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WS 80 T892m 1896

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NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
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SURGEON OENERAL'S OFFICE

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MOTHER, BABY,  AND NURSERY. 
 
 
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MOTHER,
BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
a Jtftanual for jfloftets.
BY
GENEVIEVE TUCKER, M.D.
            "First the infant
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms."
     BOSTON:
ROBERTS BROTHERS.
        1896.
   LIBRARY
SURGEON CENERAfS OFFICE
    JAH.-21-1898 
         to




    Copyright, 1896,
By Roberts Brothers.
AU rights reserved.
           SKntoersitg $regg:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 
      TO MOTHERS.
"HER LOT TO  BEAR,  TO NURSE;
     TO REAR, TO LOVE." 
 
PREFACE.
/"T"VHE object of the author in presenting this  work  is to
      furnish a practical summary of the Infant's  hygiene and
physical development.  The aim of the book is to be a guide
to mothers, particularly young and inexperienced ones.  It
purposes to teach and help a mother to understand her babe,
to feed it properly, to place it in healthful surroundings, and
to watch its  growth  and development with  intelligence, and
thus  relieve  in a measure  the undue anxiety and  nervous
uncertainty of a new mother.   The book is not intended in
any  measure to take the  place of  a physician, but rather to
aid the physician in teaching  the  mother  to care  properly
for her babe when well, that she may better nurse  it when
sick.
   The  many questions asked by those  who had the super-
vision of babies,  as to their food and general management,
compelled  the author in the early years  of practice to a dili-
gent  search  for  the wherewith to answer  these inquiries.
Disappointed in not  finding, in the works on Children  and
their diseases, satisfactory directions as to infantile hygiene,
the author began at once to gather facts from  experienced 
viii
PREFACE.
physicians, intelligent nurses,  and the institutions and hos-
pitals for children.  To this end, for a number of years the
reports  of the  bureau of  children's diseases  in the many
different medical societies were  collected;  these  were  care-
fully  arranged and studied.   In this  way was  gathered a
fund of practical and experienced facts from which we have
largely  drawn  for  the  contents  of  this  book.   There have
been consulted, in  addition, the  familiar works of Keating,
Routh,  Duncan, Fothergill,  Guernsey,  Donaldson,  Wells,
etc., etc.
  If the anxiety and solicitation of  mothers in the care of
their babes, especially the first born, shall  be  lessened and
made somewhat easier, the mission of the  book and the intent
of the author is accomplished.  The illustrations of the book
are all  from living pictures.   It has been the habit of the
author,  when  the attendant at a birth, to  ask for a photo-
graph of the baby.   Added to this collection have been gifts
of the photographs of babies with whom  we have  had much
to do as a physician.  In this way has been gathered a collec-
tion of  living  pictures  from which these illustrations have
been taken. If any parent should recognize a familiar face in
these  pages, we beg pardon if they are sensitive  and say it
was used because that  particular one fitted into place.

                              GENEVIEVE  TUCKER, M.D.
    Pueblo, Colorado,
               October, 1896. 
CONTENTS.
                                                    Page
Introduction...............   xi
Heredity.................15
Prenatal Period..............27
The Little Stranger............   44
Growth and Development..........52
Bathing.................58
Dress .   .................63
Sleep..................70
Crying Babies...............75
The Eyes.................81
Nursing.................84
The Wet-Nurse..............91
Weaning.................93
Feeding After Weaning...........96
Teething.................101
Hand-Feeding...............107
Bowels  and Kidneys............132
Posture.................137
Exercise.................141 
x                     CONTENTS.
                                                    Pagb
Habit..................144
A  Study  of Babies.............148
The Baby's Basket.............153
Nursery  Pointers..............156
Nursery  Don'ts..............160 
INTRODUCTION.
/^AREFULLY compiled  statistics  show  that one  half of
^■^   all deaths occur in children under five  years  of age.
Of one million babies born, one hundred and fifty thousand
die in the first year, and one hundred and fifty thousand more
follow  in  the next  two  years;  three  hundred  thousand
infants crushed out  by the  time the  third year  is ended.
This  is  swelled to  between  forty  and fifty per cent by
the close of the fifth year.  When  we consider this  great
mortality, we  must admit something is wrong to destroy so
many of our infants annually.   Surely the human plant needs
better care and attention.   Now an infant is born to live; it
comes to stay, and should stay at  the least three score years
and ten, and in our opinion will stay if given a fair  chance.
The joy of parentage, the glory of  manhood, the requirements
of society added to the trial, care, and perils of maternity urge
the  duty of preserving  the babe  that is brought into  the
world, of succoring the  life that is begun, and the necessity
of saving the lives of  these innocent little ones  from a prema-
ture and untimely grave.  Some infants die because they are 
xii
INTRODUCTION.
born with such low vital power they are  hardly  fit to  live.
Nevertheless we should  remember, "A  child born, however
feeble, may become a man."   The  many,  the  thousands of
infants perish for want of proper care and nourishment after
birth; and this is  due in large  measure to the ignorance of
those having the care of them.   Truly has it been said  that,
" It is the fate of a great majority of our race to fall from the
hands of Nature into those of an ignorant nurse or an ignorant
mother."
             " We blame Heaven for the tangled ends,
              And sit and grieve and wonder."
  Decrease in infant mortality will be brought about more by
strict hygiene and the prevention of sickness than by any
treatment of disease already begun, no matter how skilfully
applied.   To obtain these results we must look to those hav-
ing the care and management of babies, to parents, mothers,
and nurses as well as physicians.  The latter can instruct and
direct in  hygiene;  the former  must  execute and carry out.
A  beginning in  the right direction is  made when  diet, air,
exercise,  clothing,  cleanliness,  and  kindred  subjects are
studied by  those having the care of babies.   The infant's
wants are peculiar to itself.  They  embrace not alone  sus-
tenance,  but what is greater, development, both physical and
mental.   It is a crime  for those having  the  supervision  of
infants not to be versed  in "Infantile Hygiene," for the baby
is as its care is; the baby is as its father and mother are, and 
INTRODUCTION.
xiii
this latter fact, better known under the name of heredity, must
not be lost sight of if we would have a comprehensive view of
the infant's requirements.  Henry Ward Beecher, when asked
to give a rule for longevity, replied, " Choose your father and
your  mother," implying the close relationship there is in the
present condition of existence to the  foundation each indi-
vidual receives  by heredity.   Every one  concedes  it is the
right of each child to be well born.  One cannot stop here,
but must  go farther and admit  it is also the right of every
babe to be so nurtured after it is born that it may have quiet
nerves, healthy digestion, and consequently well developed
bones and muscles to give it a fair chance  in  the race of life.
A noted physician was once asked,  " When should the train-
ing of a child begin?"  "A hundred years before it is born,"
was the reply.  This answer applies also to the physical train-
ing and hygiene of the babe;  it  begins before  it is  born, is
ante-natal.   The physical condition of the baby after  it is
born is determined to some degree before  it is born.   Hence
for a better understanding of the  hygiene of the  baby we shall
devote a  chapter  each to Heredity and Prenatal Influences
before we proceed to a study of the physical development and
welfare of the baby. 
 
MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
                    HEREDITY.
             " Like genders like; potatoes 'taters breed ;
              Uncostly cabbages come from cabbage seed."
  "That child is just like his father and his mother; he is a chip of the old
block."

\\7HAT is heredity?  In common speech we use the term
     as signifying the law by which the qualities and charac-
teristics of  parents are transmitted to their children.  In the
child's life  there is a resemblance to the general form and ap-
pearance of its parents as to color, stature, and physiognomy.
There will  be a likeness in  the color of hair and eyes, in the
shape of the  brow  and nose,  and  other  lineaments of the
body.  Not alone physical, but mental and moral  character-
istics are noticed in later developments, for one  does not come
into or show his full inheritance at the beginning of conscious
existence.  Truly has it been said, " Each of  us is only the
footing up of  a double column of figures that go back to the
first pair; every unit tells, and some are  plus and some are
minus."  Each child is not only the offspring of the race, but 
16         MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
of the individual, bearing  the  consequences of his parentage
throughout  his compound  nature of  body,  soul, and mind.
Place any child before its parents, and by a study of  the  one
you may know much of the other.   The great law of heredity
is a very simple one.  It is  that  "like begets like."  If the
experience of six thousand years is a sufficient demonstration,
we  may say that  this law that  "like begets like" is always
true.   It always has been  true, as to species, to families, to
individuals.   It is equally true  in the realm of mind and soul
as of body.  By this law that "like begets like" a dog is
always a dog, has fur and barks;  the  sheep is always  a sheep,
covered  with  wool, and bleats.   The  child is always red,
white, or black,  just as its  parents were.   Blue eyes beget
blue eyes; black hair begets black hair.  A nervous or san-
guine temperament begets a nervous and sanguine tempera-
ment.   Intellect gives the  capacity for intellect;  virtue tends
to virtue and vice  to vice.  If we examine closely,  we  find
that there is uniformity in all animals and the human family
as to species, form, color, and other characteristics, and there
is also diversity.  No two hounds nor any two sheep are quite
alike  or just  the  same.   No  two members of the  human
family,  in all the countless millions of the race born since the
world began, have been exactly alike as to  person, intellect,
or moral nature; none so  like  that when placed side by side
no  mark of distinction could  be  found.   This diversity  is
obtained from certain  influences  which exist for a  definite 
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                       HEREDITY.                     17
period of time  immediately preceding the particular birth.
This  time is known as the prenatal time;  these influences as
the prenatal influences.  Uniformity is obtained from influ-
ences which extend back many, many generations,  even to
Adam and  Eve; while the diversity,  those personal charac-
teristics which distinguish the children of a family from  each
other, are due to prenatal influences, and  do  not reach  back
of the individual  father and mother.  Heredity is  an exact
science.   The operation of its laws are constant and uniform,
and as powerful for good as for evil.  Heredity may be  used
as potentially for the uplifting and ennobling of humanity as
for its degradation.  It is as efficient in the  perpetuation of
health as of disease, of virtue as of vice.  The extent and
importance  of heredity, as  applied to the  human family, are
only in these latter days  beginning to be  studied and better
recognized,  though they have  been  long acknowledged  in
regard to the lower animals.  A good pedigree is everything
to a race horse  or pointer.  If the laws  of heredity may be
used with so much advantage to the " beasts of the  field and
fowls of  the air," should not parents employ these same  laws
for the advancement of that which is healthful, beautiful, and
pure in their children ? It is under the use of the same  laws
of Nature by which you  improve the  quality of fruits,  that
you improve, by careful breeding, horses, cows, and sheep, and
it is by the use of  these laws of Nature in  the human family
that men and women are  rendered the very best.   Heredity
                            2 
18         MOTHEE, BABY,  AND NURSERY".
is  a solemn  fact, and it  is high  time that men and women
began to consider and apply the revelation of its laws in the
great and mighty work of the world in  rising to higher  and
better things, and in the lessening of those evils and  perils
which beset  mankind.   History is replete with the facts of
heredity.   The  curly wool,  the thick  lips, and  black skin
mark the  negro wherever you see him.    These are  but the
hereditary  inheritance of his race.  You  can distinguish in
the red man,  with his lithe form, his straight black hair,  and
stealthy movements, the Indian's  inheritance.   So we come
to recognize  the Jew wherever we  see him, the Dutchman,
the Irishman.   The  history of the races  and nations is but a
written story of heredity and its laws.   The  first inheritance
which comes  to every child from its ancestors and  parents we
term "vital force."   Vital force includes  both  quantity  and
quality: as to quality we  must have a good, pure kind,  free
from all taints; and as to quantity, sufficient to start the indi-
vidual with a good  grip  on life.   The  offspring of parents
of intemperate habits, steeped in  tobacco, opium, and other
narcotics,   victims of syphilis  and  other sexual vices,  are
started  in life  with a low quantity of vital force, and  that
little of bad, deteriorated quality.  Such  children are weak in
moral and mental qualities, and with little physical power. If
perchance  these children survive  infancy and youth, imbued
with these depraved  organic tendencies,  the chances are they
become  dissipated if  not criminal  men  and women.   The 
                        HEREDITY.                     19
children of the intemperate are deficient in physical and  vital
energy,  and  predisposed by  their  very  organization  to  a
craving  for alcoholic  stimulants; and the habit, if pursued,
adds to their hereditary weakness and increases the tendency to
idiocy and insanity.   These children die early, are subject to
convulsions, and many are. imbecile or feeble-minded.   Chil-
dren whose inheritance is scrofula are subject to  many  diffi-
culties.   They  have  a hard time  cutting their  teeth,  are
subject to diarrhoea and cholera infantum and other diseases,
of which many  die.  We  have only to look about to see the
many  helpless,  feeble, crude, imperfectly developed children
struggling for a mere existence, living a low grade  of physical
life, with blighted intellect, feeble will-power, and corrupted
manners, the  results of the  sins of the fathers  and mothers
visited upon them.  One has but to visit our criminal courts,
the  jails, almshouses, and all public institutions  of  charity
and reform, to look in the state homes of the  feeble-minded,
the deaf, dumb, blind, and the insane asylums to  fill out the
records of the lives of those born under the tyranny of a bad
organization,  physically,  mentally, and morally, the  sins of
the  parents visited to the third and fourth  generation. It
has been well said that no one sees the wisdom and kindness
of such a law until he  has  seen a child eaten, flesh  and bones,
by  a shameful,  loathsome disease, such as  is  often  passed
from father to  child.   Disease expends  itself and the indi-
vidual is blotted out by the time the third and fourth genera- 
 20         MOTHER, BABY,  AND NURSERY.
 tion is reached; but health and righteousness are perpetuated
 to a thousand generations.   It  is this fact that  should bring
 joy and  courage to every father and mother,  and prove the
 great incentive  to  true living.  It is the privilege and  duty
 of the parents to provide a good intellect, great affections, and
 pure  moral  tendencies.  All  these  are  within  the scope of
 heredity.  Everything cannot  be  accomplished by parents in
 one generation; but this is within the power of all parents, to
 improve on the inherited sins and weaknesses coming to them
 from their ancestors, and by intelligent purpose give to their
 children a cleaner  record and a better establishment  in life
 than was given to them.   In the work of heredity parents are
 copartners, father and mother are laborers together to an equal
 degree in the formation of  their  child's  inheritance;  not in
 quite the same way does  each  his part of the work, nor can
 father do mother's part, or vice versa, but  each in  his  own
 way leaves equal impress, nor can any parent hope to escape.
 " A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a cor-
 rupt tree bring forth good fruit."  The law of reproduction  as
 given in Genesis is that every living creature brings forth after
 his kind.  "After his kind" is the law wherever  there is  life.
 It is the law of the past, present, and future.   It has gov-
 erned every human being since Adam and  Eve.  Its  action
 touches all of us of to-day, and all those yet to be.   The  physi-
cal, mental, and moral  inheritance  from the father is indelibly
stamped  upon the child at the time of its conception.    The 
HEREDITY.
21
father's work is done in the begetting.   Every fibre and cell
of the new being has incorporated within it the stamina of the
father's physical force.   Every atom and molecule of the new
being is impregnated with the mark of his character, char-
acter not reputation.   It is the mark of character, not one's
reputation, that is transmitted to the offspring.   This founda-
tion furnished  by the father, and ineffaceably impressed with
all his physical, mental, and moral qualities, is given to  the
mother for development in the months  preceding the birth of
this newly created being.  Upon  the mother's  strength,
health,  habits of life, and the influence of her surroundings
depend the growth of the internal and external organs,  the
development of the child's bones,  muscles,  and the force of
its nervous system.  The child, in the nine months preceding
its birth, is to  the mother as the clay in the potter's hands.
The impress of all  habits and customs  of her life,  every
action, thought, and feeling, conscious or unconscious, is left
upon it.   She shapes its nervous system,  the growth,  form,
and beauty of its body.   She furnishes  the conditions for the
healthy establishment of the different organs, and moulds its
mental and moral habits.   The mother not only transmits her
emotions, character, and experiences by impressions, but also
of those around her, so  that the daily conditions and feelings
of herself and  the influence of her companions  are embodied
in the physical  and mental nature of her child.   Ignorance of
law will excuse no parent, nor save from the astonishment and 
 22         MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY".
 distress of having their children show forth to the world  the
 sins against body, soul, and mind which may have long since
 been forgotten by them.  Fathers must furnish excellent clay
 for foundations,  and mothers must mould  with genius and
 art  to  have  symmetrical,  sound, and beautiful bodies  in
 their children.  How many fathers who have followed right-
 eousness  for years reap with bitterness  and tears  in  their
 children a harvest of the  wild oats'  sowing of early years!
 The intelligent observer may read in  the  temperaments and
 physique  of the children the  outlines  of a mother's irritable-
 ness and lack of self-control, and a father's dissipation. These
 manifestations are not  accidents,  but  are  the results of law.
 By the laws  of  heredity  all habits  of the  parents  become
 instincts  in the  offspring.   The  virtuous habits of  the par-
 ents  become strong impulses  in  the  children, and  likewise
 the vices of the father or mother  become strong impulses in
 the son or daughter.   The vices may be the open, undisguised
 ones, or the secretly cherished ones of  either parent, alike in
 both cases  fruit will be  borne in the overpowering tendencies
 of the children.   The very identical vice is not always trans-
mitted, but there  is always the result of a morbid organization
which shows itself  in some mental defect or physical weak-
ness.   For instance,  the daughter of a father addicted to
tobacco may not inherit  the craving for tobacco,  but the effect
of the vice may  be  shown in a weak  heart, poisoned nerve
centres, laying the foundation for hysteria in after years, or 
                        HEREDITY.                     23
again  in a defective eyesight,  feeble will,  or  poor memory.
Diseases of the parents or ancestors  may not necessarily pro-
duce the same diseased condition in the offspring, but it gives
a weakened condition  of  organs,  with  tendency  to  disease.
Again the seeds of many diseases are transmitted from parent
to child as cancer, consumption,  scrofula,  gout,  and certain
skin diseases.  Of all morbid heritages,  unsoundness of mind
in its  numerous forms seems most constant, and  the results
form a considerable proportion of our criminal citizens.
  The parents'  cultivation or neglect determines the capacity
and  facility for learning in the children.   The truth of this
law is evidenced when  followed through several generations,
but  is not as distinctly seen in a single  one.   The natural
dulness of children born of uneducated  parents is  proverbial.
The children of people accustomed to arithmetic learn figures
quicker  than those  of  differently educated persons; while
the children of classical scholars learn Greek and Latin easier.
It has already been said that it was the effect  of moral char-
acter, not reputation,  that is  bequeathed  to  children.   It
is the habits  of righteousness and purity which give the or-
ganic tendencies for good.   It is that which parents do most
persistently and constantly, and not the short periods and
fitful impulses for right or wrong, that gives the most marked
impressions to  the  child's nature.  Parents must do  what
they desire their children to be.  Make  sobriety the habit  of
the parents, and intemperance becomes hateful to the children. 
 24         MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
 Make chastity the habit of the fathers and mothers, and licen-
 tiousness will become revolting to every principle  of conduct
 which regulates the individual offspring.   Every  child that
 is born, from the top of its  head to  the  soles of its feet, in
 every atom and  cell  of its brain, in every emotion and impulse
 of its heart, is thickly coated with the impression of the habits
 of its parents.   To  give children clean and noble birthrights,
 we must have fathers strong and healthy, free from intemper-
 ance, narcotics,  and all sexual vices, kind, pure, and  good.
 We must have refined, well  informed, and vigorous mothers,
 whose physical and mental  influences are such  as to add
 strength and  vitality.  Such a parentage, such an ancestry,
 gives  the  child a good and right beginning in  life.  All
 parents desire to give their children a happy establishment in
 life; but is it not a fact  that  children are  constantly  being
 deprived  of this noble  heritage by the thoughtless way  in
 which they are  created ?  Is it not true  that again and  again
 laborers, professional men, men of leisure,  of intellect, return
 from a day of mental worry or manual toil, unfit for anything
 but prolonged and  restful sleep, but  instead they enter the
 arena of child  creation, and that in the most sensual manner.
 The father's mental  and  bodily condition at the time of such a
conception puts  into the foundation, structure,  and character
of the offspring the worst elements of his nature.   All through
the prenatal months the mother's habits are those to foster,
train, and develop these evils.   This thoughtless and chance. 
HEREDITY.
25
creation of children is occurring in all the homes of the land.
Not only in  the  homes of intemperance, debauchery, and of
obscene blasphemy, but in our Christian homes, the homes of
our  educators, our teachers,  philanthropists^ ministers,  and
preachers of  the gospel.   Surely when parents  touch  the
Unseen in that holiest and highest power of their being, the
creation  of an immortal soul,  it should be with as much
thought  and consideration as the preparation of a sermon, a
day's work, or the making of a garment.  Is it not a fact that
constantly parents are entering the temple of procreation,  and
by mistake  get into  the  Holy of Holies.   They enter the
sacred precincts  without preparatory  sacrifice,  without their
priestly garments on, and  with unwashen hands, and  in the
very  nature  of things  their gifts  and  offspring  cannot be
acceptable  to the  Most  High.   To  be well born,  parents
must elect the conception of the child, put into  its nature the
best gifts  of their possession,  prepare in a  physical  and
mental  way  for  the  sacred office.   This means great self-
denial on the part of  parents to keep themselves in harmony
with  Nature's laws; but the  blessedness of such a parentage
will be  more than a compensation for its responsibilities.
Great will  be the joy of the father and mother who cultivate
health and  strength of body and mind,  and sacrifice  to the
interests of the unborn the habits of sensuality, the differences
of tastes  and opinions, and together, after careful study of the
laws of heredity, elect a child  to conscious existence, — surely 
26         MOTHER,  BABY, AND NURSERY.
He who in His love and wisdom made  these laws looks with
approval upon them,  saying, " the promise is to you and your
children."  In the interests of the "little child who shall lead
them," may the day be hastened when the responsibility and
sacredness  of parentage, with a better  understanding of the
laws of  heredity,  shall lead to a more careful selection of the
husband and wife in marriage, and shall inspire the young
man and woman to personal preparation for these high duties.
This preparation simply means true living in all  respects and
in the best and  noblest manner,  "the  white life for  two."
Knowledge must  precede virtue, for no  chance  act can be a
moral one.   We must know in order to do.  Each individual
evidences  all  the good which  preceding  generations  have
wrought out, and so the future shall show forth the acts of
parents.   Each thought, each word, each deed, shall leave its
impress on posterity, physically, mentally, morally. 
 
