or basin instead of being sponged while lying in the lap. The water should be tepid, as the shock from cold water is too great. The child's head should be wet before it is put into the bath. It should then be briskly washed with a cloth or sponge. Castile or glycerine soap should be used. All the creases of the body should be washed carefully and wiped gently and dry. If the infant is a female, the different parts of the genital organs should be separated, washed and wiped, to prevent soreness or adhesion.
Open-air Exercise for a Babe.—Next to water, fresh air is of importance to the babe. From an early period in its life it should be accustomed to daily exercise in the open air when the weather is favorable In cold weather this exercise should not be suspended, but the child must be well protected by woolen wraps against the cold. If it wears a cloak, it ought under this to have a warm, closely-fitting knit jacket. The feet and legs too should be well covered. But there is no advantage in taking a child into the fresh air so closely wrapped about with shawls that not the smallest portion of it can reach its nostrils. It should not even wear a veil over its face. It ought to be so well accustomed to the light withindoors that its eyes will need no protection.
Sleep of an Infant.—A new-born infant ought to sleep a larger part of the time. Those who sleep much thrive well; those who sleep little soon become puny and nervous, and lose what few advantages they may have possessed at birth.
Aids to an Infant's Slumber.—Before the babe falls asleep it must be seen that it needs no change of diapers. Its clothes must be loosened if they are tight in any degree, and smoothed and straightened, so that they shall in no way cause discomfort. Its bed must be perfectly dry, and the pillow shaken up. When it is asleep, it must be laid carefully down, and; if the weather is cold, covered warmly. An open cradle is best, with a single hoop extending over the head of it, over which in summer must be thrown a large square of musquito-netting to keep out flies, gnats and mosquitoes. This is an indispensable arrangement. Without it the child's sleep will be restless and disturbed, while a handkerchief or veil thrown over its face for protection excludes the air.
Attention to the Bowels.—A mother should carefully attend to the condition of her babe's bowels. The motions should be of a bright yellow color, inclining to orange, and of the consistence of thick, gruel. If they are slimy, curdled, green or too thin, it is an indication that the mother must make some change in her own diet.
As soon as the babe is old enough to sit up with support, it should, the first thing after leaving the bed in the morning, be placed in an infant's chair. This should be repeated several times during the day. The child will finally fully understand the purpose for which it is placed in the chair, and diapers can thenceforth be laid aside.
Learning to Walk.—A child usually begins to walk about the twelfth or fourteenth month of its life. This is quite early enough, though some walk as soon as the tenth month. Even though the child should not begin to walk until a much later period, there should be no attempt to hasten walking, unless it is perfectly evident that the child is backward through excess of caution alone.