SPECIAL RULES 
FOR THE 
1IAIABEMENT OF INFANTS 
DURING THE 
HOT SEASON, 
RECOMMENDED BY 
The Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia 
TO THE 
Thoughtful Attention of the Mothers in 
Philadelphia. 
Approved and Published for Distribution by the Board of Health. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
E. C. MARKLEY & SON, PRINTERS, 422 LIBRARY STREET. 
1875. RULES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF INFANTS 
DURING THE HOT SEASON. 
Rule 1.-Bathe the child once a day in tepid water. If it is 
fjeble, sponge it all over twice a day with tepid water, or with tepid 
water and vinegar. The health of a child depends much upon its 
cleanliness. 
Rule 2.-Avoid all tight bandaging. Make the clothing light 
and cool, and so loose that the child may have free play for its 
limbs. At night undress it, sponge it, and put on a slip. In the 
morning remove the slip, bathe the child, and dress it in clean 
clothes. If this cannot be afforded, thoroughly air the day-clothing 
by hanging it up during the night. Use clean diapers, and change 
them often. Never dry a soiled one in the nursery or in the sitting- 
room, and never use one for a second time without first washing it. 
Rule 3.-The child should sleep by itself in a cot or cradle. It 
should be put to bed at regular hours, and be early taught to go to 
sleep without being nursed in the arms. Without the advice of a 
physician, never give it any Spirits, Cordials, Carminatives, Soothing 
Syrups, or Sleeping Drops. Thousands of children die every year 
from the use of these poisons. If the child frets and does not sleep, 
it is either hungry or else ill. If ill, it needs a physician. Never 
quiet it by candy or by cake; they are the common causes of diar- 
rhoea and of other troubles. 
Rule 4.-Give the child plenty of fresh air. In the cool of the 
morning and evening, send it out to the shady sides of broad streets, 
to the public squares, or to the Park. Make frequent excursions 
on the rivers. Whenever it seems to suffer from the heat, let it 
drink freely of ice-water. Keep it out of the room in which wash- 
ing or cooking is going on. It is excessive heat that destroys the 
lives of young infants. 
Rule 5.-Keep your house sweet and clean, cool and well aired. 
In very hot weather let the windows be open day and night. Do 
your cooking in the yard, in a shed, in the garret, or in an upper 4 
room. Whitewash the walls every spring, and see that the cellar is 
clear of all rubbish. Let no slops collect to poison the air. Cor- 
rect all foul smells by pouring into the sinks and privies Carbolic 
Acid or Quicklime, or the Chloride of Lime, or a strong solution of 
Copperas. These articles can be got from the nearest druggist, who 
will give the needful directions for their use. Make every effort 
yourself, and urge your neighbors to keep clean, the gutters of your 
street or of your court. 
Rule 6.-Breast milk is the only proper food for infants. If the 
supply is ample and the child thrives on it, no other kind of food 
should be given-while the hot weather lasts. If the mother has 
not enough, she must not wean the child, but give it, besides the 
breast, goat's or cow's milk, as prepared under Rule 8. Nurse the 
child once in two or three hours during the day, and as seldom as 
possible during the night. Always remove the child from the breast 
as soon as it has fallen asleep. Avoid giving the breast when you 
are over-fatigued or over-heated. 
Rule 7.-If, unfortunately, the child must be brought up by 
hand, it should be fed on a milk-diet alone-that is, warm milk out 
of a nursing bottle, as directed under Rule 8. Goat's milk is the 
best, and, next to it, cow's milk. If the child thrives on this diet, 
no other kind of food whatever should be given while the hot weather 
lasts. At all seasons of the year, but especially in summer, there is 
no safe substitute for milk if the infant has not cut its front teeth. 
Sago, arrow-root, potatoes, corn-flour, crackers, bread, every patented 
food, and every article of diet containing starch, cannot and must not 
be depended on as food for very young infants. Creeping or walking 
children must not be allowed to pick up unwholesome food. 
Rule 8.-If the milk is known to be pure, it should have one- 
third part of hot water added to it, until the child is three months 
old ; after this age the proportion of water should be gradually 
lessened. Each half pint of this food should be sweetened, either 
with a heaping dessertspoonful of sugar of milk, or with a teaspoon- 
ful of crushed sugar. When the heat of the weather is great, the 
milk may be given quite cold. Be sure that the milk is unskimmed ; 
have it as fresh as possible, and brought very early in the morning. 
Before using the pans into which it is to be poured, always scald 
them with boiling suds. In very hot weather, boil the milk as soon 5 
as it comes, and at once put away the vessels holding it in the coolest 
place in the house-upon ice if it can be afforded, or down a well. 
Milk, carelessly allowed to stand in a warm room, soon spoils and 
becomes unfit for food. 
Rule 9. If the milk should disagree, a tablespoonful of lime- 
water may be added to each bottleful. Whenever pure milk cannot 
be got, try the Condensed Milk, which often answers admirably. It 
is sold by all the leading druggists and grocers, and may be pre- 
pared by adding to ten tablespoonfuls of boiling water without sugar, 
one tablespoonful or more of the milk, according to the age of the 
child. Should this disagree, a teaspoonful of arrow-root, of sago, or 
of corn-starch may be cautiously added to a pint of the milk, as 
prepared under Rule 8. If milk in any shape cannot be digested, 
try, for a few days, pure cream diluted with three-fourths or four- 
fifths of water-returning to the milk as soon as possible. 