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PRENATAL   PERIOD.
               " Above all, to thine own self be true,
                Aud it must follow, as the night the day,
                Thou cannot be false to any one."

TN the  important work of  the  prenatal period  the first
    requirement is  physical development.  A  perfect phy-
sique betokens  the  best promise of a  good mentality.  The
mother's  first attention should  be  given in these months to
right living, acquainting herself and conforming her life to
the laws and  conditions of physical health.   For the perfect
physical growth of the unborn, the mother  in  the prenatal
months must obey  the laws  of hygiene,  and so live as to
invigorate her health and preserve the integrity of her own
nervous system.   Sleep, clothing,  exercise, baths, diet, and
fresh air  are  the  essentials  which  should receive attention.
Ignorance, on the part of the mother, of the human system, of
the functions of different organs and relation  of organs to
others,  lead to grave mistakes, and often so affect the consti-
tution of the child before its birth that after  years  cannot
repair.  The mother, to be faithful  to her trust,  cannot be ig-
norant of the laws of health.  A  pregnant woman will require 
28         MOTHER, BABY, AND NURSERY.
more  sleep than at other times.  Nature  has allotted the ex-
hausted energies of both body and mind to be restored by sleep,
and nothing destroys health so rapidly as the want of refresh-
ing sleep.  This full measure of sleep  should be secured at
this time as a great aid to pure repose and tranquillity of mind,
which secures the right development of  the  nervous system
in the unborn.  The mother's sleep should be of ample allow-
ance,  at early hours, in cool, well-ventilated rooms.   The bed
should give room for freedom  of movement, and chance to lie
in any posture.  The mother  accustoming herself to  sleep in
any and all positions  in the early months of pregnancy will
have  greater  freedom, and her rest be less  disturbed in the
later months by the discomfort of her form.  Regular  hours of
rest should be established, and the mother should insist that
her daily nap be free  from interruption of family and callers.
The sleep should not be one of exhaustion, inertia, or ennui,
but quiet, peaceful sleep, —"tired Nature's sweet restorer."
An abundance of fresh air is of the highest importance at this
time.   During pregnancy respiration is  quickened,  greater
quantities of carbonic  acid are  eliminated, making an increased
demand for  oxygen.   So far as health, weather, and duties
will permit, the greater portion of the day should be  spent in
the open  air and  sunshine.   " Lead a gently active  life " is
the sage advice  of a  physician to  his enceinte  patient when
questioned about  exercise.   Moderate,  agreeable  exercise,
not violent or carried to excessive fatigue, and never to ex- 
PRENATAL  PERIOD.
29
haustion, should be the daily rule.  This exercise may include
a moderate amount of housework, and  activity in the open
air  by walking and easy riding.   Seek exercise in the open
air  and sunshine as promoters of  good digestion,  refreshing
sleep, and cheerfulness of mind.  It is cruel and most unwise
to confine a pregnant woman to a few rooms, and a walk after
dark for fear some one may see she is about be a mother.  It
would be well if American women  learned from the Germans,
who do not house  themselves during this period, but go as
strength will   permit.   Moderate exertion all  through the
months, avoiding violent action, is the rule.   Indolence does
not promote the  health or tend  to easy parturition, and is
detrimental to the  development and safety of the offspring.
The matter of dress is of great importance to health at all
times,  but doubly so at this time.   The  devitalization of the
organs of  reproduction  in pregnancy by the  compression of
clothing often seriously interferes with  the  growth of the
child.   Many of the ills and sufferings of pregnancy are due
to the uncomfortable garments worn.  The clothing should
be loose, without ligature  or  bands, and with equal warmth
throughout, the extremities receiving special attention in this
direction.    Right here we wish to  emphasize to all expectant
mothers, that  if a woman spends any time and thought as to
her dress,  do  so at this time, and if you ever have a pretty
dress in all your life have one when you are  pregnant.  By
putting forth  a little thought  and effort a woman can clothe 
 30         MOTHER,  BABY", AND NURSERY".
 herself in  becoming and comfortable garments during her
 gestation so that she may go where she choose with  grace,
 dignity,  and comfort.   There should be the usual cleanliness
 of the body, and more  than ordinary care of the skin by way
 of bathing.  To apply  water in one particular mode to every
 one  is an  error.   Frequent  sponge baths, followed by brisk
 rubbing, keep the skin in good  condition, and give tone to
 the entire  system.  The free use of water is beneficial.   The
 temperature of the water should be of an agreeable nature.
 The judicious use of sitz-baths are restful and  healthful. We
 cannot say as much for the  vaginal douche, -^hich is  better
 always omitted.   Baths of cocoanut or ;salad  oil, given with
 massage  of  the hips and abdomen, are most beneficial to both
 mother and child, giving  vigor to weak and debilitated ner-
 vous mothers, and a good tone to the nervous system of the
 babe.  Last, but not least, is diet  and regimen.   The diet
 should be nutritious and wholesome, and adapted to the par-
 ticular woman.  It should be generous  in  meats, vegetables,
 and  fruits,  and  at the  same  time easy of digestion.   There
 should be  plenty of  well-cooked food, seeking a  nutritious
 rather than a stimulating quality, with a gratification  of all
harmless desires and  a  denial of  harmful craving.   A  vora-
cious appetite should  be restrained, and a feeble one encour-
aged.  The best guarantee of a vigorous, well-formed child is
a good appetite, satisfied  by a reasonable amount of simple,
plain food.  Regularity  in  hours   of  eating  ought   to be 
                   PRENATAL PERIOD.                81
observed.  Much has been said in late years of  the benefit of
a fruit diet  to an easy parturition, full  directions of which
have been put  forth  in  "Tokology,"  "Parturition  without
Pain," "Eutocia," "Maternity Guide,"  and  like  books.
There is no doubt that much relief  of nausea, heartburn, con-
stipation, and other sufferings have been thus obtained.  The
erroneous opinion  that "the mother must  eat for two" has
led  to over-loading of the  system,  and the  more  rational
eating  induced  by the  fruit regimen  has done away  with
much of the sickness of pregnancy, and that with no perma-
nent injury to the child; but we repeat, the diet of pregnancy
should be adapted to  the particular woman.   If all expectant
mothers were strong, robust,  and vigorous, the fruit diet
could  be followed without restriction;  but such is  not the
case, hence our rule  to put mothers upon  a very nourishing
diet for the first seven months, until all bony centres of the
unborn are laid, when the fruit diet  can be somewhat observed
according to  the tone of the mother.  These habits of hygiene
should  be accompanied  by  cheerfulness, contentment, and
generous affections as promoters of health, and all be asso-
ciated  with  pure and  right emotions which have a salutary
action  on the whole system of  development.  The expectant
mother should try to cultivate for herself the utmost tranquil-
lity of mind, be at peace with  herself and all the world, for
the emotional state of the  mother above  all else influences the
growth of  the unborn.  The antenatal development of  the 
32         MOTHER, BABY.  AND NURSERY.
nervous system in the right direction influences above all else
the future of the individual.
  The nervous system  is a balance  to the body.   Upon the
influence of its workings depends the equipoise of all other
organs and forces, and their perfect or imperfect action hangs
upon  its healthy tone.    The thought  and  action  of  every
brain  is influenced much  by its circulation.   The  circulation
of the blood is  under  the direct control of certain nerves.
The brain is a physical  organ, and the mind, the function of
the brain, is physical  power.   Hence the instincts,  the  affec-
tions, the passions, the perceptions, thought,  reason, imagina-
tion, memory, are but physical forces of the brain, or, in other
words, functions of the  mind, and thus it is  that the nervous
system governs to a  great extent the physical, mental, and
moral status of the individual.  For this reason the expectant
mother  cannot pass with  impunity any condition which will
aid in the right development  of the muscular, bony,  and ner-
vous systems of her child, and she should give her first and
most  careful attention to this physical growth, after which
the mental culture may  engage her thought.   The law in this
connection is that the parent's cultivation or  neglect as a rule
determines the capacity and facility for learning in the child.
In this  mental life the moulding process  need not be left to
the ordinary action of chance occurrences  of  modifying influ-
ences.  but  may be intelligently directed and outlined if the
mother so wills.   The truth in the old adage, "children are 
                   PRENATAL PERIOD.                33
what their  mothers make them," is seen very often in  this
connection.   If the mother put forth persistent and deter-
mined effort in any direction with a whole-soul desire, she
may determine with almost a  certainty the mental  bent  and
career of her unborn child.   Note the wording, capacity for
mental effort is given  by parents'  attainments, but  the  par-
ticular mental  direction may be  largely directed  in  the
prenatal months by the mother.
   To  illustrate this law, take the  following  example.  Of
five children in a family, the two eldest are dull and very slow
to learn.   The third,  a child of twelve years, is remarkably
bright, sensitive, talented, apt and quick at her lessons, with
a keen appreciation of the beauties  of nature.  The younger
children,  while not her equal, are  superior to the  eldest in
mental and physical states.   The history  of the mother is
this:  reared in the East with fair advantages,  she became the
wife of a farmer, and  moved  to the West, and was deprived
of all social and literary privileges, and much overworked in
the bread-and-butter struggle  of life.  In the early months
of the prenatal period of the favored child the mother's atten-
tion was attracted to  a volume of  Walter Scott's poems at
the house of a neighbor.  She  became possessed with a desire
to have a volume of her own.   After much trouble and sacri-
fice she got one.   Her own words are  as  follows:  "I  had
a glorious time reading it.   For hours  I forgot my fatigue
and cares."  She read and re-read the  book, and came to
                             3 
34         MOTHER,  BABY, AND NURSERY.
know it by heart, and to repeat it by rote when at her work.
There is no doubt that this was the source of the superior and
poetic tendencies of the  child.  You see in that mother the
law and  result.   There was  the whole-soul  desire followed
persistently day after day, and her habit determined the bent
of the child's  mind.  Mothers must do what they wish their
children to be; more than that, they must do persistently, and
that with intense interest and pleasure.   The genius of Napo-
leon I. affords a good example of prenatal influence.  Previous
to the birth of Napoleon his  mother shared the fortunes of
war with her husband.   On horseback most of the time, she
acquired active  and healthy habits.  She  was  in constant
peril  and danger,  was surrounded and engaged in  all the
pomp and circumstance of war.  She not only became familiar
with the horrors and anguish of war, but became reconciled
to and heartily enjoyed it.  She gave to her son the  passion
and ambition for war pursuits which did not stop short of the
subjection of the world.   An  only child with a great  passion
for music has  this history.  This daughter of a physician did
not come to the home until after a number of years of married
life.  The  mother  was supremely happy  in  the welcome to
the baby.   All through the prenatal months  she was  flushed
with joy, and while no musician herself she spent hours every
day trying to sing.   Even in the night hours she would hum
lullabies to her expected babe.   Month in and month out she
sung or tried to sing.  The  child very early developed great 
                   PRENATAL  PERIOD.                35
 fondness for music.  The Greeks early recognized the impor-
 tance of  prenatal training.   As soon as a Grecian woman be-
 came pregnant, she observed rigid laws of diet and life.  She
 was immediately surrounded with works of art, music,  statu-
 ary, fine  pictures,  and other beautiful and inspiring objects.
 So anxious were the Greeks  that  the  best interests of the
 state be served by way of their sons and daughters, that special
 laws were enacted for the control of women about to be mothers.
 Women took special physical training with this end in view.
 The Gymnasium with its physical and mental culture was open
 to women.  The law-givers  of Sparta said, female slaves are
 good enough to stay at home and spin, but who can expect a
 splendid offspring, the appropriate gift of a free Spartan woman
 to her country, from mothers brought up in such occupations.
 The world has never seen a  nobler physique, finer beauty,  or
 a better type of mind than in these same Greeks.   It is said
 that travellers  in Italy, that  land of painting  and sculpture,
 are often struck with the frequency with which the lovely
 features of the  Madonna are to be seen in the faces of children
 of even the uncultured peasantry.  When we  remember that
 in almost every chapel of that country there is a representa-
 tion of  the Virgin and the Holy Child, often  from the  hand
 of some master of the noble art,  and the habit of the  com-
mon people in  their frequent devotions of regarding  these
pictures with reverence, it is very easy to see whence  come
the beautiful  faces  of the Italian children.   The children 
3ff         MOTHER, BABY,  AND NURSERY.
whose existence dated  from the horrors of the first French
Revolution turned  out  to  be weak, nervous,  and irritable in
mind and body,  and extremely susceptible  to  impressions,
any  extraordinary excitement throwing them into  insanity.
The  noticeable increase  of insanity and suicide  in our own
country the last few years is attributed by many to the anxie-
ties,  depressions, and fears  caused by our late Civil War.  It
is the children begotten at this  time who  are furnishing the
increase to the above ranks.  The  mental phase  of prenatal
development  is worthy  attention  and thought,  under the
operation of its laws, poets,  thinkers, artists,  musicians, and
other types of manhood and womanhood, desirable and unde-
sirable, are produced.  Any reliable work on  phrenology will
give  the desirable  traits of a well-balanced mind, and in this
effort of the  mother to cultivate her offspring in embryo in
mental directions  she must give attention to those desirable
qualities which are deficient in herself and the father.   It is
the   oft-repeated  act done with energy and  interest which
gives the tendency.  Again the physical and nervous demands
upon a mother's system during the  prenatal months, with the
fatiguing cares of  our present social arrangement, often pro-
duce  a debility of  the intellectual faculties,  and sometimes
there seems almost  a cessation  if  not a retrograde  action in
these months which needs a word of caution, for the expectant
mother  by the exercise  of a little will-power can throw  off
this listlessness and lack of interest she feels for mental work. 
                  PRENATAL PERIOD.                37
In the prenatal months the mother needs some mental occupa-
tion which requires active  thought.   Do it with interest, but
never try to  force the mental at the  expense of the physical
strength.   The  mother  is the great storehouse from which
the unborn  child draws  its supplies, both physically  and
mentally.   Are  you familiar with  electro typing, the process
by  which objects are  coated with gold, silver, or  copper by
electricity.   There  is  the  electrical  machine,  the  object or
mould to be covered, and the liquid in which the gold, silver,
or copper is  dissolved.  Silently the currents of  electricity
take the particles of gold or other metal from the solution,
and deposit  them upon the object.   No  movement can  be
detected,  yet the  mysterious electrical force  is continually
drawing particles from the solution,  and dropping  them upon
the mould, spreading  them  with a  uniformity no  artist can
attain.  Leaves, insects, fruits, and even flowers  have  been
plated by  this wonderful process,  every line being  copied
with an exactness that knows no mistake.   All through the
prenatal period the mother is engaged in a kind of electrotyp-
ing.  The sensitive foundation of  an embryo child  is  the
object to be electrotyped.  The  mother holds within  the
mysteries  of  her own organization the currents with which to
do the work.  From the mother's character and surroundings
are drawn the materials  to do this  plating.   Day  after  day,
week after week,  until  the allotted  months are fulfilled,
silently and steadily in the brightness of  the morn, the  dim- 
 38         MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
 ness  of the twilight, the darkness  of the night,  awake  or
 asleep, without  will  or choice,  the  work goes on between
 mother and child.  From the mother's common life of every
 day, with  its cares, its toils and necessities, its heavy loads
 and oppressive burdens, from her thoughts and feelings, her
 joys and sorrows, her hopes and ambitions, her aspirations
 and knowledge, her love and hate, her prayers and devotions,
 from  her  occupations, her places of amusement, her social
 gatherings, companions and  home-life will she involuntarily
 gather  and transfer to  this new living  being.   With what
 materials shall mothers electrotype human beings ?  Shall it
 be  good or bad, enduring or otherwise; shall it be from love,
 joy, charity, health, and power, from  habits of industry and
 chastity, from pure and  holy  thoughts, from  the  cardinal
 virtues of  prudence, justice,  temperance,  and fortitude; or
 shall it be from the dross and corrosive coating of discontent,
 hate,  jealousy, from habits of  sloth and inertia, from impure
 and sinful  thoughts,  from the  sorrow  and suffering of  a
 wasted, aimless,  and frivolous life?   Shall mothers electro-
 type human beings from bodily weaknesses  and ills,  from
 their mental and  moral obliquities, their foibles and mean-
nesses,  their  defects  and overpluses  of whatever  kind?
Enough has been said to indicate to  every parent the great
responsibilities,  the golden opportunities,  the  sacred  privi-
leges of the prenatal period.   Mothers have the prerogative
of choosing the materials  for the electrotyping of  sensitive 
                  PRENATAL PERIOD.                39
human beings.  To  them is given the privilege of choosing
the  materials and directing the process with an intelligent
purpose, instead of leaving it  to  a chance plan.   When the
embryo child inherits from the father the base foundation-
material of  an  unholy, impure  character, the  mother  can
never change this material, but she can by intelligent purpose
so electrotype with a purer  metal  as to cover, and sometimes
she can  make so durable and compact a  coating,  and of such
thickness, that in  the wear and tear of  life the  plating will
last nearly or quite a lifetime.  Again the human mould may
be of such base material that with all  her care and labor the
tarnished foundation is ever visible.   She may beautify and
make somewhat better, but can never give the highly polished
brightness of purity.  Moreover,  in a like manner, mothers
can tarnish and utterly spoil the  choicest materials in these
mites of humanity with the  dross of her own unhallowed and
unhealthy  existence.   In   these  prenatal  months,  if  the
mother's condition be one  of  weakness,  weariness, anxiety,
and  anguish of spirit, if her life be burdened with  labor and
household  cares, her nervous  system  weakened by bad air,
loss of sleep, late  hours, and society excesses, and exhausted
by the marital demands of intemperate, passionate husbands,
if  her surroundings  be such  as   to  excite her hate,  fear,
jealousy, anger, and other wrong passions, she can only give
birth  to  a spiritless, weak, puny, feeble,  ill-formed, and ner-
vous child, when under right conditions she would have given 
40         MOTHER, BABY",  AND  NURSERY".
birth to a healthful, energetic, happy baby, blessed with strong
nerve-power, — one  of those babies who " is a wellspring of
pleasure in  the home, a link between angels  and men."  It
is  evident that all through the prenatal  period the  father's
part can only be done by way of the mother, and his manner,
thoughtfulness, and care can help to give to the expectant
mother  wisdom, courage, hope, and endurance.  He can  do
much to overcome  confusion,   weakness,  discomfiture, and
foreboding, to prevent her being lacerated by irritations and
disappointments,  for the effects of all these  conditions  are
engrafted on the  offspring.
  "Ought coition  to be  permitted to the pregnant woman?"
Experience,  physiology, and observation of the laws of nature
answer  in the  negative.   The  habit  is never found among
the savages  or among the lower animals, the brutes of crea-
tion.  This  perversion of the prenatal period saps the vital
force of the  mother's strength,  destroying that which rightly
belongs  to the unborn child.  It blights and blasts, if it does
not destroy, the life of the child.   It is the practice of this
habit which  more often than any other causes the mother to
suffer from  innumerable ills all through the months of  preg-
nancy, thus  weakened and debilitated, in an irritable  nervous
state,  and  with wasted vital  force,  she goes  through  the
agonies  of death  to bring forth a living child.   Under  the
practice of this habit the organs of reproduction in the chil-
dren are given an irritable and over-developed condition.  As 
PRENATAL  PERIOD.
41
the result of this state we find little  boys and girls  practising
self-abuse.  Later  the daughters are consigned to monthly
periods of  pain  which  undermine  their  health  and  make
them confirmed invalids.   The  sons, goaded on by their irri-
table organs, are found frequenting places they ought not, and
when  married they make their wives'  lives miserable and
wretched by their demands.  The incontinent living of  the
fathers and mothers of America in the prenatal period is one
of the crying evils of the day.   It is practised here in our
own beautiful land  more  than in any other nation.   The
unlawful  habit is cursing America, debasing her mothers and
fathers, and enfeebling her sons and daughters, and corrupt-
ing the morals of all.   It is filling our cemeteries with little
graves, and causing the death of children by the score.   The
familiar story  in the Holy Scriptures of Mary and Joseph and
the  birth  of  Jesus reads thus: "And  Joseph knew  Mary
not  until  she had  brought forth  her  first born."  Mary,
overshadowed by the Most High, was permitted to have  an
undisturbed maternity.   Would  that every mother and child
might  be thus blessed!  We bespeak for the moral tendencies
of the babe that it  be given  prenatal  love; from the first
moment  of conception the  opportunity begins.   On  every
hand to-day  may  be seen  sons  and daughters  subject  to
habitual  times of despondency and  melancholy, cursed with
periodical fits  of  the blues, as the lawful fruit of the dissatis-
faction and discontent of  the mothers because of  their crea- 
42         MOTHER, BABY",  AND  NURSERY".
tion.   Is  it to be wondered at that fathers do not have the
filial duty and respect of their children, that mothers  have
not the fullest  confidence of their daughters,  or the greatest
freedom with their sons, when the first  and deepest impres-
sions  of  character in these children were those to create
estrangement, and not love  and trust?  When prenatal love
and care are withheld, the birthright is no better than that of
a child  born out of wedlock, and characters are determined
which  bolts  and  bars  may not restrain.  These children,
begotten  in lust,  conceived in sin, are shapen in iniquity.
The  mother in these sacred months  indulges  in all kinds of
gratification and  society excesses.   In the secrecy of   their
chamber the parents give themselves up to lustful passions,
and indulge in excesses of the most debasing nature, and that
because only one child can  be born.   The  mother is melan-
choly and despondent at her condition, fills her  home  with
fretfulness, and is  irritable most of the time.  By  and by the
baby is born, — a  feeble, fretful thing, a  trial alike to its
parents and all about it.  A  kind Providence is to be thanked
if the child is not deformed or idiotic.  The wrongs and sins
written in that child are not easily effaced.   It will in some
way always bear the evidence of being unloved and uncared
for before its birth.  The discomforts and dangers of maternity
need no longer deter any brave, true woman  from becoming
a mother.  We wish  to make emphatic that from the first
moment of conception, all through the prenatal months, for 
                  PRENATAL PERIOD.                43
the good and comfort of the mother, and to subserve the best
interests of the unborn, the mother should be under the care
of her physician, who should direct her exercise, diet, baths,
and relieve  any abnormal conditions  that  may  arise.   If
fathers  and mothers  only  realized  the antenatal power pos-
sessed by them over their offspring, and learned to use it
aright, thus lifting parentage out of the depths of chance and
animalism, into the region  of wise, pure thought and purpose.
" All of a woman's womanliness and all of a man's  manliness
find full expression  here in the health and character of their
offspring."
   " Fathers and mothers are  at no time so like the gods, as
when they give health to their sons and daughters," seeking
after the largest, broadest,  and  highest culture of bod}',  mind,
and heart, and strive to surround the  advent  of the infant
with the  best possible conditions. 
         THE   LITTLE  STRANGER.

