The Maternal Management of Children, in Health and Disease. | Page 3

offspring. This may arise from various
causes, hereafter to be noticed, but whenever they exist a wet-nurse is
demanded.

Again, the latter resource is not always attainable, so that the hazardous
experiment of an artificial diet, or bringing up by hand, as it is then
termed, is obliged to be resorted to.
Thus, infantile dietetics naturally divides itself into Maternal Nursing,
Wet-Nurse Suckling, And Artificial Feeding.

1. MATERNAL NURSING.
PLAN OF SUCKLING.

From the first moment the infant is applied to the breast, it must be
nursed upon a certain plan. This is necessary to the well-doing of the
child, and will contribute essentially to preserve the health of the parent,
who will thus be rendered a good nurse, and her duty at the same time
will become a pleasure.
This implies, however, a careful attention on the part of the mother to
her own health; for that of her child is essentially dependent upon it.
Healthy, nourishing, and digestible milk can be procured only from a
healthy parent; and it is against common sense to expect that, if a
mother impairs her health and digestion by improper diet, neglect of
exercise, and impure air, she can, nevertheless, provide as wholesome
and uncontaminated a fluid for her child, as if she were diligently
attentive to these important points. Every instance of indisposition in
the nurse is liable to affect the infant.
And this leads me to observe, that 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 fulness in the system, which places the nurse on the brink of
disease, and which of itself frequently puts a stop to the secretion of the
milk, instead of increasing it. The right plan of proceeding is plain
enough; only let attention be paid to the ordinary laws of health, and

the mother, if she have a sound constitution, will make a better nurse
than by any foolish deviation founded on ignorance and caprice.
The following case proves the correctness of this statement:--
A young married lady, confined with her first child, left the lying-in-
room at the expiration of the third week, a good nurse, and in perfect
health. She had had some slight trouble with her nipples, but this was
soon overcome.
The porter system was now commenced, and from a pint to a pint and a
half of this beverage was taken in the four and twenty hours. This was
resorted to, not because there was any deficiency in the supply of milk,
for it was ample, and the infant thriving upon it; but because, having
become a nurse, she was told that it was usual and necessary, and that
without it her milk and strength would ere long fail.
After this plan had been followed for a few days, the mother became
drowsy and disposed to sleep in the daytime; and headach, thirst, a hot
skin, in fact, fever supervened; the milk diminished in quantity, and, for
the first time, the stomach and bowels of the infant became disordered.
The porter was ordered to be left off; remedial measures were
prescribed; and all symptoms, both in parent and child, were after a
while removed, and health restored.
Having been accustomed, prior to becoming a mother, to take a glass or
two of wine, and occasionally a tumbler of table beer, she was advised
to follow precisely her former dietetic plan, but with the addition of
half a pint of barley-milk morning and night. Both parent and child
continued in excellent health during the remaining period of suckling,
and the latter did not taste artificial food until the ninth month, the
parent's milk being all-sufficient for its wants.
No one can doubt that the porter was in this case the source of the
mischief. The patient had gone into the lying-in-room in full health,
had had a good time, and came out from her chamber (comparatively)
as strong as she entered it. Her constitution had not been previously
worn down by repeated child-bearing and nursing, she had an ample

supply of milk, and was fully capable, therefore, of performing the
duties which now devolved upon her, without resorting to any unusual
stimulant or support. Her previous habits were totally at variance with
the plan which was adopted; her system became too full, disease was
produced, and the result experienced was nothing more than what
might be expected.
The plan to be followed for the first six months.-Until the breast- milk
is fully established, which may not be until the second or third day
subsequent to delivery (almost invariably so in a