Rule 10.-The nursing-bottle must be kept perfectly clean; other- 
wise the milk will turn sour, and the child will be made ill. After 
each meal, it should be emptied, rinsed out, taken apart, and the 
nipple and bottle placed in clean water, or in water to which a little 
soda has been added. It is a good plan to have two nursing-bottles, 
and to use them by turns. The best kind is the plain bottle with a 
rubber nipple and no tube. 
Rule 11.-Do not wean the child just before or during the hot 
weather ; nor, as a rule, until after its second summer. Il suckling 
disagrees with the mother, she must not wean the child, but feed it, 
in part, out of a nursing-bottle, on such food as has been directed. 
However small the supply of breast-milk, provided that it agrees 
with the child, the mother should carefully keep it up against sick- 
ness; it alone will often save the life of a child when everything 
else fails. When the child is over six months old, the mother may 
save her strength by giving it one or two meals a day of stale bread 
and milk, which should be pressed through a sieve and put into a 
nursing-bottle. When from eight months to a year old, it may 
have also one meal a day of the yolk of a fresh and rare-boiled egg, 
or one of beef- or mutton-broth into which stale bread has been 
crumbed. When older than this, it can have a little meat finely 
minced; but even then milk should be its principal food, and not 
such food as grown-up people eat. 6 
BRIEF RULES FOR CASES OF EMERGENCY. 
Rule 1.-If the child is suddenly attacked with vomiting, purg- 
ing, and prostration, send for a doctor at once. In the mean time, 
put the child for a few minutes in a hot bath, then carefully wipe 
it dry with a warm towel, and wrap it in V'arm blankets. If its 
hands and feet are cold, bottles filled with hot water and wrapped 
in flannel should be laid against them. 
Rule 2.-A mush-poultice, or one made of flaxseed meal, to 
which one-quarter part of mustard flour has been added, or flannels 
W'rung out of hot vinegar and. water, should be placed over the 
belly. 
Rule 3.-Five drops of brandy in a teaspoonful of water may 
be given every ten or fifteen minutes; but if the vomiting persists, 
give this brandy in the same quantity of milk and lime-water. 
Rule 4.-If the diarrhoea has just begun, or if it is caused by 
improper food, a teaspoonful of castor-oil, or of the spiced syrup of 
rhubarb, should be given. 
Rule 5.-If the child has been fed partly on the breast and 
partly on other food, the mother's milk alone must now be used. 
If the child has been weaned, it should have its milk-food diluted 
with lime-water, or should have weak beef-tea, or chicken-water. 
Rule 6.-The child should be allowed to drink cold water freely. 
» 
Rule 7.-The soiled diapers or the discharges should be at once 
removed from the room, but saved for the physician to examine at 
Jiis visit. 7 
For the Convenience of Mothers the following Recipes 
for Special Forms of Diet are given: 
Boiled Flour or Flour Ball. 
Take one quart of good flour; tie it up in a pudding-bag so 
tightly as to make a firm, solid mass; put it into a pot of boiling 
water early in the morning, and let it boil until bedtime. Then 
take it out and let it dry. In the morning, peal off* from the surface 
and throw away the thin rind of dough, and with a nutmeg-grater, 
grate down the hard dry mass into a powder. Of this from one to 
three teaspoonfuls may be used, by first rubbing it into a paste with 
a little milk, then adding it to about a pint of milk, and, finally, 
by bringing the whole to just the boiling-point. It must be given 
through a nursing bottle. 
An excellent food for children who are costive may be made by 
using bran-meal or unbolted flour instead of the white flour, pre- 
paring it as above directed. 
Rice Water. 
Wash four tablespoonfuls of rice; put it into two quarts of water, 
which boil down to one quart, and then add sugar and a little nut- 
meg. This makes a pleasant drink. 
A pint or half a pint of milk added to the rice water, before it is 
taken from the fire, gives a nourishing food suitable for cases of 
diarrhoea. 
Sago, tapioca, barley, or cracked corn can be prepared in the 
same manner. 
Beef Tea. 
Take one pound of juicy lean beef-say a piece from the shoulder 
or the round-and mince it. Put it with its juice into an earthen 
vessel containing a pint of tepid water, and let the whole stand for 
one hour. Then slowly heat it to the boiling-point, and let it boil 
for three minutes. Strain the liquid through a cullender, and stir 
in a little salt. If preferred, a little pepper or allspice may be added. 8 
Mutton Tea may be prepared in the same way. It makes an 
agreeable change when the patient has become tired of Beef Tea. 
Raw Beef for Children. 
Take half a pound of juicy beef, free from any fat; mince it very 
finely; then rub it into a smooth pulp either in a mortar or with an 
ordinary potato-masher, and press it through a fine sieve. Spread a 
little out upon a plate and sprinkle over it some salt, or some sugar 
if the child prefers it. Give it alone or spread upon a buttered 
slice of stale bread. It makes an excellent food for children with 
dysentery. 
Lime-Water. 
Take a handful of quicklime, slake it, and put it into a quart- 
bottle full of soft water. Shake the bottle well, and then allow the 
undissolved portion of the lime to settle. Pour off the clear liquid 
when needed, replacing it with more water, and afterwards shaking 
the bottle briskly.