               " Where did you come from, baby dear 1
                 Out of the nowhere into the here."

THE BABY, THE FIRST  HOURS  OF LIFE, THE FIRST WEEK,
                    THE FIRST MONTH.
                  The First Hours  of Life.
r I "HE baby is born, has breathed and cried.   The cord is
  ■*-    tied and  severed, and  it enters upon its separate  and
individual existence, helpless  and unable  to do anything for
itself.   The  little one, emerging from  its soft and maternal
habitat into the chilly  atmosphere of our world, utters a
wailing cry of pain and  distress.   Sweet music is this  cry to
all ears, but not a joyous tone to the utterer.  By this  act of
crying the lungs  are inflated and respiration established.   In
the mean  time the cord has ceased to pulsate, and is ready to
be ligated with a strong  white string of coarse thread an inch
from  the  infant's umbilicus.   It is now cut a little farther
from the knot and the clot of  blood pressed out.   Wrapping
the baby in a warm flannel or cotton-flannel blanket,  it is put
on its right side to favor the new course of blood circulation;
and the doctor, carefully wiping all mucus from its eyes, nose, 
OUB  BOVS  AM)  (ilBLS. 
 
THE  LITTLE  STRANGER.
45
and mouth, hands  the  little stranger to the  nurse.   The
wants  of the little  stranger are few but important.  First,
warmth; second, gentleness in handling; and, third, a period
of rest, lying on its right side to favor the closing of the valve
in the  heart which prevents the course of  the  foetal  circula-
tion.   The length of  time of  this  needed rest varies from
half an hour to several hours, according to the baby.   If the
baby has cried lustily and strong, showing good vitality, a half
hour is sufficient.   If its cries were slow to appear, and then
but feeble wails, it will  need a longer time of quiet.   The
infant's condition, from some extraordinary cause, may demand
interference with  this immediate  rest, but such  interference
calls for the  doctor's  attention, not the nurse's.  The  rest
has been taken, say the usual half hour of a vigorous baby,
and it  is now ready for its  first cleansing, and to be dressed.
The body of the new-born infant  is covered with a  cheesy,
oily substance known as vernix  caseosa.   It is necessary to
remove this from the delicate pink skin, but great gentleness
and care is demanded in this  act.  The baby should be
handled  with delicacy, and the  less  handled the less   the
chance of  injury.   The baby is not to be sponged with soap
and warm  water.   Never  do it.   The  skin is  too  tender,
soaps too irritant, and the rapid evaporation of water chills
it.  Instead, under cover or, if exposed, lying on the nurse's
lap before a hot grate fire,  smear it thoroughly all over with
cocoanut or salad oil, or, better yet, fresh, unsalted lard, — 
46         MOTHER, BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
not "store lard," but leaf lard that has been rendered at home.
In this anointing give especial attention to the flexures of the
joints and  the  creases of the neck and ears.   With a dry,
soft  cloth,  in a few moments all  the  vernix caseosa is  easily
wiped off,  and  the baby is perfectly cleansed  without irrita-
tion  or exposure.   The  little one should be well looked over
by the attending  physician, for deformities.   Now the little
stranger  is ready to have the cord dressed, and for its cloth-
ing.   The  manner of dressing and  ligating the cord varies
according to the individual views of  the attending physician.
Sufficeth to say,  the cord  is enveloped  in a small pad of
absorbent cotton  or lamb's  wool,  the whole  retained  by a
flannel bandage just tight enough  to hold the dressing in
place, or a small  square of scorched linen,  pierced in the
centre by a hole through which  the  cord is passed,  and the
sides are neatly folded over the cord, and the whole retained
by the bandage.  A soft,  warm cloth should be placed at the
buttocks, inside of the napkin, to catch the first discharges.
  After the other clothing has  been put on,  the eyes  and
mouth should be carefully washed with warm water.   This is
the only water needed  in the first  cleansing.  Soon as the
baby is dressed give slowly, drop by drop, two to three  tea-
spoonfuls of cool water.    Again the baby is ready for a much
needed rest.  Place it on a table, in  a chair or crib, and  put
in the warmest  corner of the room, with its eyes shaded from
the light.  What, without anything  to eat?   Yes,  emphati- 
THE  LITTLE  STRANGER.
47
cally yes; the water is all it needs, and you may be satisfied,
if warm enough, it will quietly rest and sleep for hours.  If
comfortable, it will be good-natured.  If restless and crying
out, the chances are it is not warm enough, or disturbed by
the light and noise, which irritate its sensitive nerves.  The
water  can be repeated, and will soothe the latter condition;
then let the baby alone.   The officious  nurse who constantly
fusses  with  the baby will soon  have it crying.   As a rule the
child will pass a stool within the  first five or six hours, and
sometimes  several.  The same is  true of the action of the
kidneys.   If the bowels  or kidneys do not act, and  the baby
becomes  fretful and peevish, an ounce or two of warm water
as  an  enema will usually cause  a stool.   Hot  applications
over the lumbar region or over the bladder will aid in a flow
of urine.  If twenty-four hours pass without  any action  of
the bowels or kidneys refer the matter to the physician.  The
first stools passed  by the infant are black  or greenish-black,
and very viscid.   This is known as the meconium,  and is
found  in the intestines at birth.   When should  the baby be
fed ?  Not before five or  six hours after its birth.  After this
time,  whenever it becomes  restless  and wakeful,  let it  be
taken up and put to the mother's breast.  If not satisfied with
what it gets, let it be given plenty of hot water, nothing else
in the  first twenty-four horn's of life but what it gets from the
mother and  hot water.  It is the custom to weigh the baby in
the first twelve hours of  life. 
48         MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
  TJic  First Week.  The baby has been brought successfully
through  the  crises incident. to its birth and  first hours  of
life.   The  requirements of warmth, rest, and  gentleness  in
handling still continue.  For  the  first week the baby should
lie on its right side most of the time,  with its eves  protected
from the light.   This  week is characterized by the dropping
of the cord, the changing of the stool from the meconium  to
a healthy yellow, and the establishing  of regular habits of eat-
ing and rest.   Ever}- other day its clothes should be removed,
and the baby thoroughly oiled  all over and fresh clothes put
on.   The oil, with slight friction, is  completely taken up by
the skin, and adds to  the nourishment of the baby, beside
giving a healthier  skin and one freer  from the so-called baby
rashes.   Ever}- day wash out its eyes  and mouth with warm
water.   If  the napkins are changed as soon as soiled,  oil will
keep the buttocks as  clean as water, and prevent chafing.
Often babies, if comfortable, will sleep ninety out of the first
hundred hours.   When the baby becomes restless, carefully
Lift it up and change its posture, then  put back.  Every three
to four hours it should be  put to the  breast, when, if not
satisfied with what it gets,  fill  it  up  with hot water.  If its
little stomach is  full of hot water, you may be sure it will
sleep,  and be  assured babies' stomachs  hold more  than  a
"thimbleful," contrary to the  opinion of the "Sarv Gamps"
of the  nursery; nothing  in oil  or teas,  sweetened water,
crackers, molasses, decoctions  of  flaxseed, and all the what- 
THE  LITTLE  STRANGER.
49
nots of the "nursery Solons."  Nothing, absolutely nothing,
is to be given the baby but water and Nature's food, except
by  the  advice  of the  physician.  The  baby  is  not  to be
wakened to be fed, but if awake every three  to  four hours
through the day, and six to seven at night, it should be put to
the breast.   After four to seven days the cord will be found
to have dropped off.   If the umbilicus looks raw and sore, or
there is any discharge, clean the latter away with a soft cloth,
then take a good-sized raisin, cut open, taking  out the seeds,
put it on the umbilicus, and cover over with a soft cloth, and
retain all by the bandage.  Renew the raisin every day until
the navel is entirely healed, when the bandage is to be dis-
carded.  If there is any soreness of the eyes, refer  to the phy-
sician at  once.  At the end of the week the frequent stools of
meconium will have changed into less frequent ones of yellow
or greenish-yellow, and have lost their viscid character.   The
baby will have done well if it has held its own in weight, and
very well if it has added to this.  The baby will have been
good-natured if it has had sufficient warmth, rest,  regular
feeding, or, in other words, been kept comfortable.
  The  First Month.   After the first  week the baby may be
dressed and  undressed  night  and morning.   The  material
and  amount of  clothing at night should be similar to  that
worn during the day.   In the morning dressing a sponge bath
of soft warm water, at a temperature of  a 100° to a 105° F.
should be given in a room at a temperature  of 70° F.   The 
50         MOTHER, BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
directions here given are for ordinary, vigorous infants.  Weak
babies will be aided in their struggle for life by a daily oil
bath instead of a sponge of water.   This first month acquires
importance in  the  training  of  the infant.  This  education
begins with the first hour of life.  Order is the first law of
Nature, and is the  same with the baby.   Enforce regularity
of habit.   The same hour for  dressing  and undressing, the
interval  between meals, should be enforced for all healthy
infants.  Accustom the little one to lie  quietly in  its  bed or
crib, even if awake, without  rocking.  The sensation caused
by moving rapidly in a swing or a rocking-chair is  increased
to dizziness in  rocking the  infant.   One of the important
things to be enforced this first  month is  a judicious " letting
alone."  Many  babies suffer from  over attention.   Most
interesting are these mites of humanity, having eyes and ears
which see and  hear  not.  The temptation  is to watch the
unfolding of life by seeing,  hearing,  touching,  tasting, and
smelling.   The  baby is  so pretty, with its pink cheeks and
bright eyes opening with  awakening interest,  and so  it is
taken  up,  tossed around, and  sung to with chirping and
uncanny noises,  without any  thought of the excitement to its
nervous system and the consequent restless, uneasy sleeping
period which follows.  Give the baby a calm letting  alone,
avoid seeing if "it grows in intellect every day," and let
the little  frame and unwrought nerves  become  gradually
acquainted with our noisy, rushing world.   Be satisfied and 
THE  LITTLE  STRANGER.
51
rejoice to see it a little animal content to eat and sleep, grunt
and grow without the fuss and fume of most nurseries, and
leave  to future years the giving of honors to this heir of the
household.  At the least two pounds should be added to the
weight in this first month.  The nursery should be kept well
ventilated, light and  full of sunshine, and at an even tem-
perature both day and night, about 70° F.  All hail when the
first month, the rubicon  of infancy is past! 
         GROWTH  AND  DEVELOPMENT.

                " How much does the baby weigh ?
                 Baby who came a month ago."
  " No one thinks to weigh the baby's smile or the love that came with the
little one."       ,,

"TTOW  is  the  baby?"   "Oh,  splendid,   thanks.   He
       weighs fourteen pounds."   The weight of the baby is
taken as an index  to its  general  growth and development.
A large per cent of  birth announcements give the baby's
weight.  This custom points out "the  grip  on  life" with
which " the little stranger " is started.  But weight must not
alone be considered  in the vitality, growth, and development
of the organs.
  The  average weight of a naked  new-born  infant is  six  to
seven pounds, about one-twentieth of its adult weight, and
its length is less  than one third to what it will attain.   The
head and upper extremities are larger in proportion than the
pelvis  and  lower extremities.  The  abdomen  is larger, and
the chest smaller, in size  to its body than that of  the adult.
The  heart and liver are much larger relatively than in later
years.  The middle  point  of the  body is  nearly at  the
umbilicus.   The  head is round, the  face oval, the  brain and 
GROWTH  AND  DEVELOPMENT.
53
eye larger in proportion than in the adult; the eyes are dark,
eyelashes and eyebrows  short and  thin; the eyelids allow
much light to pass through them; the lips are full and slightly
separated in sleep, showing the  tip of the tongue resting in
the roof of the mouth.  The nose is short and flattened, with
well-dilated nostrils;  the ears are small and compressed tightly
to the head;  the forehead  small and rather  flattened, while
there may be little or much hair on top of the head.  The
skin is soft and rosy.  The pulse is 130 to 140 per  minute,
being  faster in girls  than in boys.   The respiration is about
35 per minute.  The special senses  are  dull and inexcitable,
and the movements mainly automatic.  The baby sleeps most
of the time.   The growth  and development  of the infant is
marked  by  a series  of changes.  For convenience we will
divide  into  two  periods:  I.  From  birth   until weaning.
II.  From weaning  until the completion of the  milk-teeth at
about  two years  of age.  This first period, from birth until
the ninth to  the eleventh month, is the most important one
to the  infant from a health standpoint, as one-tenth of all
babies born die within  the  first month,  and the greatest per
cent of those that perish die within the first year.  This first
period is largely taken up with the functions of nutrition and
respiration.   The  muscular and osseous systems  come into
great activity, and most  of the  internal organs diminish in
relative size.   The infant requires  not  only  energy  for the
waste and repair of the system, but a surplus  for growth and- 
54         MOTHER,  BABY", AND NURSERY".
development.  It is  not enough  that an infant live, but  it
must live and thrive, — that is, grow and develop; there must
be an unfolding and building up of new activities.  We must
have  in addition to the repair labor for the infant's frame,
constructive labor.   The demand is for repair and construc-
tive labor; for only when the infant's frame develops properly
is it healthy.   Health in the adult means waste and  repair;
but in the infant it  means more  than this, it is waste  and
repair and a surplus  for construction.  In  the first few days
after  birth the infant  loses in weight.   This may continue
for a week, but by the end of the  first month the baby should
have gained at  the least two pounds, and thereafter  should
increase at the rate of a half to an ounce a day.   This rapid
growth  and  increase should  be  carried on  from month to
month, except at the time of the eruption of the teeth, when,
if  the infant  holds its  own in weight, all is well,*  then  soon
as the teeth are cut, increase of weight should begin and con-
tinue until the eruption of more teeth, and thus on until the
first  dentition is completed  at the  end  of two  years.   But
mere increase of weight is not enough.   The infant may grow
fat and weigh more, but the increase of weight must  be due
to the development of bone  and  muscle, for health.   An
infant may grow fat from improper food, and  not be healthy,
only getting ready for a severe sickness; but when the infant
grows heavy and develops bone, then all is well.   The devel-
opment of bone shows above  all else the trend  of health or 
GROWTH  AND DEVELOPMENT.
55
disease for the infant.  The development of bone is shown in
two  ways:  first, by  the  early  closure  of the fontanelles;
second,  by dentition.   The fontanelles are spaces left by the
incompleted angles in the joining of the bones of  the  skull.
These spaces or " soft places " on the baby's head are gradu-
ally filled in before the eruption of the teeth; if not, we may
know the growth of the osseous system is not what it ought
to be.   The first teeth appear at the fourth to the sixth month,
and  at  regular intervals thereafter.   These  intervals vary
from two to six months.   The  eruption of the teeth  in the
lower jaw precedes by a short  time that of the corresponding
teeth in the upper jaw.   The  teeth appear in the following
order:  the central incisors  in the fourth to sixth month; the
lateral  incisors in the fifth to  seventh  month; the anterior
molars in the ninth to eleventh month; the  canines  in the
fifteenth to seventeenth month;  the second molars  at twenty-
one to twenty-three months.  At the weaning period of nine
months,  the child should have six to eight teeth, and  at the
very least four.   This rapid growth of  the muscular and
osseous  system must  be supplied by the  infant's  nutrition,
and if not supplied there  can  be no  development.  Do not
wait until time for the teeth to appear to know whether bone
growth  is taking place, but watch the fontanelles, which by
the second or third month should begin to fill up and gradu-
ally progress until closed.   The teeth  should appear on time.
Whatever tends to bone growth will develop muscle, not fat. 
56         MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
At once is seen the importance of watching and knowing the
weight of a baby, if we would keep it well,  growing, and
developing.   Soon after birth  the outer layer  of  the baby's
skin, the cuticle, is  exfoliated  and renewed.
  Little by little the motions of the hands and feet, the act
of sucking, the cries and expression of the face,  show voli-
tion;  perception  of  external objects occurs; prehension, or
the grasping of objects,  takes place;  memory begins  to grow,
as shown  by  recognition;  the baby  imitates  what it  sees,
begins cooing and babbling as a preparation for  speech.   Lit-
tle by little and by slow degrees the  muscles take on greater
action, until we  find it  rolling and creeping and  sometimes
even walking  by the end of the first year.
  At  the  end of the first year the pulse has diminished to
100 to 115.   At the  end of  the  second year the child's
respiration has fallen to  28.  The infant has gained twenty
centimetres (eight inches) in height this first year, and  only
nine centimetres (three and one-half inches) the second year.
  The second period of  growth and development is marked
by the completion of dentition.  The child walks and begins
to talk and think.  The brain of the infant doubles in weight
in the first two years.   This added to the rapid growth of
the muscular  and osseous systems shows the  great demand
upon its vitality,  and the caution necessary that the former is
not developed at  the expense of the latter.  The fund ion of
the brain,  the  intellectual faculties, should not  be called into 
GROWTH  AND  DEVELOPMENT.
57
play until after dentition is completed.   The  emotions are in
excess of  development  over the intellectual faculties,  but
care should be taken not to excite and agitate.  It is hardly
necessary to add, the whole nervous  system is more irritable
and excitable than in later years, and a characteristic of the
nervous system is the necessity for long or frequent and deep
slumber.  Health demands that muscle  and bone be developed
before the functions of the brain are called in action.  The
brain should increase in size,  but be slow in the taking on of
functional activity.  Muscle,  bone, and brain is the order for
health in the growth and development of the baby. 
BATHING.
                  " 'T is time the baby had his bath,
                    And he '11 be good, I hope;
                   He likes the water well enough,
                    But how he hates the soap! "

    BABIES are usually  washed  with  no  regard as to their
      comfort,  and the consequences are the baby frets and
cries all through the bathing and dressing.   The mother gets
irritated, tired, and exhausted, and bath time becomes a trial
and dread to both mother and child.  Nevertheless cleanliness
is very important in relation to the health of the baby.   The
skin is  a regulator  of temperature, and helps  to  oxygenate
the blood.   A  soft,  velvety skin with unobstructed pores is
essential to health;  and every mother  is  aware  that  only
sweet, clean babies  are attractive and receive   attention.
What  is to be done ?   The baby must have  its daily bath.
How can it be given so that it will  be a pleasure  to  the
mother, and soothing  and refreshing to  the baby.   For the
bath to become attractive, careful attention must be given to
its details.  The  temperature of the  room should never be
below 70° F., nor should it be so high as to be uncomfortable
for the mother.   The  bath should be  given with  tenderness 
;*»*
A.
THE BATH. 
 
