Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Page 5

in the morning, and before he has been put to the breast, let him be washed before he has his breakfast, it will refresh him and give him an appetite. Besides, he ought to have his morning ablution on an empty stomach, or it may interfere with digestion, and might produce sickness and pain. In putting him in his tub, let his head be the first part washed. We all know, that in bathing in the sea, now much better we can bear the water if we first wet our head, if we do not do so, we feel shivering and starved and miserable. Let there be no dawdling in the washing, let it be quickly over. When he is thoroughly dried with warm dry towels, let him be well rubbed with the warm hand of the mother or of the nurse. As I previously recommended, while drying him and while rubbing him, let him repose and kick and stretch either on the warm flannel apron, or else on a small blanket placed on the lap. One bathing in the tub, and that in the morning, is sufficient, and better than night and morning. During the day, as I before observed, he may, after the action either of his bowels or of his bladder, require several spongings of lukewarm water, for cleanliness is a grand incentive to health and comeliness.
Remember it is absolutely necessary to every child from his earliest babyhood to have a bath, to be immersed every morning of his life in the water. This advice, unless in cases of severe illness, admits of no exception. Water to the body--to the whole body--is a necessity of life, of health, and of happiness, it wards off disease, it brace? the nerves, it hardens the frame, it is the finest tonic in the world. Oh, if every mother would follow to the very letter this counsel how much misery, how much ill-health might then be averted!
MANAGEMENT OF THE NAVEL.
13. _Should the navel-string be wrapped in SINGED rag_?
There is nothing better than a piece of fine old linen rag, _unsinged_; when singed, it frequently irritates the infant's skin.
14. _How ought the navel-string to be wrapped in the rag_?
Take a piece of soft linen rag, about three inches wide and four inches long, and wrap it neatly round the navel string, in the same manner you would around a cut finger, and then, to keep on the rag, tie it with a few rounds of whity-brown thread. The navel-string thus covered should, pointing upwards, be placed on the belly of the child, and must be secured in its place by means of a flannel belly-band.
15. _If after the navel-string has been secured, bleeding should (in the absence of the medical man) occur, how must it be restrained_?
The nurse or the attendant ought immediately to take off the rag, and tightly, with a ligature composed of four or five whity-brown threads, retie the navel-string; and to make assurance doubly sure, after once tying it, she should pass the threads a second time around the navel-string, and tie it again; and after carefully ascertaining that it no longer bleeds, fasten it up in the rag as before. Bleeding of the navel-string rarely occurs, yet, if it should do so--the medical man not being at hand--the child's after-health, or even his life, may, if the above directions be not adopted, be endangered.
16. _When does the navel-string separate from the child_?
From five days to a week after birth; in some cases not until ten days or a fortnight, or even, in rare cases, not until three weeks.
17. _If the navel-string does not at the end of a week came away, ought any means to be used to cause the separation_?
Certainly not, it ought always to be allowed to drop off, which, when in a fit state, it will readily do. Meddling with the navel string has frequently cost the babe a great deal of suffering, and in some cases even his life.
18. _The navel is sometimes a little sore, after the navel-string comes away, what ought then to be done_?
A little simple cerate should be spread on lint, and be applied every morning to the part affected, and a white-bread poultice, every night, until it is quite healed.
NAVEL RUPTURE--GROIN RUPTURE.
19. _What are the causes of a rupture of the navel? What ought to be done? Can it be cured_?
(1) A rupture of the navel is sometimes occasioned by a meddlesome nurse. She is very anxious to cause the navel-string to separate from the infant's body, more especially when it is longer in coming away than usual. She, therefore, before it is in a fit state to drop off, forces it away. (2) The rapture, at another time, is occasioned by the child incessantly crying. A mother,