The Maternal Management of Children, in Health and Disease. | Page 6

But there are exceptions to this as a
general rule; and nursing, instead of being accompanied by health, may

be the cause of its being materially, and even fatally, impaired. This
may arise out of one of two causes, either, a parent continuing to suckle
too long; or, from the original powers or strength not being equal to the
continued drain on the system.
Examples of the first class I am meeting with daily. I refer to poor
married women, who, having nursed their infants eighteen months, two
years, or even longer than this, from the belief that by so doing they
will prevent pregnancy, call to consult me with an exhausted frame and
disordered general health, arising solely from protracted nursing,
pursued from the above mistaken notion.
I most frequently meet with examples of the second class in the delicate
woman, who, having had two or three children in quick succession, her
health has given way, so that she has all the symptoms arising from
undue suckling, when perhaps the infant at her breast is not more than
two or three months old.
Since the health of the mother, then, will suffer materially from this
circumstance, she ought not to be ignorant of the fact; so that, when the
first symptoms manifest themselves, she may be able to recognise their
insidious approach; and tracing them to their real cause, obtain medical
advice before her health be seriously impaired.
SYMPTOMS.--The earliest symptom is a dragging sensation in the
back when the child is in the act of sucking, and an exhausted feeling of
sinking and emptiness at the pit of the stomach afterwards. This is soon
followed by loss of appetite, costive bowels, and pain on the left side;
then, the head will be more or less affected, sometimes with much
throbbing, singing in the ears, and always some degree of giddiness,
with great depression of spirits.
Soon the chest becomes affected, and the breathing is short,
accompanied by a dry cough and palpitation of the heart upon the
slightest exertion. As the disease advances, the countenance becomes
very pale, and the flesh wastes, and profuse night perspirations, great
debility, swelling of the ankles, and nervousness ensue. It is
unnecessary, however, to enter into a more full detail of symptoms.

TREATMENT.--All that it will be useful to say in reference to
treatment, is this; that, although much may be done in the first instance
by medicine, change of air, cold and sea bathing, yet the quickest and
most effectual remedy is to wean the child, and thus remove the cause.
THE ILL EFFECTS UPON THE INFANT.--There is another and
equally powerful reason why the child should be weaned, or rather,
have a young and healthy wet-nurse, if practicable. The effects upon
the infant, suckled under such circumstances, will be most serious.
Born in perfect health, it will now begin to fall off in its appearance, for
the mother's milk will be no longer competent to afford it due
nourishment; it will be inadequate in quantity and quality. Its
countenance, therefore, will become pale; its look sickly and aged; the
flesh soft and flabby; the limbs emaciated; the belly, in some cases,
large, in others, shrunk; and the evacuations fetid and unnatural; and in
a very few weeks, the blooming healthy child will be changed into the
pale, sickly, peevish, wasted creature, whose life appears hardly
desirable.
The only measure that can save the life, and recover an infant from this
state, is that which would previously have prevented it a healthy
wet-nurse.
If the effects upon the infant should not be so aggravated as those just
described, and it subsequently live and thrive, there will be a tendency
in such a constitution to scrofula and consumption, to manifest itself at
some future period of life, undoubtedly acquired from the parent, and
dependent upon the impaired state of her health at the time of its
suckling. A wet-nurse early resorted to, will prevent this.
It will be naturally asked, for how long a period a mother ought to
perform the office of a nurse? No specific time can be mentioned, and
the only way in which the question can be met is this: no woman, with
advantage to her own health, can suckle her infant beyond twelve or
eighteen months; and at various periods between the third and twelfth
month, many women will be obliged partially or entirely to resign the
office.[FN#4]

[FN#4] See "Weaning," p. 51.

The monthly periods generally reappear from the twelfth to the
fourteenth month from delivery; and when established, as the milk is
found invariably to diminish in quantity, and also to deteriorate in
quality, and the child is but imperfectly nourished, it is positively
necessary in such instances at once to wean it.

OF MOTHERS WHO