BATHING.
59
and  soothing kindness, and  without rough handling.   By
persuasion and  care, and a playful, gentle tone of voice,  the
water will soon produce no fear, but be a source of amuse-
ment and  joy.  The bath  should not be given immediately
after eating, but on an empty stomach, nor  should  the baby
be fed for an hour or more afterward.  Use soft water at a
temperature of 98° to 100° F., indicated by the thermometer.
If water is used below the temperature of the baby's body, it
will  feel  cold to it.   The bath should always be conducted
so as to leave no coldness of the surface  or  chilliness of  the
system.   The temperature of the  bath is a very important
detail.  Never use soap.   Soft, pure water will  keep a baby
sweet and clean, and its skin will be free from  excoriations
and  chafing.  The lye and  grease of soap are  irritating to
the  baby's  delicate  skin.   Have  everything ready for  the
dressing:  napkins folded and warmed; clothes all  put together
ready to slip on; pins, brush, and towels in their place; every-
thing that will be needed laid in the order of their  use, and
over all the drying blankets.   After everything is  in readi-
ness  for the dressing, then prepare  the bath, water at  the
right temperature, with its soft sponge or napkin.  Take  the
baby gently up; quickly slip off its clothes.   Kneeling down
by the side of the  bath-tub, put the  baby, feet  first, in  the
water, immersing all but the face, keeping the head supported
on the left hand.  Gently with the sponge,  beginning at  the
head, wash face, nose,  and ears, passing quickly and syste* 
60         MOTHER,  BABY, AND NURSERY.
matically  down  from  head to heel.  Now  turn the baby
quickly on the hand, only keeping the face out of the water,
and beginning again at the head follow down the back, ending
at the feet.   This completes the washing.  Now, taking the
baby out of the bath, roll in the drying blankets on your lap
(the drying  blankets  are  a soft  cotton  towel  inside  of  a
flannel one).   Wrap well around  the chin and feet, tucking
the inner blanket under the arms and between the legs.  Dry
the face and  head, and brush  the  hair.   Now roll clown the
blanket to the waist, dry the  body if necessary,  and give  a
warm glow to the body by a slight friction of the hand.  Slip
on all the clothes to go over the head, keeping clothes rolled
up to the waist-line.   Now pull off the drying blankets from
the lower part of the body; dry and use friction; put on the
napkins  and stockings,  if  the latter are  worn; pull down
the clothes, and the bath and dressing is completed, taking a
very short time  compared to the customary hour of  fussing
and crying.
  A usually strong baby  should take this plunge every morn-
ing after the first month.   After the first week, and until old
enough to take  the plunge, the  baby can lie in the drying
blankets on the lap, and following the same order as in the
plunge bath, can be sponged and dried quickly.  After a year
and a half the temperature of the water can gradually be re-
duced to tepid, that is, 85° to 90° F. The infant should always
be  thoroughly dried after the bath,  and  made  comfortably 
                        BATHING.                     61
warm, and, if  disposed  to  sleep, let it do so.   A drink of
water just before and after a bath is soothing and helpful. A
baby should not be taken for exercise in the open air imme-
diately after its bath.  There  are children so delicate you can-
not give them a bath without coldness  of surface.   If this is
the case, don't bathe with water at all, but with oil, using the
best salad or cocoanut oil.   Undress such  a baby and put in
the double blanket as if taken from the water.  Have a dish of
hot oil, and with a linen  cloth quickly, beginning at the neck,
oil down the front of the body and both sides of the legs.  Then
with gentle friction under the blanket rub this oil thoroughly
in, so the skin is as fresh and clean as  if washed with water.
Very little oil is required, or  else the length of  time required
to rub  it in will tire the  little  one.   In a like manner the
baby can be turned and the back gone over also.   The whole
inunction and  dressing should not last more than fifteen to
thirty minutes.  The face and hands  can be washed with
water.  The oil is taken up and digested, and is of assistance
in nourishing  the  child.   A child, however  delicate,  can,
usually be bathed, something as a feeble adult individual can
little by little.  Above all,  observe the effects of bathing upon
your  baby, and that  will be the best which conduces to the
comfort of the bather.   Bathing requires as much judgment
and  as careful observation as any one thing that pertains to
infancy.
  As soon as children acquire the power of voluntary motion 
62         MOTHER, BABY",  AND NURSERY".
they necessarily make themselves dirty, and it becomes essen-
tial to Avash them more  frequently.  A dirty, tired baby will
be soothed by a rapid sponge of hot water at bedtime, giving
a quiet night of sleep, when otherwise a broken, restless night
would follow.  Particularly is this true after a baby walks,
a quick sponge of the little tired feet when put to rest will
give quiet and  refreshing slumber.
  The air bath.  The air bath  consists in a full exposure of
the whole of the baby's body when divested of its clothing,
under a blanket, to the  air.  Under the blanket give gentle
friction with the hand to the body,  especially the back.   The
skin is greatly refreshed by this process, and when the baby
is bathed with oil or water in the morning, the air bath should
be given  at night when the baby is undressed, to quiet and
strengthen the  nervous system.   For the  patient,  careful
attention to the numerous details of the bath, as to tempera-
ture of room and water (and the thermometer and  not  the
hand should be the guide to temperature),  gently given with
despatch after everything is in readiness, the  mother will be
rewarded  by the beautiful picture of a gay naked baby sport-
ing in  its morning bath, and  we shall hear  less often "the
hardest things  I have to do in the whole day is to wash and
dress the baby." 
DRESS.
                  " A little figure robed in white,
                   Spotless, serene, and pure."

     HOW shall the  baby  be dressed?  Proper clothing is
       essential to  infantile  hygiene.   Mothers,  especially
young mothers, prepare elaborate wardrobes  for  the  baby,
without thought or attention as  to the fitness of the garments
to baby's welfare  and comfort.   If the dress is only pretty
and  fashionable, it is enough, and all requirements are met.
The  old style of  low neck and  short sleeve dresses,  tight
bands and bandaging, the long skirts and dresses, all starched
stiff, a chaos  of flouncings, lace,  and  embroideries have had
many improvements, and babies are dressed in a better and
more common-sense way  than in  the days of our  grand-
mothers.  Nevertheless  the average baby suffers from im-
proper  clothing.  The  baby's  wardrobe may be  limited or
extensive  according  to circumstances,  but  the  garments
should  be  soft, loose, and warm, — loose  that the child may
breathe and  its body expand; light yet capable of resisting
sudden  changes  of  temperature,  that the body may not
become chilled.   For the first few months babies are usually
dressed with an excess of garments, which are arranged with 
64         MOTHER, BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
too much warmth and too tightly about  their bodies.   The
great vital organs within the chest walls need the freest play in
these beginnings of life.  Under the plea of warmth, the long
skirts are turned up and pinned, and,  thus pinioned, the baby
cannot kick  and  circulate its blood.  The  hands  and  feet
become  cold; baby cries; and we think  of  colic instead of
uncomfortable clothing.  To modify and correct these harm-
ful conditions for the little one, whose right it is to be free,
garments healthfully constructed and  arranged, and  differing
widely from those worn by infants  heretofore, have  been
devised.   There  is the  Jenness  Miller  system,  the Alpha
Garments for babies, and  last but  not least the  Gertrude
Baby suits, devised by Dr. L. C. Grosvenor of Chicago.   All
of these arc admirable  and great improvements  over  the
models of twenty-five and fifty years  ago.  While in nowise
detracting from the merits of the other two, we are especially
pleased, after long experience, with  the  Gertrude suits  for
the baby,  and with the added importance of the great ease
and  convenience  to the mother.   Dr. Grosvenor  states the
advantage of the Gertrude suits thus,' —
  1. Perfect freedom to all thoracic, abdominal, and  pelvic
organs.
  2. All the clothing hangs from the  shoulders.
  3. The  greatest saving of  the  time  and strength of the
mother in caring for the babe, there being one pin instead of
fifteen. 
DRESS.
65
  4. The resulting health and comfort of the child.
  5. The evenness of the covering of the body.
  Aside from the  diaper, the Gertrude  suit comprises three
garments.   First, a cotton  flannel  under-skirt cut princess,
high  neck and  long sleeves, made with seams  outside and
fuzzy side  to  the body of the child.   Over this  the woollen
garment,  cut  same  way but without sleeves, and lastly the
princess dress.  The sleeveless woollen  skirt is put  over the
cotton  flannel under-skirt,  then the dress  over  that, sleeve
within sleeve.   Put all over the baby's head as one garment,
only pulling on  of one pair of sleeves, button behind, and the
little  one is dressed.  These garments reach twelve to four-
teen inches below  the  baby's  feet.  The only  band ever
needed  by a baby  is the one to retain the dressing  of the
cord.   This should be a straight piece  of the softest white
flannel,  long enough to go once and a half  times around the
baby's body, and without hem or seam.   If  the baby is born
in the extreme  summer's heat,  this  strip of flannel may be
lined with  old white silk.   Soon as the navel  is healed, dis-
card the band.
  What! a baby without a band  to keep  the little bowels
warm, and prevent rupture when  it  cries!  What! a baby
without a band,  contrary to the customs and opinions of all
our dear old grandmothers!  What a change!  Yes, one of
those  old-time customs that change  for the better.  The band
has never  had  but three uses.  First,  the important and
                            5 
66         MOTHER, BABY, AND NURSERY".
essential one of keeping in place the dressing of the  navel.
Second, to keep the bowels warm.  The bowels are near the
vital organs of circulation, and in the warmest portion of the
body,  and  do not need protection  as  do  the extremities.
The band  cannot be kept  in  place without being applied so
tightly as  to  produce constriction, and  interfering  with the
circulation.
  Third, to prevent rupture.   The abdominal  wall is made
elastic.   If there is gas in the intestines the abdomen dis-
tends and gives it  room until it passes  by way of the intes-
tines.  When  the  baby cries lustily,  the  abdominal walls
expand evenly in all directions.   The band is  well applied,
but in the constant motion of  the baby is partially displaced,
compressing  a portion  of the abdomen,  but  exposing the
umbilicus,  which has now to  take all the pressure when the
baby cries,  and of course  it gives away, and we have a rupture
at this- point, or an umbilical  hernia.   If the band is  pinned
securely down to the napkin when the child cries, the chances
of distension being gone, the rupture is into the scrotum, if a
boy, or into the femoral  region, if a girl.   It is  the bandaged
baby who has a hernia.   In the cold weather of  our Northern
winters it is necessary to add  shirt and socks to  the outfit of
the Gertrude suits.  The best  babies'  shirts  are  knit soft
woollen or silk shirts with  sleeves to the wrist.  Get shirts of
large  size,  and they require neither  button nor pin to hold
them in place. 
DRESS.
67
  The old-fashioned shirts  of  linen and cotton  are  useless
and uncomfortable garments.  Pinning blankets are abomina-
tions, and should never be used.   Soft woollen stockings, so
long they can  be easily pinned to the napkin, are better than
the little socks, which must be tied so tightly to prevent baby
kicking them  off, as to interfere with the circulation of the
legs and feet.   Have  the baby  wear stockings  when extra
protection is needed for the feet  and legs, or when the baby
is in short clothes.  Use chamois moccasins for the first shoes,
and  until the baby is  old enough to walk and  play on the
ground, then a leathern shoe may be used.  Stiff shoes often
retard the growth and development of the feet.   The child's
only  means of  exercise  for development  is kicking  and
motion.  This must not be interfered with if we  would  have
strong legs  and feet for walking.   When old enough to be
creeping and walking,  attention should be given to keeping
the baby's  feet warm, as  a preventive  to  colds, for the
floors are cold, and  there is always a draft near the  floors, no
matter  how warm  the  house.   Undress  the  little feet  and
chafe until warm.   There is a chance for great improvement
in napkins.  The napkin should  have good power of  absorp-
tion, be light and  easily changed, and so applied as  to pro-
duce no constriction.   Large quantities of diapering wadded
around  a child will impede the circulation in the  legs,  and
thus interfere with  the growth of the muscles,  make the feet
cold,  and may even bend the bones of the legs,  giving bow 
 68         MOTHER, BABY, AND NURSERY".
 legs, besides such arrangement of the napkin  tends  to  fre-
 quent  urination.  Make the  napkins  of  soft canton  flannel
 with old linen inside.  Use clean nakpins and change often,
 and if you would escape the bete noire of the nursery,  the
 odor of soiled napkins, do not dry there.   There are in  the
 market various "infants' toilet pads."   Most of these  consist
 of a small pad of absorbent cotton covered with cheese-cloth.
 These  are designed to be put inside the  larger napkins,  and
 thrown away when  soiled.   Avoid the use of  rubber cloth in
 napkins.   It weakens the  child by  being too air-tight, pre-
 venting the tonic effect of pure air,  and the escape  of  the
 natural exhalations  of the body.   The  rubber napkin is harm-
 ful to  the baby.  Babies need a complete change of dress at
 night.  For a night-dress, soft flannel, or canton flannel, is  the
 best, made as a princess.  When the infant is older, make long
 enough to button across  the bottom,  giving  a  chance to kick
 freely without exposing the feet.  This gown, with the napkin,
 is all that is needed for night.  Babies cannot rest  bandaged
 and pinned up any  better than grown persons.   The  baby's
head does-not need  to be covered when in the  house.   Wrap-
ping up the  head is a frequent cause  of scalp diseases, par-
ticularly eczema capitis or " scald  head."  The  night  or  day
garments need to be thoroughly aired before again worn.  As
a rule, little babies are  too  much wrapped  and bandaged.
When  older,  they suffer from insufficient  clothing,  especially
of  the  arms and legs, and when taken in  the  open  air.  The 
DRESS.
69
baby  is  often  exposed  to  relatively  greater atmospheric
changes  when taken  out in summer than in winter.   Who
has not shuddered to see the baby of nine to eighteen months
on  the street-car or in its cab, a cool breeze blowing, beauti-
ful in its thin, white garments, with or without some light
wrap, when father and mother had twice as much clothing on.
See that  the baby is dressed warm enough when taken out,
even in the summer-time.   Choose bonnets and hats for the
baby that will protect the  eyes  from the wind and glare of
light, but not by ruffles and lace  frills that are  constantly
flopped in the eyes by the wind.
  To recapitulate,  let baby's clothing  be  light, warm, and
loose, made mostly of woollen.  Relegate tight bands, bandag-
ing, pinning blankets,   long  dresses and petticoats  to the
oblivion  they deserve, and baby will evince appreciation of
the freedom thus given  by activities surprising to those who
are only  familiar  with the fettered and strapped conditions
enforced by the customary manner of clothing infants.  Study
the construction and arrangement of the dress to the personal
comfort of the baby,  if you would  have a good-natured and
healthy baby. 
SLEEP.
            " Oh ! come, my baby, do; creep into my lap,
              And with a nap, we '11 break the da}' in two."

OLEEP ranks next to  food  in  importance in the infant's
^-J  hygiene.   That baby  sleeps well  and  enough is an
essential factor to his growth and health.   Fully one half of
the time  the infant's system needs  to  be invigorated and
strengthened  by sleep.   Healthful sleep for the  baby implies
habit, posture, pure air,  and comfort.  In the new-born, the
instinct for sleep is so great there is  no  need to promote it,
only to  prevent  its  disturbance.   It is remarkable, if babies
are left to  themselves and  are comfortable, the  amount of
sleep that is taken in the first three months.  Infants cannot
sleep too long, and  to awake them in a sudden manner,  by a
noise or with a glare of light, is extremely wrong.  Calm and
long-continued sleep is a favorable condition, and ought to be
cherished rather than prevented during  the whole period of
infancy.   When the child jerks in its sleep, rolls its head, or
sleeps with its eyes  half-closed, wdien it starts  or cries out as
if  in fright  or pain, or sleeps with a low moaning noise, it is
an evidence all is not well, and the cause of such restlessness 
SLEEP.
71
should receive attention.  There may be an error in diet, dress,
exposure, or wrong position, or being too long in one position
may impede some important function of the body.  One of
the first steps in the training of  the child is regularity in the
rest periods.  The success in this training, and the formation
of the habit of  sleep, will depend largely on a calm letting
alone in the first hours of life, and carefulness in not disturb-
ing the rest during the early months  of existence, and you
will be surprised how easily the habit of long periods of rest
is  established.  Adhere to  this rule:  let nothing interfere
with the rest.   With the regularity of  the clock, at a certain
hour undress the  baby at night, or  put it to rest in the day-
time.  The baby should have a full stomach, be clean and dry
and have warm feet  when put in its bed, and wrapped com-
fortably warm.   Place the baby in a straight position, with the
head and shoulders very slightly raised by a small hair pillow.
The covering should  be so arranged that while there is suffi-
cient space to breathe, the face is not kept too warm.   At  all
times give the purest air to breathe.  Do not cover the face
while sleeping.  While draughts and currents  of  air should
be avoided, a  child's  face should not be covered.   The crib
should not stand directly in front of a  window or any  bright
light.  The eyes ought to be screened from  too much light to
give calm, undisturbed sleep and to protect them from weak-
ness.   A change of position is likewise necessary in the  young 
72         MOTHER, BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
infant, so that it may not be cramped by lying too long in one
position.  The baby ought  not to be allowed to go to sleep
with the nipple in its mouth, or by rocking either in the arms
or the crib, neither should it be talked or chirped to sleep,  or
smothered by kisses and the bad breath of the nurse.  Quietly,
when the rest period  has come, let the baby be made comfor-
table, and put in its crib and let alone.  Soon the wide-awake
eyes will droop and close, and the regular soft breathing show
"sleepy-eye town" has  been reached.   If the baby is restless
and nervous,  rub its back, soothe and quiet it before it is laid
down.  An infant should never be kept awake when fatigued,
under the impression that it will rest  better at night.   Over-
fatigue produces  general irritability,  pain  in the limbs, and
restlessness.
  The baby who always sleeps itself into a colic had better
have  a warm  flannel put across  the  abdomen when put  to
rest.   This can be changed when cool without disturbing the
little sleeper.   Every person should sleep alone when possible,
but by all means let the infant sleep  alone.   The  air of the
bed in which one or more persons  sleep becomes impure.  The
child, from its more closely covered  position, gets most  of
this impurity.  Let the baby's bed be large enough  so  that
as it  grows and develops it can change its position  freely.
The custom of letting babies sleep in their cabs, cramped and
unable to turn, is wrong; moreover, the upholstery prevents 
SLEEP.
73
a free circulation of air, and is often the cause of the profuse
sweating of the head  seen in many children.  Never admin-
ister drops  or spirits  to make a baby sleep.   Once  or twice
are all that are necessary for it to cry for the comforting drop
to put it to sleep, and with each repetition of the  dose the
necessity for the artificial stimulant is fastened upon  the little
one.  Its nerves  will demand it precisely as those of the
toper clamor for  his  accustomed dram.   Quiet,  refreshing
sleep is the great index to a well-developing nervous system,
upon which hangs the equipose of all  other organs  in matu-
rity of life.  A wakeful or fretful child is a great trial  to a
mother's  patience;  and let all arrangements that   circum-
stances  will permit be made to  accustom the baby to sleep
quietly and enough.   Ascertain, if possible, the cause of the
sleeplessness.   Habit is of the greatest  influence, early accus-
tom  the  baby to  be put to bed  awake, and left by  itself to
go to sleep.  The necessary caution and watchfulness  will
early form right habits of sleep,  and save the mother much
fatigue  and annoyance.  A very nervous,  restless  baby,  if
well protected, will often sleep for hours in the open  air, even
in cold  or stormy weather, if covered  from exposure to the
elements.   On a porch in the open air such a baby will peace-
fully rest  for hours, when only fitful snatches of sleep would
be taken indoors.   If it is hard to keep the baby warm, a bottle
of hot water in the crib will supply sufficient heat.  The sleep 
74         MOTHER,  BABY", AND  NURSERY.
problem of the baby solves itself thus:  make the baby com-
fortable as to food and clothing, then in a roomy bed covered
from exposure to light and cold, and not too warm, with plenty
of fresh air  and strict adherence to regular  periods of rest,
the baby  will make  a good sleeper.   The  ethics of  sleep
ought  to form a part  of  the baby's morality. 
 
--*!%
CRYING. 
CRYING   BABIES.
             " Warped by colics and wet by tears,
              Punctured by pins and tortured by fears."

" \ T /HAT does ail the baby?  What makes him cry so?"
   v *  An infant. " with no language but a cry," has no other
way of making his wants known.  Hence the baby cries when
it is cold,  hungry, or thirsty; cries when sick or in pain; cries
from too  tight, insufficient, or uncomfortable clothing; cries
from fears,  colics, pins,  and  other discomforts.  The first
cries of  the new-born  baby are gladly  welcomed,  but ever
after quiet sweetness  is desired.  As a rule, babies are  good-
natured if comfortable.  By careful observation one can dis-
tinguish between the  cry of pain and the worrisome fretting
of the baby for something necessary to its comfort.   The
cries of pain are moans and sharp shrill cries, accompanied by
anguish of countenance and movements of  the body, as pull-
ing of  the ears in earache, clawing and pulling of the  mouth
in sore mouth  and in  teething, drawing up of  the legs in
colic, the  stiffening and throwing back of the whole body in
urinary colic.   Continuous crying as a rule is  due to pain or 
76         MOTHER, BABY,  AND NURSERY.
hunger.  The character of the  cry will help one to decide.
Many a baby is taught  to cry  by the mother  or  nurse,  by
never having any of its wants supplied until it gets so uncom-
fortable as to break forth into wails  and tears.  This baby is
never fed or given water until it cries for it.   Its position is
never changed  until it cries from weariness.   It is  never
undressed and put to rest until it cries.   Baby soon learns
this, and,  as it grows older, when any desire comes it imme-
diately begins to cry.   The baby who never has anything it
wants until it cries  for it, will early learn to cry soon as it
wants something.  Anticipate the  baby's wants and needs if
you would have it good-natured.   No baby cries unless there
is a cause  for it.  Ascertain this cause; give attention to the
baby's tones in crying,  and  hunger, thirst, pain, pins,  or
fears will  soon be recognized.   Little babies often cry from
too much and too rough handling, their muscles becoming
sore.  This same  condition can  be produced  by too tight
bandaging of the clothes.  Nursing babies sometimes  cry
from passion on the part of the mother.  This  is in reality a
form of colic.   The  passion of the mother has so affected the
milk as  to change its quality and make it indigestible.   In  fat
babies, fretting  and  uneasiness  are often caused by chafing;
and rough and stiff  clothing may produce discomfort in any
baby.  The restlessness of such a baby  will help to decide
the cause.   Thirst and colic are the two  factors which, aside
from  all other causes, have let  in  the greatest flood of tears 
                    CRYING BABIES.                   77
and  wails.  Nursing babies suffer especially  from  thirst.
Milk is the baby's food,  not its drink.   The  telegram sent
to a young mother saying, "Give  the baby water four times
a day," was a most fortunate greeting to the new baby for
its future comfort and happiness.  Perhaps nothing to which
an infant  is subject gives the mother more care  and anxiety
than colic.  We  wish to  make  most emphatic that colic is
indigestion.  If  it continues day after  day,  something is
wrong with the baby's food.   If the mother is nursing the baby,
her diet and habits of life demand attention  to discover the
source of the colic.   If in a hand-fed infant, its food is wrong
and  demands  some change.  This is  for continuous and oft-
repeated colic.  These  are  the  so-called  colicky babies,  the
bane  and dread  of all  mothers.  Every  baby may have an
attack of colic  at most  any time,  from slight disturbing
causes, and that  be  the last; but constantly  recurring colic
should be referred to  the physician, that the particular defect
of the digestion, in either  food or child, may be corrected and
not interfere with its future growth and development.   The
pains of colic cannot be mistaken,  beginning often with slight
restlessness only  sufficient for one to observe the  baby does
not feel  Avell, increasing  until  the baby writhes in agony.
The   countenance denotes  anguish,  is flushed, and  often
covered with drops of perspiration.   The legs are  drawn up
on the abdomen and extended, in quick succession.   The
more  violent the  attack, the sharper and more  prolonged the 
78         MOTHER, BABY,  AND  NURSERY".
crying.   What are  the causes of colic ?  An accumulation of
gas or curds in the child's stomach or bowels.  A cold or
cold wet  feet  may have  caused the  spell of indigestion;
mental troubles in the mother, especially grief or  anger; too
rapid or too frequent nursing and over-feeding; nursing the
baby when the mother is over-heated  or  exhausted  with
fatigue.   What can be clone to relieve the colic ?   Put a hot
compress, dry or wet, to the child's abdomen.  Often a flannel
wrung out of very hot water and applied all over the abdomen
will give almost immediate relief.  Give hot water internally;
sitting the child up, and  gently rubbing the  stomach  and
back, will assist  in expelling  gas.   A child suffering  with
colic should never be laid upon the back, but either upon its
stomach  or right  side.  An enema of warm water into the
bowels may help  to relieve by expelling  any curds of milk.
We wish to emphasize again, the colicky baby is crying  from
indigestion, and for correction of the diet and for medication
should be referred  to the physician.  Whenever a baby cries
with pain, as earache, colic, or urinary colic, a hot compress
applied to the seat of pain is always soothing.  Crying due
to pains of teething and nervousness, as well as  thirst, is
often relieved by a drink of water.
  Babies cry from fear, fright, loneliness, and others cry when
sleepy  and are  unable  to  sleep.  This  latter is  a form of
nervousness, and often produced by over-fatigue in the infant
eighteen months  to two years  old.   In the  latter case  a hot 
CRYING BABIES.
79
sponge bath will soothe and quiet.   If cliildren habitually cry
when sleepy, and can't  go to sleep, this nervousness can be
overcome by proper medication.  For crying when sleepy, the
German  mothers are in the habit of  giving what  they  call
coffee  soup, nothing more  than a few drops of cold coffee
put in a cup of hot water and given by sips to the baby.  It
often quiets the very nervous baby that cannot sleep, with no
bad  results.   A  mother whose baby had spasms of crying
lasting for hours,  without any adequate reason,  gave the
history during the prenatal months of great outbursts of tears
and sobs prolonged for hours.   Such a nerve condition should
be removed, and calls for the  physician.   The crying baby is
a great tax upon the mother's or nurse's patience, and tempts
one  to resort to some simple  "tea which mother used," or
from lack of knowledge, or by the advice of a friend, to give
a few drops of paregoric, soothing  syrup,  Godfrey's  cordial,
or some other quieting lotion which is thought to be perfectly
harmless.   Don't do it.   What is in these preparations which
quiet  your crying  baby?  Opium in some  form.   Can an
anodyne that stupefies an infant into a sound sleep for hours
be harmless ?   Can the delicate brain  in the process of devel-
opment  be thus  acted  on without  harm?  Anodynes and
soothing  syrups are the curse of  babies, drugging them to
stupidity,  idiocy, insanity, and intemperance.  Don't do it.
Many a  beautiful babe has been laid away by  tender hands 
80         MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
and  bleeding  hearts as  "too good for this world," its life
blighted  through ignorance and mistaken kindness.  Ascer-
tain  the  cause  of the  crying and correct it.   If the crying
is  due to colic, have  the  indigestion cured, and  the  baby
will become good-natured  and  gentle  and "just as good  as
he can be."' 
THE  EYES.
                  " An infant crying for the light."

   HHE eye of  a new-born infant turns at once toward the
  -1-   light, significant in more ways than one of the future
needs of its being.  The eyes of a baby at birth are but imper-
fectly developed;  the  eyebrows  and eyelashes are  short and
thin; the eyelids are almost transparent, and allow much light
to pass through  them.  The iris is very imperfect,  and lacks
the pigment which comes with the growth of the baby.   It is
this lack of pigment that makes the eyes of all new-born infants
of the same  color, namely, a dark blue.   The  light which
is the natural stimulus to the eye, if too strong, becomes an
enemy to the young.   Infants should learn to use their  eyes
little  by little, the same as they learn to use their limbs.  The
resting  place of the baby should  be turned  away from  the
light  of the window, and so  shaded that no strong rays of
light fall directly on the eye.  Especially should the eyes be
protected from  artificial light.  At  the moment of birth the
eyes are exposed to the danger of infection from the vaginal
discharges of the mother.  If the eyes are closed,  these dis-
                             6 
82         MOTHER, BABY, AND NURSERY.
charges are deposited on  the borders of  the  lids and  carried
into the eye when it is opened.   The first duty then of the
physician, after the necessary care for the maintenance of life,
is to cleanse carefully from the eyes this mucus.   This cleans-
ing should take place before the  babe is  handed to the nurse.
In the  first cleansing and dressing of the baby, the  careful
washing of the eyes  is of  great importance.  This should be
done with warm water and a very soft cloth.   The  cloth for
washing the eyes should be burned each  time for the first two
weeks, or whenever  there is any soreness.   The eye  should
always  be  cleansed  washing toward the nose.
  Children  should  be taught never to rub the eye  except
toward the nose.  Cold, moisture, and strong winds  are hurt-
ful  to the eyes  in  the first  months  of life, and  the baby
should  be  protected against such.   When the baby is taken
out for exercise, its eyes should be especially shaded, particu-
larly if  asleep in its  cab.   Who has not  seen a sleeping baby
trundled along by a careless nurse-girl with the strong rays
of the sun pouring directly into its eyes ?  Do not protect the
eyes by a veil, but by a bonnet that comes over the face far
enough to shield the eyes from the sun and  wind.  The
shade of the baby's cab should be of a dark instead of a light
color.   Cleanliness is an important factor in care of  the eyes,
especially after children get to playing about the floor.  The
eyes should be as carefully cleansed as  any other part of the
body, with clear boiled water and soft sponges or linen cloths, 
THE  EYES.
83
and without the irritating action of soap.   Soon as the infant
is old enough to use its arms and  handle  objects,  it ought to
be carefully  taught not to carry  substances to its  eyes, nor
given playthings with which it can puncture or hurt the  eyes.
The habit some babies have of digging their eyes with  their
little fists when sleepy should be patiently broken up.  Clean-
liness  and protection  of  eyes from  too  much light,  cold,
moisture, strong winds, and accidents make up the hygiene
of the eyes in babyhood. 
NURSING.
  " A baby is a tiny feather from the wing of love dropped into the sacred lap
of motherhood."

"OLESSED,  thrice-blessed that baby whose  nourishment
^~*  comes from the maternal founts.   No reasonable person
can doubt that the mother's milk affords  the very best sus-
tenance  for  the  baby,  and all authorities are  agreed that
breast  milk is  the only proper  food  for infants.   The diges-
tive  organs of a new-born child  are  especially  adapted  by
nature to the assimilation of the flesh, fat, bone, and muscle
elements found in human milk.  But it is a lamentable  fact
that the habits of our  modern life  tend to unfit women  for
the maternal office of lactation, by creating an emotional and
irritable nervous system, thus impairing the vegetative func-
tion.   The  mammary glands have suffered  at  the hands of
the dressmaker, corset-maker, and the  manufacturer of bosom
pads, until in all classes and conditions of  life we see infants
with pale, wan, and thin  faces, flabby skin, pulpy muscles,
distorted  bones, and swollen glands, telling their  own story
of malnutrition, because the mother has not been able to nour-
ish the little one herself.  Every mother who has health suffi- 
 
 
NURSING.
85
cient  to  mature a living child ought, if possible, to nurse it
from  her own breast.   Her  own  health requires it, as the
efforts of the  child  to  draw the milk causes the uterus to
contract, and nothing else will take its place to her infant.
Let every effort be made at the start to nourish the infant in
the natural way,  namely, at the mother's breast.   How soon
after  its birth the baby is fed depends on  the  condition of
mother and child.  This question has been fully discussed in
the chapter on "The  Little Stranger," and  needs no repeti-
tion here.  How often shall the baby nurse ?   This will vary
in every instance according to the  special  circumstances of
the case, as  they may affect the mother  and  child; but this
rule applies  to all cases, so arrange the intervals of nursing
that the baby will take its food  with regularity.   It is not
practical  that the length of  time between nursing  periods
shall  obtain  the same clock-like or mathematical precision in
all cases.  Any weakness  of  the  digestive  organs in a baby
necessitates its being nursed more often than  a stronger one,
less in quantity,  but  more frequently taken.   Hence, while  a
strong babe  will nurse a large quantity, and wait three and
four hours before nursing  again, the frail baby may require a
less quantity, and to be nursed at shorter intervals.  Again,
the milk of one mother may be deficient in quantity or quality,
requiring more frequent nursing to obtain the same result as
when there is plenty of good quality to be obtained, and suffi-
cient quantity for a number of hours.  How often then shall 
86         MOTHER,  BABY,  xVND  NURSERY.
we nurse the baby?   At regular times nurse the baby, the
interval between nursing being regulated by baby and mother.
The baby requiring less food in  the  first few hours of life,
once  in  four hours will satisfy  and  keep quiet a usually
strong infant.  After the first week,  generally nurse every
two hours during the  day, and twice between 10 P. M.  and
6 a. m.   After a month, two and a half hours in the day, and
same as  before at night.   After three months, every three
hours in  the  daytime,  and  once at night.   Nursing babies
suffer from too frequent nursing.   Do not place  the baby at
the breast every time  it  cries.   The  cry of grief, pain, or
uncomfortable garments meets with the same treatment;  and
as a result of  this we induce indigestion by filling the stomach
to overflowing, and weakness and diarrhoea follow.   Neither
wait for  the  baby to cry for food,  but carefully watch  and
anticipate the cry of hunger  by regular periods of nursing.
Whenever a  baby after sucking for ten or fifteen  minutes
drops off to sleep and appears satisfied, we judge it  has  had
sufficient.  On the contrary, when a baby tugs  away at the
nipple for half to three-quarters of an hour, and then leaves
it fretting, sufficient nourishment has not been obtained  from
the gland.  An accurate method is to weigh the baby before
and after nursing,  when there should be a gain of  several
ounces.   Under  the right conditions  of lactation, not alone
the baby should grow  and develop,  but the  mother should
thrive and even grow stout.  The infant at the breast requires 
NURSING.
87
food in sufficient quantity and of right quality for its welfare.
Hence, it becomes the first duty of the nursing mother to take
care of herself in order that she may maintain her own system
in a condition to sustain the young and tender one dependent
upon her.   Every  mother  knows  that her  milk varies in
quantity and quality.  Its composition changes  from time to
time, and  varies greatly  in different women  and countries.
Different temperaments   and  constitutions in women have
great influence in the quantity and quality  of  milk.  The
richest  milk is  secreted  by brunettes with well developed
muscles, fresh complexions, and moderate plumpness.  Ner-
vous, lymphatic, and fair-complexioned women,  with light
or auburn hair, flabby muscles, and sluggish movements, as a
rule, secrete poor milk.  Rheumatic women secrete acid milk,
which causes colic,  diarrhoea,  and marasmus in the child.
Emotional  states  greatly influence  the  milk.   Grief  and
anxiety of  mind dry up the milk.   Fits of anger  produce an
excessively acid milk,  followed  by  colic and green stools in
the baby.  Great fear arrests for a time the secretion of milk.
A fretful temper lessens  and vitiates the milk.   Menstrua-
tion and pregnancy deteriorate  the milk.   The  continuance
of nursing after the mother has become  pregnant is accom-
panied by  grave  consequences to the child.
   Every mother should  know  that certain  articles  of food
eaten by herself affect the milk and child.  Fruits  eaten by
the mother will often give the milk a laxative effect.   Boiled 
88         MOTHER,  BABY",  AND  NURSERY
cabbage, turnips,  green fruit, or acids in excess produce colic
and diarrhoea.  Certain medicines taken by the mother will
show  their action in the  child  through the medium of the
milk,  as opium,  castor oil,  calomel,  etc.   Sometimes the
results are  serious, and the nursing mother should not take
medicine of any  kind  without the advice  of  her  physician.
A healthy woman of twenty-five to thirty years of age affords
the best sustenance to her  child.  The nursing mother should
have an  abundant supply of  nourishing and digestible  food,
be regular  in  her habits of sleep and outdoor exercise, and
whatever tends to maintain a good degree of vigor and endur-
ance.   She should be treated  kindly and with consideration,
that  she may  maintain a  tranquil state of mind, and thus
impart to the  babe in her arms an abundant supply of  good
milk for its rapid growth and development, and the  addi-
tional force to her milk from the indwelling spirit  of  love,
happiness,  and contentment  of her daily  life.  The animal
heat of the mother's body  imparted to the infant in her  arms
is not more grateful  and  necessary to its  physical  system,
than the vitalizing influence of her own spirit and emotions
to her milk, which touch the intellectual and physical growth
of her offspring.
  The average secretion   of  milk in  a healthy  woman  is
forty-four ounces in twenty-four hours, the amount of  solids
varying  eight to fourteen parts in one  hundred.   Of the
solids, half should be  sugar, a third  fat, a sixth casein and 
                       NURSING.                      89
albumen, or more commonly called albuminoids, the remainder
the salts or inorganic constituents.   It is plain that it is the
mother's food that must be looked after in the nursing infant.
If the mother's  diet is not what it should  be, her milk will
be  affected, and the  child suffer.   Care  should  be taken
as the infant  grows to keep the milk  rich in the solids, as
from  these  we get muscle and  bone elements, a  supply of
which will be needed in teething.  Vegetable and  fatty food
increases the amount of fat.  Meats increase  the casein and
the sugar.  Warm  fluids  containing milk or starchy  food
increase  the watery portion of the milk, and make a greater
quantity of milk.  Pea and bean soup, thoroughly  cooked,
with  whole wheat  bread  and oatmeal, will supply albumen
besides the salts needed in teething.   Foods  rich in nitroge-
neous elements  do  likewise, and need,  after three months of
lactation, to enter largely  into the diet of the nursing woman.
The mother should take out some milk from the gland every
few weeks, and let it stand for the "cream "  to rise, thus judg-
ing of the quality, if the milk cannot be subjected to chemical
analysis.   Milk rich in solids will have quite a cream, while
poor  milk will  be  blue and watery.   In this  way  she will
have  an intelligent  idea of its condition.  Many women  have
sufficient quantity, but baby does not  thrive because of the
poor  quality of  milk.   A vigorous infant requires milk rich
in solids.   As long as a baby thrives and develops,  nothing is
needed beside the nourishment obtained at the maternal foun- 
90         MOTHER,  BABY", AND NURSERY.
tain.  If the mother has not enough milk, or the child does
not thrive, do not wean, but supplement the  mother's milk
with other  food.  As to what should be given depends upon
the individual child, suggestions  for which will  be found in
the chapter on "Feeding."
  To recapitulate.
  Observe regularity in nursing.
  Study the child to know the length of  time  between nurs-
ing periods.   Nurse  a child from two  to  four  hours in
daytime, according  to age  and condition, and as  seldom as
possible at night.
  Always remove the child from  the breast as soon as it has
fallen asleep.
  Avoid giving the  breast when greatly wrought by emotions,
over-heated, or over-fatigued.
  Look carefully to  the health  and  diet  of  the nursing
mother. 
THE  WET   NURSE.
                      " A little sickly face,
                        A wan, thin face."


/""CIRCUMSTANCES occasionally present themselves when

^-^  it is desirable to employ a wet nurse  for the baby.

Whom  shall  we  choose  for  the important office?

           " Choose one of  middle  age, nor old nor young,
            Nor plump nor slim her make, but firm and strong ;
            Upon her cheeks let health refulgent glow
            In vivid colors that good humor show.
            Long be her arms, and broad  her ample chest,
            Her neck be finely turned, and full her breast;
            Let  the twin hills be white as snow,
            Their swelling veins with circling juices flow;
            Each in a well projecting nipple end,
            And milk in copious streams from these descend.
            Bemember, too, the whitest milk you meet,
            Of grateful flavor, pleasing taste and sweet,
            Is always best."

  The  wet nurse should be in vigorous and robust health,

without physical or mental  deformity.   She should be  free

from all taint of  scrofula,  consumption,  syphilis, or other

disease capable of transmission through  the milk.  Her  own

child should correspond in  age to that of the one she is  to

foster, and present a healthy appearance.   There  should  be 
92         MOTHER,  BABY",  AND  NURSERY.
no return of her menses.   A woman of intelligence,  of gentle
temperament and disposition,  with  no depraved  moral  or
mental tendencies, as dishonesty or alcoholism, hysteria and
untruthfulness, and  who is willing  to submit to  a careful
regulation of her diet and personal habits, should be chosen.
The attraction  or aversion of a child  to a nurse will indicate
if her magnetic currents are favorable or unfavorable to the
baby.  The difficulty of procuring a good wet nurse on short
notice, and the perfection to which artificial feeding has  been
brought, have  almost entirely  done  away with wet nursing
except in occasional cases. 
 
Vv
LITTLE FACES. 
WEANING.
                  " Who is queen of babyland 1
                     Mother, kind and sweet,
                   And her love, born above,
                     Guides the little feet."

\\ 7HEN to wean the baby ought to be determined by two
  *  *  circumstances, — the  state of the milk, and the con-
dition  and development of  the child.   Nature  teaches  that
the baby should have the breast until, by  the  acquisition of
the teeth, it is in condition  to take other food; and, if  there
be nothing of special importance  in the mother to demand the
weaning of the baby at an  earlier period, we will find  when
the  child is about nine months old  it will have  sufficient
teeth to be  weaned.  Right here we would emphasize  the
fact dwelt on  in  the chapter on "Teething," that no baby
should go beyond six to six  and a half  months without teeth.
If it docs, it is either sick or the  food is wrong.   In either
case the attention of the physician should be called to  the
condition, so that by the time nine  months is reached, and
the  constituents of the mother's milk begin to change very
rapidly,  the  baby will have developed teeth sufficient  for
other food.   Do  not wait until  weaning time  is reached to 
94         MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
supply bone  elements  for the teeth,  but supply after the
fourth month when the healthy infant demands them.   We
think,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  no child should be
nursed beyond a year.  By that time the milk has so changed
it retards rather than aids development.   Children who are
nursed many months  beyond  this time  invariably  develop
rickets.  Begin the weaning when the child is strong  and
well, and select one of the rest periods in the evolution of its
teeth.  For the baby to be deprived of breast milk is a great
change;  and  this change will be less of a shock  to its system,
and much  easier borne in all respects, if not  imposed  just
when cutting a  tooth.
  Do not wean the baby in the very hot weather.  If nursing
disagree  with the mother, or the  supply of  breast  milk is
small,  or the weaning  age is reached  at this time,  judicious
feeding,  and  giving the  breast at longer  intervals, will  tide
over the  few weeks of midsummer's heat  until a more favor-
able time is reached for the event.  Prepare the child for the
weaning  process by getting it gradually accustomed to other
food besides  its mother's milk.  At the same  time  give the
breast at longer intervals, so  as to accustom the child  not  to
take it.   The  weaning  process  should be a  gradual  one,
occupying at the least two weeks.  Wean the baby from the
breast first in the daytime.   When once begun, be firm and
unrelenting.   Let a week pass after the baby is weaned  in
the daytime.   In this time it will  have  become  accustomed 
                        WEANING.                     95
to drinking milk and taking other food.   Do  not neglect to
give the baby plenty of water to drink during the weaning
process,  as it soothes its irritation and nervous  fretfulness.
When the time arrives to take the breast entirely from the
babe, it is better the mother excite aversion by putting some
bitter substance on the nipple, as soap, salt, or a very little
quinine.  Then let the mother  go entirely away from the
baby, if possible, for  the night.   One  good cry will usually
end the matter.   Soon as the baby has taken its drink of milk
once, and  gone to sleep, the event is generally  completed.
One night suffices, if the mother is unrelenting,  but may be
prolonged several nights by yielding to the importune appeals
of the suckling.   Avoid overfeeding the baby  after weaning.
The foundation of a weak digestion is  often laid at this time
by overtaxing the stomach. 
           FEEDING  AFTER  WEANING.
                " And all the weakly little children
                 Had great stomachs and died."

    TWO things are  of paramount importance in feeding babies
      after the weaning period, namely, regularity and to avoid
overfeeding.   Overfeeding and the giving of improper food
causes more  deaths among children than nearly if not quite
all of  the  other  causes combined.  Milk will  chiefly  enter
into the infant's diet after it is weaned.  Five periods of feed-
ing, with perhaps a drink of milk in the night, will suffice.
When the  baby is  a year old,  no food will  be required at
night, and seldom a drink of water.  When wreaned, the baby
is  supposed  to have  at the  least four teeth with which to
masticate its  food.  Let at least two of the five meals of the
day be  breacl-and-milk or milk  alone.  Whole-wheat bread,
graham bread, and  occasionally rye and corn bread are best.
Let the  bread be thoroughly baked.  The three other  meals
may be  made of porridges, plain soups, bread with  cream or
butter, beef and chicken sparingly.  Most infants like chicken
bones to suck, and the juices  extracted are never  hurtful.
This is true of the bones of any fowl.   Infants, as a rule, are
fond of both  Irish and sweet potatoes.   When the  digestion 
              FEEDING  AFTER  WEANING.           97
is perfect, a limited amount does no harm.   Potatoes fatten
the tissues, but do not develop bone.   It is the supplying to
the infant of  bone elements,  and  their  assimilation,  that is
the great demand of the infant's system at this time, and it
continues  until  all of the temporary or milk  teeth are cut.
These bone elements are found in oatmeal, whole-wheat flour,
some in graham  and rye.   All should  be carefully and thor-
oughly cooked, as the starches of  these grains are  harder to
digest  by the infant, while raw  starch is an irritant  and
rejected by  the  child's digestive  organs.   Let the oatmeal
and  graham   be  cooked as a porridge  instead of  a  mush;
plenty  of  milk  may  be added; avoid sweetening.   Babies
relish porridges better than mushes.   Soups made with milk,
plain beef,  mutton,  and chicken  are excellent.  When  the
baby is fifteen to eighteen months old, pea and bean soup are
good.  We do not mean the green  pea  or bean  of the garden,
but the dried vegetable.   After fifteen  months, any  of  the
cereal  foods  may be given; care  should be taken that  the
starch is thoroughly cooked.   Crackers, —soda, graham, and
oatmeal, — when made  of good  flour, are good for the baby.
When a child is eighteen months old,  a  milk  gravy made of
milk, butter,  and flour thickening,  eaten  on bread,  is relished
and healthful.  Avoid  making  too rich  with  butter.   Milk
toast is very good.  Should the baby have any fruit?  No,
not as a rule, until eighteen months old,  though this depends
somewhat on the season of the year at which the  baby is 
98         MOTHER,  BABY, AND NURSERY.
weaned.   Fruit  should be avoided in  the  hot season until
one and  a half  years  old; though we  have seen  children,
strong and well,  eat baked sweet apples or even raw scraped
apples on bread at a  year or fifteen months,  with no  bad
effects.   The fruit selected for children should be thoroughly
ripe, but not decayed.   Wash, to remove all fungus.  Fruit is
better cooked, especially if given before eighteen months of
age.   Sweet apples, sweet oranges, pears, blackberries, black
and red  raspberries,  and watermelons are the  fruits best
adapted for young children.   Let the fruit be given without
sugar, unless cooked.   We have seen the child of three sum-
mers eat its bread and  fresh ripe strawberries with impunity,
whereas when  sugar was added harm resulted.   The pulp of
grapes may be  given at two and a half years.  Little children
are fond of bananas; but bananas are rich and hard of diges-
tion, and very  few children can eat them with impunity,— an
example  to the contrary that, because a child  likes a thing,
therefore it will  not hurt it.   At three years of age, bananas
may be given,  minced  fine, in oatmeal or cereal mushes, sliced
on bread, or in milk and  bread.  All fruit should be eaten
with a piece of  bread or  a cracker,  and not  on an empty
stomach.  What as to vegetables for the little child ?  With
the one exception of potatoes, children do not care for them;
they learn  to eat them as they  grow older, though we have
seen children  with whom  potatoes  did  not agree eat baked
squash or stewed  sweet pumpkin on bread with  relish  and 
FEEDING AFTER WEANING.
99
impunity.  Avoid an  excess of potatoes until the  infant is
two and a half or three years old, for  reasons already given.
Well-baked stale bread should be used for young children,
never fresh or warm bread.  Eggs may be given after two
and  a half years.   Sweets are  the  delight  of all  infants.
They are  not alone harmful of themselves, but soon destroy
the  appetite  for other  nutritious  food.   The little child
allowed sweets in any quantity is puny and undersized, with
flabby muscles, small and rapidly decaying teeth, subject to
frequent attacks of indigestion and gastric  fever, takes cold
easily, and soon becomes a victim of catarrh in its various
forms.  Assiduously keep  sweets  of all  kinds away from
infants,—sugar, candy, nuts, cakes, and pastry; and above
all avoid the pernicious habit, as soon as the  baby is weaned,
of letting it always be found with a cooky,  gingersnap,  or
doughnut in its hand.   We have been often asked if little
children  should be taken to a table filled with miscellaneous
food, to  eat with adult  persons.   There  is  no doubt  that
children  who eat at the  table with grown  people are often
given food they would not have had, if fed  by themselves.
Every child's diet should be carefully regulated, not alone for
simple growth and development, but much sickness will thus
be prevented, and a good foundation made  for future years.
We would make emphatic that no little child has the ability
to digest a general diet adapted  to  adults.  That many chil-
dren have survived,  in one  way and another, such pernicious 
 100        MOTHER, BABY,  AND NURSERY.
 feeding is  no proof that it is the best or  even allowable.  A
 child had better never be at the table with elder ones if there
 is to be promiscuous feeding; but if it can be taught to see
 food and give way to what is best, instead of what is wanted,
 there can be  no objection to the table; but if the infant is to
 be given  a taste of  everything adults  eat,  or anything it
 reaches its  hands towards, then we need to prepare for vitiated
 digestion.  It is very important that in the feeding of infants
 after  the weaning  period we start aright, avoiding all  errors
 and excesses  in food, for the tender digestive organs are easily
 deranged.  Like the adult, the  infant's stomach requires
 periods of rest.  Its sensitive  organs require less in quantity
 at a time than an adult, and hence more frequent meals, but
 not continual  "stuffing and  gorging."   The overfed  baby
 has a  morbid appetite,  and like  the adult  dyspeptic  always
 wants food.  It is not  the  amount  of food taken, but that
 which is digested and assimilated that does the good.  Hence,
 watch the  growth and the development,  the  sleep and the
habits of your children,  and regulate the quantity and qual-
ity of their food accordingly.   Your neighbor's  child, no
matter if it is a healthy specimen of  its kind, cannot form
the standard for yours or another.  Every child is a law unto
itself, and  its food  should be selected according to  its own
requirements.   Overfeeding and wrong quality of  food may
create  morbid appetites which are difficult  to overcome, and
 debilitate and degenerate the vitality  of  the infant. 
TEETHING.
          " Little children are idols of hearts and of households;
           They are angels of God in disguise."

 r I ^HE first tooth marks an epoch in the infant's life.  The
 -*-   news that "baby has  a tooth" is announced to each
 one of the family and all visitors.   Oh, that it could be pho-
 tographed  for  the little one's comfort; for many times a day
 baby is made to open his mouth to show the pearly white line
 peeping above the pink gum.  Teething is looked upon with
 dread  by most parents, as a time of consequent ills.  These
 ills are both  real and  imaginary.  Although  teething  is
 strictly a  physiological  process,  and productive  of no evil
 consequences  in some children, to others it brings great dis-
 tress and  many troublesome  diseases.   In fact, nearly every
 child  suffers more  or less  during the necessary development
 of dentition.   Nature  is not  to be  blamed, for she  did not
intend it thus to be.  A noted teacher has tersely said, " The
child teething should suffer no more than the puppy or kitten
with which it plays.   Nor would it  if the ancestors of the
child  lived as  perfectly natural a life as did  the ancestors  of
the four-footed mates."  The rapid growth and development 
102        MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
of the various organs and tissues of  the  infant occurring at
the age of the eruption of  the  milk-teeth render the harmo-
nious functions of the various organs peculiarly susceptible to
any disturbing action.   When nutrition is at fault, and there
is  large development of the nervous system, dentition  may
make a serious complication; but we do know that even in hot
weather healthy children  do teeth without  any trouble; and
it is not until the tooth  is seen protruding from the gum that
teething is known to be going on.   Ordinarily the milk-teeth
make their appearance from the fifth or sixth month, and  den-
tition is completed by the end of the second year, but excep-
tions occur.   Delayed dentition is, however, due to defective
nutrition,  since the development of the  teeth advances step
by step with that of the osseous system.   We would impress
upon all parents that the growth of bone tissue is the standard
by which  to  gauge the infant's healthful development.  It
would be well if every mother consulted,  at stated intervals,
her family physician as  to  the  character of  the child's food,
and so modified its nutrition as  to furnish what may be  miss-
ing,  rather than waiting  until the system  is debilitated by
perverted  nutrition,  and diseases  appear.   That part of the
tooth  appearing above  the gum is called  the crown.   The
portion that is fitted into  the socket, a fang or fangs.   The
main  bulk of the tooth  is composed of ivory.   The  crown is
protected by a hardened covering called enamel, and the part
below the  gum, the bone. 
 
  This excellent illustration of the two sets of teeth is taken
from *• Teething and Croup," by Dr.  \Y. Y. Drury.
  The smaller inside row of teeth  are the baby or milk teeth,
the outside row  the  permanent teeth.   By comparing these
two sets, we iret a g-ood  idea of the different size  and number
of the teeth in the child  and adult.

                            l   I
  1, I, central incisors.   Next on each side  are  the  lateral
incisors.   Third from centre,  canine teeth.   Two last  of
inside  row  are  the  temporary  molars.   f>, six-year molars.
12,  twelfth-year molars.   2i). wisdom teeth. 
TEETHING.
103
  At the  bottom of the fang  there is an opening through
which the vessels and nerve for the nourishment of the tooth
enter, filling up a cavity in the  centre of the ivory.   The for-
mation of the teeth begins very early in prenatal life, but they
are only partially developed, being  enclosed in their follicles,
and concealed  beneath the  gum  in the  newly born infant.
After birth, osseous matter is  gradually deposited, the gum
is absorbed, and finally the tooth protrudes, or, as it is called,
is  "cut."   These  first milk-teeth  are  twenty in  number.
They are generally cut in  pairs.   Those  of  the  lower  jaw
appear usually in advance  of  the  upper  ones.   The teeth
appear in  somewhat the following  order: First, one incisor,
and, soon after, a second appears in the centre of the lower
jaw, and these are followed by two corresponding teeth in the
upper jaw; then two more in the  upper jaw, and two in the
lower, making eight  incisors  or  cutting teeth.   The  first
molars next succeed, two below and two above.   These are
followed by the four canine teeth, or stomach  and eye teeth,
and lastly the  four posterior  molars.   There are, however,
})eriods of rest between the successive  eruptions of the teeth.
Thus a  period of six or eight weeks generally  intervenes
between  the lower and upper incisors.   The lower lateral
incisors then  come very soon.  A pause of three or  four
months  may now occur before the first  molars  make their
appearance.  Another of equal length may occur previous to 
104        MOTHER, BABY, AND NURSERY".
the appearance of the canine teeth, and still  another before
the first dentition is completed  by the eruption of the last
molars, usually before the end of the second year.   Some lit-
tle time before the appearance of a tooth, the mouth becomes
hot and dry, notwithstanding a copious flow of saliva.   The
gums will look  tumid, tense, and shining, while the exact
position of each tooth is marked some  time before its appear-
ance by the prominence of the gums.   There  is always more
or less irritation of the mouth, manifested  by  a strong desire
on the part of the baby to bite or press  its gums against any-
thing it can  convey to its mouth.  The baby will often be
very quiet while the gums are gently rubbed.  Nature has
wisely ordered this flow  of saliva to diminish the  inflamma-
tion  and irritability of the gums, and  allay the thirst.   To
relieve the irritation of the mouth, and allay the thirst, the
child will continually fret and cry for its food, and, if grati-
fied,  is very apt  to  overload its stomach, in this way produc-
ing indigestion,  vomiting,  colicky pains, and diarrhoea.   Do
not neglect to give the teething baby plenty of water, as
much as it will  take.  It soothes the hot, dry mouth  and
nervous irritation.   An ulcerated mouth  may occur at this
time.  Again fever,  great restlessness,  even convulsions, take
place.   The digestive organs  may be disturbed, every degree
of indigestion,  nausea,  constipation,  and diarrhoea being
present. 
TEETHING.
105
  The  glands  of  the  neck  may enlarge  and  even  form
abscesses.  In  fact, any latent  defect of the infant's system
may spring to view during this  important period.   Anything
thus arising should be referred to the physician.  We would
impress again that the more  nearly perfect the nutrition of
the child has been, the freer dentition will  be from ailments
of all lands  whatsoever.   It  is quite customary  to  give  an
infant  some  hard  substance  to bite upon during teething.
This, however, is wrong, for  these hard substances  tend to
bruise and inflame the gums.   Rather give  the baby a piece
of dark-colored India-rubber  in the  form of a ring or cross.
The elasticity  of  the  rubber  prevents injury to the gums.
Lancing the  gums is little employed to-day compared  with
former years.   If ever necessary,  it should be done  by the
physician, for if not properly  done the gum may close again
over the tooth,  and harden,  and be an increased irritation
rather  than  a  relief.   The food in teething, particularly,
claims  care  equally with  air,  clothing, exercise,  and cleanli-
ness.   Disordered  dentition  and  distressing complications
may be  avoided by careful attention to the  infant's nutrition
in  the  months  preceding dentition, as  well as  during the
period.   If  the food is well  looked after,  teething will  be
uneventful, and seldom require  a physician.   Neither should
a child having no teeth be allowed to go month after month,
after it  is six months of age,  without attention from  a physi- 
106        MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
cian as to its food.  Delayed dentition always means difficult
dentition, with many ailments.   If the baby does  not teeth
when it ought, do not wait for it to get sick before consulting
the doctor.  Here the golden maxim that " prevention is better
than cure " is very applicable. 
HAND-FEEDING.
  " And what did he live on ?  Water cresses, or perhaps water gruel and water
milk. Too many land babies do likewise."
r I MIE best possible food for an infant is human milk.   But
  -*-    infants, for various reasons,  legitimate and otherwise,
are often deprived of their birthright of the maternal  founts.
When a mother cannot  nurse her baby, and  all mothers can-
not,  then the question arises, With wiiat shall  the baby be
fed?   What is the  best artificial  food for the baby?  That
depends on  the child,  and upon  this particular child;  for
nowhere is the adage more  true "that what is  one's food is
another's poison " than in the feeding of infants.   No set rule
can  be laid  down.  What agrees with  one will not with
another.   We must not alone familiarize  ourselves with  the
various infants' foods;  but  study  the child itself carefully,
and try that  which will seem to nourish the baby in question.
Success in infant-feeding is  dependent on  the ability to indi-
vidualize  the child and select  the proper  food for each  case.
One food will not do for all babies.  Some it will feed and
nourish,  and others it will surely destroy.   On  the average,
to choose a food for a baby will take more  time, thought, and
attention on  the part of a physician than  to  select the medi-
cine for half-a-dozen sick children.  Artificial  feeding  for 
108        MOTHER,  BABY, AND NURSERY.
any infant is an experiment, the results of which experiment
cannot be determined in a day or two.   If we expect to make
this experiment a success, the infant must be closely watched;
for results are often more satisfactory for  a day or week than
for months.  The hand-fed infant  must be under strict sur-
veillance from week to week, and  month to month, to deter-
mine  the  adaptability of its chosen food.  We  must  try
different kinds of food till we find what will nourish and
agree with the baby.   Infant-feeding is  a  serious business,
and poor selections not alone are  a detriment to  its growth
and development,  but a menace to its  life.   It  is pre-emi-
nently the intelligent management of the nutrient that enables
the young  baby to breathe, live,  and grow.  In fact, it is
proper or improper nutriment that  makes or mars the coming
individual.  In  the case of a young infant deprived of  the
mother's milk, the food substituted should be made to corre-
spond  with human milk as  closely as possible, in both its
chemical  constituents and  physical properties.   A  great
advance has been made in our knowledge as to what we are
to copy from human milk, and what we must achieve in pre-
paring a substitute food.   There is no one perfect nutriment
for human babies  as  a whole; but it is  the changes in  the
various constituents of the human milk from time to time
which meet and satisfy the demands of growth and develop-
ment to such a degree that erroneously we have come to
look upon human milk as one of unchanging elements.  The 
HAND-FEEDING.
109
infant at the breast receives  for its  nourishment a fluid that
is fresh, sterile,  neutral, or faintly alkaline, at a temperature
of from 98:' to 100° F., furnished in an amount  proportionate
to its age, and containing all  of the properties necessary to the
development of bone, muscle, and fat, and the growth of the
infant until the first teeth are cut.   It is this  fluid that we
should copy in every  possible detail,  when we  undertake to
prepare a substitute  food.  One may judge that art  has out-
done Dame Nature in the feeding  of infants from the number
of infant's foods in the market, each one in itself perfect, we
are  told;  and from  the artistic representation of  beauty and
perfection  of physique with which  the manufactures adorn
their advertising pages, one would suppose that  all there is to
be done for an infant deprived of its mother's milk is to give
a few spoonfuls of this or that particular food,  and the child
will never  know the  loss  of  the  mother's  breast.  Each
manufacturer claims his food to be the best, or each dealer
who may have a  stock of one kind on hand affirms his the
only kind that should be used.  Nothing gives stronger evi-
dence of the insufficiency than the  great number of infants'
foods, and the new ones that are being constantly put on the
market,  with the sending  broadcast  of  glowing  circulars
extolling the merits  of each new one as superior to all others.
None of  them  are  perfect  foods, and  at the  best are poor
substitutes  for human milk.  These  foods may contain the
right proportion of chemical elements, but they all lack the 
110        MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
vitalizing force and influence of the mother's nurse.   Cows'
milk  is  the  substitute  food most commonly used, but the
problem  demands for its solution a modified milk.   The milk
of asses  and goats  corresponds more  nearly to  human milk
than that of  the cow; but because cows' milk is more acces-
sible,  and in many instances forms the only substitute which
can be procured easily, it is  used.  Fresh cows' milk, when
properly prepared, is an acceptable substitute for breast milk.
When we compare  human with cows' milk, it is  the great
differences,  and not  the similarities,  which surprise one.
What is  human milk?  The answer is  not an easy one.  The
fact that breast milk necessarily varies  with the interval since
parturition, changes with the  nutrition and constitution  of
the mother, and from numerous other conditions, will account
in part for the variations of its composition noted in different
analyses.   For  like  reasons  variations  are  noted  in cows'
milk.   We have no desire  to  enter into the  details of the
collections of  samples  of  human milk and the  different
analyses, sufficeth to say from  reliable authority we take the
following tables for  comparison.
          Human Milk.                   Cows' Milk.
   Reaction .  . slightly alkaline      Reaction .  .  .  slightly acid
   Specific Gravity . 1028 to 1034      Specific Gravity .  1032 to 1036
   Water......87 to 88      Water......86 to 87
   Total solids   .  . .  . 13 to 12      Total Solids  .  .  .  .  14 to 13
   Fat.......3 to 4      Fat.........4
   Albuminoids ....  2 to 1      Albuminoids......4
   Sugar........7      Sugar.......4.5
   Ash........0.2      Ash........07 
HAND-FEEDING.
Ill
  We  see the solids  are  made  up of fats, sugar,  ash, and
albuminoids.  These latter may be divided into liquid albu-
men and  casein or cheese.   We find the sugar contained in
each is  the same in composition and behavior.  The same is
practically true  of the ash, fat, and liquid albumen; but the
casein is radically different.  The casein of cows' milk coagu-
lates in a  heavy dense mass, while breast-milk curds are light
and flocculent.  The casein of cows' milk, as a rule, traverses
the infant's alimentary canal,  and may  be found unchanged
in the fecal  discharges.  It is  therefore  a source of constant
irritation,  and often  causes diarrhoea and  intestinal inflamma-
tion.   Some expedient must be resorted to in order to make
the casein of cows' milk more nearly resemble that of breast
milk, and not unduly tax the  digestive organs of the  infant.
We  find  that if milk is  diluted with five times  its bulk of
water,  the casein  curds  will  resemble more nearly those of
human  milk in fineness; but this means a great  reduction in
fats and sugar, which are essential factors in the baby's nour-
ishment.  Again, adding starch to cows' milk will cause the
casein  to  curd  in  loose, friable  flakes; but infants  cannot
digest  starch at all when  young, and after a time, when they
can,  they  require different elements for the building of bone
and  muscle than  the  non-nitrogenous ones of  starch.   To
sufficiently diminish the proportion of casein in  cows' milk,
and render it so it will curd in loose flakes more like to those
of breast  milk, has been the aim in preparing infants' foods. 
112        MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
And in different ways it has been  accomplished; but as  a
result  babies have  been fed upon mixtures  containing  too
little nourishment, deficient in fat and sugar, and they have
been obliged to distend their little  stomachs with  two  or
three times the bulk of food that they were intended to take
at one  time.  Other important factors in the preparation of
cows'  milk  are to change  the acid  to an alkaline reaction,
and to render  the  product sterile.   A noted physician once
remarked, "that-the fact that a calf has four stomachs, while
a baby has one, and that a very little one, ought to be suffi-
cient evidence that  the food elaborated by nature for the calf
is scarcely  suited to the infant."   Besides  the calf begins
active  exercise  as soon as it comes into the world.   The baby
lies helpless for months.  In substituting cows' milk for  an
infant's nourishment, great attention should be given, first,
to the milk itself;  second, to its modification.   To secure
good  milk,  select a  healthy young cow  of good breed.  No
milk from a cow sick or affected with any disease, as tuber-
culosis, anthrax, or any disease of the udder, should be taken.
The cow should not be milked when over-heated or immedi-
ately after driving  from pasture.  Milk  should not  be used
from  a cow for three weeks  after calving.   A "new-milch
cow "  has less casein in the milk, and for this reason is best
for the baby.  Never, if possible,  choose milk  from  a  cow
that has  been  milked longer than three months.   The  cow
should be fed upon her natural diet of hay or grass and pure 
HAND-FEEDING.
113
water.  No milk should be used  from a cow fed on distillery
slops or brewery grains.  Care  should be taken that the cow
does not eat wild onions, wild  carrot, strong turnips, or any
noxious weed.   That a healthy cow,  allowed to feed on rich
meadow grass, and in the evening carefully housed, cared
for, and given a diet  of meal and  hay,  will yield a  rich
creamy milk,  is evident.   On  the other hand, it is  equally
plain  that an unhealthy cow, fed on distillery swill or brewery
refuse, and improperly housed and cared for, will  yield a thin
milk  without nourishing qualities.   The  milk  should be
received and kept  in absolutely  clean vessels; and, as milk
rapidly absorbs odors,  it should be kept in a place where no
material can communicate any odor  to  it.  The success of
cows' milk, either alone or  as  an adjunct to other  nourish-
ment, depends upon  the  methods of keeping it until  it is
ready for use.  Milk is of all foods most prone to decomposi-
tion, and demands the greatest care and the most scrupulous
asepticism  to preserve it pure for the  baby.  Cows' milk for
the infant in the country, and  for the infant in the  city, are
two very different fluids.  In the one case, fresh, unadulter-
ated milk  from a selected cow stands for  two or four hours
in a cool  place,  when the  upper part is  drawn off, being
richer in fats, diluted with pure water or barley or oatmeal
water, sweetened with sugar of milk, and we have a mixture
not unlike mothers'  milk,  upon which  many  town  and
country babies thrive.  On the  other hand,  milk,  perhaps
                            8 
114        MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
mixed milk from several cows, adulterated or unadulterated,
is  churned in  the cars to the city.   Then  more  thoroughly
churned in the wagons over rough paved streets,  distributed
in many cases  from doubtful cans by persons of more doubt-
ful cleanliness, flavored, maybe, by the filthy pipe or puffing
cigar of  the milk-man,  and received in dishes of doubtful
cleanliness, placed, perhaps,  in a  food-chest or so-called re-
frigerator, exposed to the atmospheric contact of other articles
of food;  and is it to be wondered at that this stale churned
milk, nearly or quite  sour and  poisonous with  bacteria,  is
rejected by the infant as a food,  and fails utterly to nourish
it?  It is a fact that city children with whom  milk does not
agree, have been taken to the country and found to thrive
on milk  taken warm from the cow.   The  ease with which
milk ferments, and can be apparently fresh, and yet on the
point of " turning " when taken into the stomach,  which con-
dition will find in the infant's stomach many conditions for
such change and development, has given rise in the last few
years to  the process of sterilizing or pasteurizing milk, — a
process which  has proved a great boon  to many  babies, par-
ticularly city  babies.  To sterilize milk, a series of bottles
containing  enough  for  one feed, and capable of  standing
heat, are fitted into a frame, and when  filled with milk are
placed in the  water for boiling.   The  mouths of the bottles
are  closed by rubber corks.  Through each cork  passes a
glass rod  to close the  aperture  after boiling.  The bottles 
                     HAND-FEEDING.                 115
have the usual feeding-attachments.   The  bottles are im-
mersed in water to  the neck,  and the water made to boil.
When the fluid has expanded,  the glass rods are forced into
the  corks, and the bottles  completely closed.  The water is
kept boiling  for thirty-five minutes,  when  the bottles are
taken out and allowed  to  cool.  When required for  use, a
bottle is immersed in water, which is brought to the tempera-
ture  of  the body (98£° F.), the cork is  quickly removed,
and the nipple inserted.   Milk thus  sterilized will keep for
months without change.  Different apparatuses for the steril-
ization of milk can now be bought anywhere.   We  see  at
once that the principle involved in sterilization is to destroy
the germs of fermentation.   The preparation and administra-
tion of sterilized  milk can be managed in any well-regulated
household.  The boiling of milk for twenty to thirty minutes,
under slight  pressure, in small bottles  hermetically closed, is
all that  is necessary  to  practically  carry out the principle
involved  in  sterilization.   Sterilization  is  something  more
than boiling milk in the ordinary way.   There are many dif-
ferent apparatuses for the sterilization of milk in the markets,
which can be bought reasonably cheap anywhere;  but, with
a little effort,  a simple apparatus can  be arranged to answer
every  purpose of  the patented ones.   The simplest plan  is
to take a tin  pail, and have made a movable,  false bottom,
perforated with holes, and  having  legs half an inch high,  to
allow the circulation of the  water.  Take bottles for the milk 
116        MOTHER,  BABY",  AND  NURSERY".
that the ordinary nipple for sale everywhere Mill fit.   Do not
fill the bottles entirely full, but allow for the expansion of the
hot fluid,  and plug the bottle with absorbent cotton, or sur-
geon's cotton, which can be procured at any drug-store.  Set
the bottles on the false  bottom, put  sufficient water in the
pail  to reach the level of  the surface of the milk in the
bottles.  A temperature of  150° F.,  maintained for half an
hour,  is sufficient to destroy any germs likely to be present
in the milk; and it is found that raising  the  temperature  to
155° F., and then allowing to stand in the heated water for
half an hour, insures the proper temperature to  keep milk
steriliz-ed, or rather pasteurized, for twenty-four hours.  The
temperature should not  be  raised above  155° F.,  otherwise
the taste and quality of  the milk will  be  impaired.   A hole
may be punched in the cover of the pail, a cork inserted, and
a chemical  thermometer put  through the cork so that the
bulb dips through the water.   The temperature may thus be
watched without removing the cover.    If preferred, an ordi-
nary dairy thermometer may be used,  and the temperature
tested from time to time by removing the cover.   When a
feed is needed,  the  cotton plug is removed, and  the  nipple
inserted,  after the milk  has  been brought to the proper tem-
perature  by immersing the bottle in hot water.
  Many  physicians  prefer to  sterilize milk  by prolonged,
moderate heat, rather than a high temperature, believing that
boiling devitalizes milk  and  changes fluid albumin to its dis- 
                    HAND-FEEDING.                  117
advantage  as a food compound for  infants.   Either method
may be tried, if the milk seems not  to agree with the infant.
But, alas!  many babies do not thrive on sterilized milk.  At
the best, it is a dead mass compared with  the  sterile living
fluid taken from the mother's  breast.   Sterilized milk will
often be found to  be the  improvement needed to  help the
country baby to a better growth.
   We  cannot too strongly urge upon all who are compelled to
prepare food for infants the great importance or necessity of
using  only water  that has been  boiled, — sterilized water.
Sugar  of milk is preferable to the ordinary cane  sugar of
domestic use, for sweetening the baby's food.   Cane sugar is
very apt to cause fermentation in its digestion; this is more
apt to  be the case if a little too much has been used.  In dis-
cussing how cows' milk may be modified as a food for a baby,
no specific rule to prepare the milk, or any other food for
that matter, can be given.  No two infants can have it pre-
pared alike;  but by a little experimenting and close observa-
tion one  can decide the  right strength to agree  with the
child.   For very young babies, the  milk is reduced one-half
to two-thirds, with  sterilized water, and sweetened with sugar
of milk.   Care must be taken  in selecting  the milk.   As a
rule, Jersey milk contains too much fat to agree at all with
babies.   There need  be no hesitancy in  changing  from one
cow to another, even if all  the requirements for a good milk
are met; for it is the  experience of all that the milk of one 
118        MOTHER,  BABY", AND NURSERY.
cow may be taken with greater ease by the infant than that
of another, and  that without any perceptible reason, so that
we would emphasize the fact that when a choice of cows  is
easy, before abandoning cows' milk altogether as a food for
the infant, try another  cow, or several for that  matter.  As
the child grows older,  the proportion  of water  is gradually
decreased.   The majority of infants, by the  time they have
reached five to  seven  months, will not find sufficient bone
elements in cows' milk for teething, and then the milk may
be reduced with barley or  oatmeal  water.   Oatmeal will be
found  most beneficial in those  infants  with  a  tendency  to
constipation:  barley in those who  tend to  diarrhoea.   Care
must be taken  that the starch of the barley and oatmeal is
sufficiently cooked.   Oatmeal water is prepared as  follows;
take an ounce of oatmeal to a quart of water; cook slowly in
a double-cooker for four or five hours;  strain and add in pro-
portion of one-third  to three-fourths  of milk.   For barley,
wash the barley in two or three waters;  soak  half an hour in
a little lukewarm water: stir and  add  without draining  to
boiling water; use an ounce of barley to a pint of water; cook
for three or four hours; strain and  use same as  oatmeal.   If
the oatmeal or barley is too thick to strain readily, thin with
boiling water.   Barley is prepared for the Children's Hospital
of New  York in the following  manner: Robinson's  l>arley
flour of Akron, Ohio, is taken and subjected for a long time
to dry heat.   This is accomplished  in one of two ways.  The 
                     HAND-FEEDING.                 119
flour is tied in a bag  and boiled  several days (the hardened
outer part of  the  barley thus prepared is thrown  away), or
the  flour is put in a double-cooker and  boiled for a week.
Thus prepared,  this flour will keep for months.  A spoonful
is made in a thin gruel, and used in same proportion as oat-
meal water to dilute the milk.  Sometimes by salting the bar-
ley,  oatmeal water, or even the milk will  aid in its  digestion.
Should milk mixed from several cows be used, or only that
from one ? When a choice of cows is easy,  we prefer that from
one;  but if a  desirable one cannot be found, then the milk
from several cows may so modify one another as to  produce a
quality suitable  for the infant.   We believe the mixed cows'
milk, as a rule, will need to be sterilized.  Some infants thrive
best on diluted cream; others again on skimmed milk.  Cows'
milk may be farther modified by partially digesting  the casein
by the use of peptogenic powders.   Various kinds  are in the
market, the choice of which should be by a physician.   We
cannot advocate the adding of lime water to milk to overcome
its acidity.  It often can be used  to advantage for a few days
in case of indigestion; but  its continued  use, day after day,
can but be injurious, and should be  prohibited.   To make
use of cows' milk for infants the aim will  be, —
  1. To get rid  of the excess  of  casein, which averages two
to one of human milk.
  2. To  curd  the casein  in loose,  flocculent flakes,  easy  of
digestion by the infant. 
120        MOTHER,  BABY, AND  NURSERY.
  3. To overcome the acidity due to lactic acid.
  4. To have the milk free from bacteria, which are a cause
of malnutrition and diarrhoea.
  After these modifications, we must still have a fluid whose
chemical constituents correspond to human milk.   The diffi-
culty will  be found with the first three.  How these changes
are  brought about we have already stated, but will recapitu-
late.
  We  overcome the first by the  dilution of the cows' milk
with water; the second, by adding  large quantities of water,
the addition of starch, or  peptogenic  powders; the third, by
protecting milk from contamination and by sterilization.
  Moreover, we  find  in  these  modifications that the very
young infant  cannot  digest starch  at all, and after  a time,
when it can, it requires more nitrogenous elements in its food,
from which to build muscle and bone, than a starchy food of
non-nitrogenous ones, which only fattens.  In brief, we must
change the quantity and  quality of the casein without inter-
fering with the  development of bone and muscle  by having
starch a main part of the food.  These results are not reached
by milk alone.   The majority of handfed infants who receive
nothing but milk  do not teeth when they ought, and conse-
quently sicken sooner or later; hence we impress that cows'
milk alone as a food, beyond the sixth month, is dangerous,
for  the great  quantities  of water  it requires to render the
casein digestible  take out all the bone elements from the 
HAND-FEEDING.
121
milk; and it  is advisable at this time or earlier to  begin
the use  of barley, graham, or oatmeal water, as the forms of
starch easiest of digestion by the infant; when the infant can
take it, the oatmeal  is a better bone builder than the barley
or graham.
  Condensed milk.   Condensed milk is prepared thus:  cane
sugar is added in large proportions to cows' milk, and evapo-
rated in vacuum pans under high temperature.   It contains
a small amount of casein and much fat, and usually an excess
of sugar.  The small amount of casein is  the  reason it often
agrees with very young babies.   Children  grow fat on it, but
do not make bone;  and while they appear well nourished,
they really do not thrive  so well as they  look.   The excess
of sugar is  apt  to cause  fermentation.  The  more common
brands are Borden's, Eagle, Swiss, the Alpine, and the Swiss
preserved milk.  Of necessity the composition of condensed
milk must vary according to  the season, breed, and  care
of the cows from which it was obtained.   Good condensed
milk when poured from a spoon  should be glossy, ropy, or
stringy  like a heavy syrup.  The color  should be that of
cream; but  the  color varies according to  the season of the
year in which  the milk is condensed, the same as milk not
condensed  varies.   Thickness varies  with age.   It  is often
prepared with skimmed,  sterilized  milk  instead of water.
Condensed milk gives plumpness, but it  is not as good for
bone and muscle as simple milk.   We come now to consider 
122        MOTHER, BABY", AND NURSERY.
the  various  patent  infants'  foods.  Their  name  is  legion.
Each is a perfect food in itself,  we are told,  and baby  will
need no other.   Blessed, thrice blessed, if such was the case;
but  alas,  alas! babies are  perverse creatures, whether it  is
because they are so  like their mothers, or occasionally take
after their fathers,  or neither,  we  have not been able  to
determine.   Nevertheless,  we know many  babies will  not
thrive, and sometimes not even  live on these various patent
foods; and this is the reason that year  after year we have
numerous new " perfect substitutes " for human milk.   For
the comfort of the manufacturers of these  foods, we are will-
ing to admit  the perverseness is on  the  part of the  babies,
and  are glad to acknowledge all  these foods  contain some
good feature, and that  the best minds are  devoting much
care and research to this one of  substitute feeding; but the
problem as yet is unsolved, though the search goes on with in-
creasing ardor.   The patent foods divide into three classes:
  1. The Milk Foods; 2.  Farinaceous Foods (starchy foods);
3.  The Malt  Foods,  often called  Liebig's Foods.
  The milk  foods are produced by combining the  cooked
cereals with  condensed milk.  The most common are Car-
nick's Soluble  Food,  Malted Milk, Nestle's,  Anglo-Swiss,
American  Swiss, Gerber's, etc.   All of  these preparations
aim  to provide  the  necessary elements for  the building  of
bone, muscle, and fat in  the  infant.  They vary  from each
other as to  the quantity of  fats, sugar, and albuminoids. 
                    HAND-FEEDING.                 123
Some use wheat in their manufacture; others oats, and others
both wheat and oats.   The  proportion of milk  used varies
with the different brands.  Some have plain condensed milk,
others partially digested cows' milk.
  The farinaceous or starchy foods  are composed wholly of
wheat or cereals.  Chief among these are Imperial Granum,
Wells and Richardson  Co.  Lactated Food,  Ridge's, Blair's
Prepared Wheat Food, Robinson's Patent Barley, etc., etc.
These foods contain no milk.  From wheat and other cereals
are built  up the chemical constituents needed in the  albu-
minoids  of the body.   Fat,  sugar,  lime salts,  and  other
needed  constituents are added until a food is presented com-
plying nearly as possible with the chemical constituents of
human  milk.   The starch is partially predigested and in the
form of dextrine.  The Liebig's or malt foods differ from the
cereal foods  in their  mode  of manufacture.   The starch in
these foods is  converted  beyond dextrine and given  in the
form of  malt sugar.  The more common of these are Horlick's,
Mellin's, Hawley's, etc.   Most  of the patent foods are  pre-
pared with milk when given to the infant, a few with water.
That there is  a superiority  of  certain of these  foods over
others, chemical analysis has amply demonstrated.  The usual
method  of comparing these  foods is by enumeration  of their
chemical constituents,  and that  which most  closely  approxi-
mates to human milk  is best adapted to infant nutrition.
That this  is but  a  half a truth is again and again demon- 
124        MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
strated.  Milk from  the mother  is a living fluid,  and the
patent foods are a dead mass.  When the albuminoids have
been brought to a proper standard in their manufacture, they
are found deficient in fats or sugar, and especially in the lime
salts which are so essential to  bone  building.   Again, they
all introduce  some new element,  such as starch,  dextrine,
malt sugar, cane  sugar,  or what not, which  Nature did not
consider  necessary, and  for the care of which has made no
provisions in  the  infantile organization.   All presume some
digestive capacity which the baby lacks.  Again,  it is  not
enough to furnish a food that is easy of digestion.   It must
at the same time be nourishing  and furnish the proper rela-
tive amounts of the different food  principles.   The  more one
studies human milk, the more one realizes the difficulty it is
to make any mixture,  with  or without milk,  that introduces
anything like all these  necessary elements  in as simple a com-
position as the mother's nurse.  There are excellent qualities
in all of these foods.   They admit of  endless variations and
combinations.   They  have  proved life to many babies,  and
death to others.   They have helped to piece out failing milk
in many mothers;  but  that any one of them is a perfect and
" only substitute for human milk," we emphatically deny, and
appeal to the babies  for confirmation.  We trust we have
clearly set forth  some of  the  difficulties attendant  on  the
choice of a food.   When the infant is deprived of the mother's
milk, who should select  the food.  Emphatically, the family 
HAND-FEEDING.
125
 physician, whose  education  and business  it is  to  study the
 requirements of the infant and the human system,  is familiar
 with the chemical constituents of the different foods, familiar
 with the  conditions of climate and its modification of food,
 and recognizes at  once the temperament and constitution of
 the baby suggestive of the peculiar requirements of its system.
 These,  all these, must enter into  the choice of a food, if we
 would have the choice a success.   Our cemeteries  are full of
 too  many little graves, a  testimony to the  indiscriminate
 feeding of the baby on first this and that food or some prepa-
 ration that agreed with the  neighbor's baby,  when what was
 wanted was a food for this baby, and not the neighbor's baby.
 We repeat that it will take more time, thought,  and attention
 to choose  the food for one baby, than to care for half-a-dozen
 sick babies.   Again, the physician  must have an opportunity
 to watch the results of the baby's nutrient, if the requirements
 of the baby's system are met and it keeps well.   Nine-tenths
 of infantile sickness  come from improper  feeding.   Preven-
 tion here is better than cure,  if the best interests of the baby
 are subserved.   It is  one thing to bridge over a dangerous
period in an illness on a chosen food, and altogether another
matter for the infant to live  on that food month after month.
This plan is not in the interest of the physician but of the
babies, as  we know the former are  more fitted to decide this
momentous  question than parents,  nurse, relatives, or neigh-
bors.   Choice of food or quality is not the only factor to be 
126        MOTHER, BABY,  AND NURSERY".
considered in infant feeding.   The quantity, frequency, and
conditions under which the food  is to be taken are equally
important elements for success.
  Cleanliness is the first condition in feeding after the choice
of food.   If  a bottle is used, the food should be freshly put
in it for each  feed.  Food that has stood in a bottle should
not be used.   Choose bottles without  angles or letters,  and
with a short  neck so they can be easily cleansed.   Particles
of milk or food will tenaciously adhere to the bottle and nip-
ple,  particularly if sour,  and to  thoroughly cleanse  takes
care.   The smallest particle of milk left behind in a state of
decomposition  will be quite sufficient  to cause  trouble with
the suckling.   No bottle,  cup, spoon, or nipple,  or any other
utensil should be used for the baby unless scrupulously clean,
and  not  used the second time  without  washing.  Bottles
when not in use should be immersed in clear water in which
a bit of soda is dissolved, then rinsed with  clear water just
before using; several feeding-bottles are a good plan.  Discard
nipples with the long  nursing-tubes.  It is impossible for
one to keep  them  clean.   Choose dark-rubber nipples  with
rather a small hole, so the baby may not nurse so fast as to
choke.  Black rubber is purer than white, as the  latter con-
tains injurious ingredients.  The  position  of  the child is im-
portant.  A child should not receive its food lying  dowrn; but
should be supported in an easy semi-erect position, the  same
as in the natural one of nursing from the  mother's breast. 
                    HAND-FEEDING.                 127
The practice of handling and jolting infants soon after taking
food is harmful.  They should lie quietly for  half an hour.
The baby should be fed with regularity.  Just the exact time
between feeds will vary with the particular child and the age;
but let the meals be given systematically and with regularity.
Handfed infants  are apt to be fed with more regularity than
nursing ones.   On an average, two to two and a half hours for
babes under three months of age through the day, and twice
at night from  10 p. m. to 6 a. m. ; after this  from  three  to
three and a half hours through the day, and once at night.
Weak babies who take a very small amount of food need to  be
fed oftener than  the strong,  healthy ones.   Food  should not
be given immediately before or after  the  bath.   Quiet,  and
if possible sleep, should follow eating.  How often  a child
is put to bed with a large  bottle of food with a  long tube!
It nurses a few minutes, then sleeps  and nurses  again.   It
holds the nipple in its mouth, setting up  a  fermentation  of
the milk in the nipple to contaminate all that comes after-
wards.   Even if  the food is all right,  the manner of  feeding
makes it all wrong.   The  quantity of food given is a very
important factor in the nourishment of the baby.   As a rule,
handfed  infants are overfed.   Too frequent feeding is often
a cause of overfeeding.   Quantity depends upon the consti-
tution, temperament, and age of the infant, and many physi-
cians  consider  the weight an index to the amount  of  food
that should be given.   To overfeed is perhaps wiser than not 
 128        MOTHER, BABY", AND NURSERY".
 to give enough.   Nature has some provision  for caring for
 too much food, but not for lack of nourishment.  The organs
 of digestion in infancy are much more delicate and sensitive,
 and therefore more easily deranged than in later years.  The
 stomach is small  and sensitive, and too much food is quickly
 ejected by vomiting.   The usual rules that " the child ought
 to drink until it has enough," "if the child vomits give less;
 if it is hungry give more," are indefinite and  uncertain.  The
 exact quantity must  be  determined by the condition of  the
 child and the strength  of  the  food.   The stools  are  one
 indication.   Just  what these indications are will be found
 under the chapter on Bowels and Kidneys.   Sleep and quiet-
 ness come for a share of consideration as to quantity of food.
 Accurate  measurement of many  stomachs has shown  that
 the average  baby  at birth has a  stomach  capacity  of  one
 ounce, and not until it is about six weeks old does this capa-
 city reach two ounces.   The child must be  ten months  old
 before it can  accommodate eight  ounces, the full measure of
 an ordinary nursing-bottle.   On an average,  babies are given
 too great quantities of poor food.   Less quantity and better
 quality is  demanded.  The following table,  based upon  the
weight of cliildren, has been used  as a standard for one of the
leading children's  dispensaries of  New York city.  As a rule,
too much food leads to vomiting, colic, diarrhoea; too little
food, to constipation and gradual loss of flesh.   The weight,
not the age,  of   the  infant determines  its food  properly.
Weigh the naked baby and determine its food by this table. 
The Weight, not the Age, of the Infant determines its Food properly
Child's weight in pounds	No. of bottles	Size of bottle	Amount			Time of Feeding			
			Of milk	Of gruel	Of sugar	How often	In twenty-four hours	From 6 a.m. to G P. M.	From G p.m. to 6 A.M.
6, 7, and 8 9 and 10 11, 12, 13, anil 14 15 and 16 17 and 18 19 and 20	I. II. III. IV. V. VI.	3 oz. 4 oz. 5 oz. 6 oz. 7 oz. 8 oz.	1 oz., or 2 tablespoon-fuls l£ oz., or 3 tablespoon-fuls 2i oz., or 5 tablespoon-fuls 3h oz., or 7 tablespoon-fuls 5 oz., or 10 tablespoon-fuls	2 oz., or 4 tablespoon-fuls 1\ oz., or 5 tablespoon-fuls 2j oz., or 5 tablespoon-fuls 1\ oz., or 5 tablespoon-fuls 2 oz., or 4 tablespoon-fuls	\ teaspoonful \ teaspoonful |teaspoonful f teaspoonful 1teaspoonful	1 bottleful every 2 hours 1 bottleful every 2 hours 1 bottleful every 1\ hours 1 bottleful every 1\ hours; 1 bottleful every 3 hours 1 bottleful every 3 hours	8 bottles 8 bottles 7 bottles 7 bottles 6 bottles 6 bottles	6 bottles 6 bottles 5 bottles 5 bottles 5 bottles 5 bottles	2 bottles 2 bottles 2 bottles 2 bottles 1 bottle 1 bottle
			All milk and 1 teaspoonful of sugar						
Weigh the Naked Baby, and then determine its Food by this Table 
130        MOTHER,  BABY, AND  NURSERY.
  The following table is based on nursing infants, weighing
naked,  before  and after nursing  the mother,  to determine
the quantity taken, as the natural index to the quantity that
should be given when deprived of mothers' milk.
   First month...........half an ounce to two ounces.
   Second month............    one to three ounces.
   Three to six months...........two to four ounces.
   Six to twelve months..........three to five ounces.

  Too much of the  right quality will create an  abnormal
craving.   Often the  craving is for drink.  Handfed  infants
are  more  thirsty than  nurslings.   It is the amount of food
that is digested and assimilated that constitutes its nourish-
ment, rather than the quantity.  Close observation as to this
point will  determine  the right quantity for each baby, with
its weight and  age as  a starting-point from which to make
our variations.   What should  be  the  temperature  of the
food?  The normal one of the human  body, viz., 98£° F.
This is the temperature of human milk as it is nursed from
the mammary gland.   In preparing cows' milk that has not
been sterilized, it is better to heat gradually,  thus driving off
a portion  of the lactic  acid of the milk rather than  adding
hot water.   Too hot  or too cold  food interferes with diges-
tion.   When food seems  not to agree with the  baby, the
manner of feeding and quantity should be looked after before
changing  the  quality of the  food.   After this lengthy dis-
cussion on the choice  and conditions of the infant's food, now 
HAND-FEEDING.
131
comes the all important question, how shall we know when
baby's food  is  right or wrong?  The selection of food we
have  insisted be by the physician,  because we must  know
the ingredients  as  well as  the physiological wants and the
weaknesses of our babies.   The physician, by his professional
training  and duties,  is  best  fitted  for this task.  After  a
certain brand of food is chosen, we must know not only that
the child lives, but that it thrives  and develops.  Perfect
nutrition is shown by the conditions of the digestive organs
as indicated by the stools, presence  or absence of  vomiting,
colic, the  color of  the  mucous membrane of  the  mouth,
the general contour of  the abdomen, and by the nervous
system  as shown by the sleep.   The chances are the baby
who does not sleep is not well nourished.   Again, right  food
is shown by systematic increase of weight,   and  the most
important  indication of all, the  growth of bone,  as  shown
by the cutting of teeth at the  proper age, and before  the
eruption  of the teeth by the closure of the fontanelles.   The
normal standards of these different indications will be found
in the various  chapters on these subjects.  In closing this
most  important topic of "The  Baby,  we would  remind
all that  "Hygiene, the fair goddess that  presides over the
well-being  of all mankind,  and  with  especial  care over the
cradle, must not be offended, else the  consequences  will be
disastrous."  A baby is as its food is;  a baby is as its general
care and  hygiene are. 
             BOWELS AND  KIDNEYS.

    " Her child was a healthy and happy specimen of its kind in the city."

     THE frequency  and character of the baby's stool is an
      index to its digestion and general health.   To recog-
nize an unhealthy condition, one must know the healthy.  As
a rule, the child will pass a stool within the first  six  hours
after birth, and sometimes several.   The first stools  are black,
waxy,  and  viscid,  and  known as meconium.  The bowels
continue loose  for  several  days to a week.   The  first milk
secreted by the mother, the  colostrum, acts  as a laxative,  the
stool gradually  changing by the end of  the first week to  a
yellow color of  a semi-fluid consistency, milk stools so-called.
A healthy baby will have one  or  two of these  stools a day
until three months old,  when  they average one a day.   If
the baby does  not stool within twenty-four hours after its
birth, refer the  matter to the physician instead of letting  the
nurse begin to dose it with castor oil and  what not.   The
physician will probably recommend a small enema of  warm
water with  perhaps  a little milk  added.   As long as milk
enters  chiefly into  the baby's diet, the stools should be of a 
BOWELS AND KIDNEYS.
133
yellow color like to the yolk of an egg, and  of a semi-solid
consistency.   Most  children when three months old can be
put on a toilet chair to stool.   Pad the  chair so that it will
be comfortable for the child to be bolstered in,  and easy for
the back.  Regularity will  do much toward the  infant form-
ing a healthy habit of action.   We know one young mother
who regularly held her little babies out over some toilet paper
after they were a month old, and until old enough to  be put
in a  chair,  thus  saving  much  labor.  Constipation in the
infant is  not as serious a condition as diarrhoea, nor does it
receive  the  attention it should.   It arises from two causes,
malnutrition and actual disease of the liver.   It is only with
the first we  have  to consider.   Because infants who suffer
from constipation are stronger than those who  have diarrhoea,
the mother does not seek professional advice.   This is wrong.
The one is as important as the other.   The constipation may
be  caused by excessive quantity or  poor quality  of  food.
The powers of assimilation  in  the infant are not sufficient to
appropriate the quantity of  an adult's meal.   If the quantity
is too great, or the food hard  to  digest, it will pass into the
intestines undigested,  and prove a source of obstruction and
constant  irritation.   Particularly  is  this true of the dense
curds of  casein.   As  the  infant becomes  more constipated,
these lumpy, cheese-like curds form the  large  part  of the
stool.   Do not allow the habit of giving irritative  laxatives,
like  castor oil, sulphur, aloes,  or  using suppositories of soap 
134         MOTHER, BABY,  AND NURSERY.
and paper  to move the bowels,  but rather insert the finger,
(have the nail  short)  well  oiled with  vaseline or olive  oil,
slowly and carefully  into  the  rectum.  This  can be done
without causing  any pain  or discomfort.  As soon  as  the
effort on the  part of the  child to  evacuate  the  bowels is
observed, withdraw the finger.   If the efforts of the child do
not expel the finger and the faeces, as it generally does, then
slowly and gently stretch the anus  in  the opening.   If  the
hard large mass is not entirely expelled, but partially,  place a
finger-tip in the sulcus just  back of the anus  and push it  for-
ward, when the stool  will slip  out.  These  simple methods
will strengthen the muscles of the rectum, and help to expel
the contents without aid.  Babies often have fissures form in
the rectum.  This will be  known by the  cry of pain at  and
after stool,  or by a little blood on the stool.   A little vaseline
applied by  the  finger after the stool will help  to soothe  and
heal.
  Diarrhoea is  caused  by chill and  malnutrition.   The undi-
gested food passing into  the intestines is a source of irrita-
tion.  Fermentation occurs  and  we have diarrhoea, dysentery,
and other forms of inflammation.  The stools often resemble
chopped  eggs;  hard white curds of casein or lumps of cream
may  be seen.   The stools  may be sour  smelling or green
from acid fermentation.  Very  putrid  stools show excess of
albuminoids.  The fact that the stools of a handfed infant
are stronger and  more offensive in smell than  those  nursing 
                BOWELS AND KIDNEYS.             135
the  breast, shows the difficulty of giving  a food like  to
mother's milk.  A habitually constipated infant should not be
neglected,  for the  malnutrition will certainly end in diarrhoea.
The malnutrition of the system unfits them to bear any addi-
tional force, and such  babies melt away like  dewdrops when
disease attacks them.   Neglect not the malnutrition shown
by continual constipation.  It is Nature's cry for a better food
for this child.  "Nature is  stern in her edicts.  Her  laws
cannot be  violated with impunity."
  Kidneys.  The  newborn  infant  should urinate within  a
few hours  after its birth.   If not, it will become restless and
fretful.  The attention of the physician should be  called at
once  to such a state, when in all probability a hot cloth or a
hot bath will  be ordered  to the lumbar  regions and over the
bladder.  Handfed babies urinate more often than those fed
on human milk.  Too much cane sugar in the  food may cause
too frequent urination or an acid urine which will inflame the
baby, and  cause it to fret and cry.   Do not  let the  baby lie
in a wet or soiled napkin.   It is cruel to have so helpless a
being  as  a little  baby thus neglected and caused  discom-
fort and suffering.  Too  dark stains of the napkins, or any
sediment  of any  kind on  the  napkin, needs attention  at
once.
  Also any retention of  the urine must not be neglected.
The  spasm of bladder,  or urinary colic, is most distressing,
the baby throwing itself  back  and straightening its limbs; 
136         MOTHER, BABY,  AND NURSERY".
setting the baby in as hot a bath as can be borne will  do no
harm until the doctor arrives.  The distress is so great, and
the cry one of such suffering, with the retention or infrequent
urination, that it is not easily confounded with ordinary colic
of the stomach and intestines. 
 

right.                             wrong.
        HOW  TO LIFT A  BABY.

right.                               wrong.
         HOW TO  HOLD  A BABY 
POSTURE.
                  " Cheek or chin, knuckle or knee,
                   Where shall the baby's dimple be 1
                   Where shall the angel's finger rest,
                   When it comes down to the baby's nest 1 "

 np^HE positions in which a baby is kept, and the manner in
  ■*■   which it is handled, are factors bearing upon its health
 and comfort, and are to be considered in the baby's  hygiene.
 In its helpless and dependent condition the babe must remain
 where placed.   Its soft and rapidly  growing muscles and
 flexible bones are easily affected by pressure,  and may be  so
 modified  as  to  influence  its  health in  future  years.  For
 instance,  the baby  who continually sucks  its  thumb, not
 alone  causes a deformed thumb, but the weight of the arm
 on the infant's chest as it sleeps produces a depression of the
 ribs  in the line occupied by the arm when the thumb is placed
 in the mouth.  This depression may so change the contour of
 the chest as to affect the lung capacity in after years.  Care
 enough is not bestowed in  handling the infant.   How often
 we  see some thoughtless nurse lift  them up  by an arm,  or
by placing the hands on each side of the chest immediately
below the armpit.   This is wrrong, to continually lift the 
 138        MOTHER, BABY",  AND  NURSERY.
 infant by this side pressure.   The  many  times a day a baby
 is thus lifted has a tendency to  decrease the lateral diameter
 of the chest, for in the daily repetition of this  pressure the
 soft, flexible  ribs are moulded, and as a result we will have
 a narrow chest, known as the "pigeon  chest."   This same
 result may be obtained by too tight bandaging,  preventing
 the free  entrance of  air into the lungs to expand  them; and
 any cause which obstructs the entrance of air into the lungs
 may lead to changes  in the highly flexible  chest which will
 result in a "pigeon chest."
  The correct way to lift  the infant or little child is to place
 one hand under the buttocks, and the other, in front or behind
 the chest, aids in supporting  the  weight, and  at the same
 time steadies the child in a  comfortable  position.  One has
 but to compare the general outline of  the chest in children of
 two  and three years of age with that of the new-born to be
 convinced of the changes  produced in its form by careless
 and improper handling, changes which can but be harmful to
 the vitality and strength  of the individual.   We all know
how the  "flat-headed  Indian" changes the shape of the skull
by binding .a weight on the forehead.  We have seen infants'
heads misshapen from lying too long on the back.  Change
the position of the young infant from side to side, and from
back  to  side, to relieve the soft muscles  and flexible bones
from  continued pressure.  Bow legs are produced  by the
child habitually sleeping cramped up, by  too bungling  a 
                         POSTURE.                    139
 napkin,  or by standing the child too early on its feet.  Spinal
 curvatures  are begun by having the little one sit for hours
 tied in a high chair, or other like posture.  All adults know
 the soreness and  numbness  that comes to any muscle when
 too  long confined in  any  one position.  What must the
 poor  babies suffer who  are  carelessly  left for hours in one
 posture, until their tender  muscles are numb with compres-
 sion!  Again,  rough  or  too much handling will make the
 muscles  sore.  All these interfere with its growth.   Care
 should be  taken not  to leave the baby  too long in  one
 position.  Imprisoned for hours at a  time in  a  high  chair,
 the circulation of  the  lower  limbs  can be interfered with to
 such  an extent  that  the  muscles may  degenerate, producing
 late or defective walking.  The shape  of the nose or ear can
 be changed  perceptibly by gentle pressure day after day.
  Again, posture  may affect the digestion and circulation as
 well as the muscles.  The semi-upright position for feeding,
 or when  at stool,  are promoters of healthy action.   The habit
 of patting the buttocks in infants to quiet to sleep, attracting
 blood to these parts, causing unnatural sexual  development,
 is a posture to be avoided.   Quiet, prolonged  sleep for the
infant is only procured in a  comfortable  posture,  lying
straight,  with freedom of movement for arms and  legs, the
head slightly higher than  the feet.   The muscles  of the feet
are often deformed by  too narrow and too short shoes, giving
a stumbling gait.   Awkward walking may arise from too long 
140        MOTHER, BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
or too short a stride.   A long step produces a flat foot and
a rocking gait, too short a step  a waddling gait.  Rocking
movements, on the whole, are not good positions for the baby.
Who has not seen the crying baby put in the crib and rocked
violently until forced to be quiet by the dizziness produced ?
Look out for the baby's comfort, for whatever makes the baby
comfortable tends  to  its  health and  future  happiness. 
 
rH 
EXERCISE.
                   " What do they in Babyland *
                    Dream and wake and play,
                     Laugh and crow,
                     Shout and grow.
                    Happy times have they."

"O ABIES, like plants, need sunshine and pure air.  Nature
■*-J   requires  and provides  that the  tender frame be  nour-
ished with food, air, warmth,  light, sleep, and exercise.   The
free  ventilation of  nurseries  and the sleeping apartments of
children is important.   The organs of respiration will con-
tinue healthy  or otherwise  as  the air is  pure  or  impure.
Babies when awake,  as  a  rule,  are in  motion, first a  hand,
then a foot.   Degree by degree, all  the  muscles of the body
develop to action.   This continual motion is  a normal state
for the  promotion of  growth, and should be in a pure,  warm
atmosphere.  It is not enough that  the air of the apartments
should  be pure  and warm; but babies, even little babies,
should be taken frequently in the out-door air and sunshine.
Just how soon after  its birth the baby be  allowed the open
air depends upon  the season and state of  the weather:  in
warm, favorable weather almost from the day of its birth; in
the  very cold  season not  until  at  least a  month old.   The 
 142        MOTHER, BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
 little babies who are  housed up in winter become  enfeebled
 so  that  they take cold  on the least exposure.  Properly
 wrapped,  a baby can be  taken out every day at all proper
 for a medium  healthy  adult.  When out, the infant's  face
 should be turned away from the wind, and the wraps pulled
 up about the face so the air may be somewhat warmed before
 breathed,  and  the eyes  protected from  the sunshine.   It
 should not be jolted over crossings, nor the cab pulled back-
 ward.  In very hot weather the baby should  be taken out
 in the cool of the mornings  and on the  shady  side of the
 street.
   We clo  not favor taking little children out just at dusk  in
 the cool of the evening  in summer.   They often take cold  at
 this time,  even  when well  protected by clothing.   Excursions
 on the water may be  often taken for city babies with  good
 effect.  The  "open-air  habit" of exercise for the  baby will
 invariably give  quietness and better sleep,  a sedative  for the
 nervous baby.  Such  babies will often sleep  for hours in the
 open  air if properly protected, when  they would  not sleep
 over an hour  indoors in a  warm room.   Remember  to always
 turn  the  baby's  face away from the  wind  when  awake  or
asleep.  " The  open-air habit" is a prevention of colds  and
croup; the "open-air habit "is a  tonic to  the feeble, fretful
baby;  the "open-air habit" invigorates  the baby in every
way, —then  outdoor  exercise in the  pure air and sunshine
every day when at all  pleasant for the  baby.  Babies are very 
EXERCISE.
143
susceptible to bad odors.   An  odor which is scarcely percep-
tible to  an adult may influence their nervous system very
unfavorably.   Thus the harmful carbonic  acid gas of impure
air can compromise the health of the baby gravely and rapidly
without the parents forming a suspicion of the cause, for the
reason the quantity is too light  to influence persons of greater
vitality. 
HABIT.
                " A little infant newly born,
                  Whose tiny hands unconscious hold
                  The keys of darkness and of morn."

rT"vHE education of the  baby begins  as soon as it is born.
     The first dressing, the  first  food  taken, the first sleep,
all produce marked impressions  upon the  infant's nature.
These  first  lessons should be of the right kind.   How often
the first lessons are bad ones through the  indifference of the
physician and the carelessness  or  ignorance of the nurse!
The educational training of the first month is of  great impor-
tance,  if not the most important period from a health stand-
point to the baby.  The baby from the first moment of its
birth should be treated as  an individual, with due respect to
its physical and mental rights.  The baby is not a plaything
for the household, to be taken up  and put down at will of
any or all of the members,  played with, thrown up and down
and  tossed  about  as  a ball,  talked, chirped, whistled,  and
sung at, chucked,  patted, and kissed.  It  is not a welcome
fact, but a  pregnant  one,  that "these messengers  of  God"
are mdividuals and not  playthings.  The baby should be
systematically cared for, that very early, healthful habits be 
HABIT.
145
established.  Systematic feeding to establish a healthful habit
of digestion, system in sleep,  baths, exercise,  air, day in and
day out the same thing at the same time, and at the end of
three months  habits are formed which may influence all the
future years of  the individual  life.   This  establishment  of
habit does not mean the same  treatment and attention for all
babies; but the adaptation to your baby of that rule of sleep,
etc., which seems fitted to it; then the  persistent perseverance
in this mode  until you have established a habit  for  your
baby.
  As habits are  easily formed in  infants,  so with as  great
ease they are broken.  Regular systematic living for the  baby,
month in and month out, will save many anxious hours and
dangerous  sicknesses.   This takes time,  patience,  and very
good common-sense in the beginning, and never to break this
care of the baby may at times be trying;  but  in the long run
the extra saving of  care and attention richly repays all tem-
porary annoyance.   In the systematic care of the baby one
should seek to avoid extremes, — extremes in feeding, in exer-
cise, in clothing; just enough, not too much or too  little, but
the happy  medium, cannot always be attained without  much
thought, tact, and careful observation  on the part of parents.
In the training and care of the infant no organ suffers more
than  the brain.  The brain  of the baby may be  compared
favorably with  the  other organs of its body.   Its powers  of
endurance  are extremely limited.   Like other parts of its
                             10 
146        MOTHER, BABY,  AND NURSERY.
organization, it should be carefully protected from influences
which may be harmful, otherwise it will suffer many defects.
The little brain is irritated and over-exercised  in  the  desire
of the parents to show that their baby is bright and winsome.
The babies of the working poor in this respect are much better
off than those of wealth.   The babies of the poor  are  left in
peace, for the reason no one has time to spend exciting them.
One rarely hears of a fretful,  excitable baby that  keeps the
washerwoman walking the house up and down all or part of
the  night,  as  is often the case in well-to-do  homes.  The
true interests of the baby are too often sacrificed to the  selfish
and vain gratification,  ambition, and  pleasure  of  those who
should strive for the baby's greatest good.   The rapid growth
of the infant's brain in the first two years  of life  demands a
"calm  letting alone," if  we  would  have a well-balanced
nervous system as a  future equipose  to the health of the
child.   The hygiene of the baby demands careful,  systematic
training, — careful in that the first lessons are right, the right
food, the right quantity,  the right plan for sleep, for dress,
baths, exercise, etc.   Once begun  right, keep  on  right, and
right habits can  but  be established, and we have a joyous,
happy,  and  well baby.   It  is astonishing how quickly and
easily impressions can be made on the baby for right or wrong
modes  of  living;  and nowhere is  it more true than in this
connection, that prevention is better than  cure.  The baby
who is  trained to systematic habits of physical  living will be 
HABIT.
147
more easily governed, more obedient, will be taught patience
and be less  fretful.   The  establishment  of  right  physical
habits  in the infant will not alone  lead to a healthy baby, but
touches the mental and moral development.   Carefulness in
preparing the  exact  quantity and quality of  food will  soon
catch the attention of the year-old  baby,  and lead to truth-
fulness in the child.   The impression  on the child of  this
exactness and carefulness on  the mother's part teaches there
is a measure  and limitation to action, which tends to develop
later in  the  child  the measuring of any and  every action.
Later,  thought is measured and limited,  and when this meas-
ured and limited thought is  expressed  in language, we get
truthfulness.   The  Great Father who  understands  so  well
the needs of little infants created them animals of habit,
delegating to  us  the regulating of  these  habits  and  the
pleasure  of watching them unfold in a physical, mental,  and
moral way. 
A STUDY OF  BABIES.
                   " O bonny brown sons !
                    0 sweet little daughters!"

r I ^HE assertion is frequently heard that " babies all look
  -*-   alike."  This  is  a mistake.  Babies, even very  little
babies, do not even look alike,  much less are alike.   Nor
could this be so  in even a general way, not having  the  same
parents  or environments,  the characteristics and  influences of
which make the great differences in babies.  Nevertheless,
there are resemblances which  lead to a general  classification
which is helpful when it comes to a study of infantile hygiene.
There is the fair, fat,  flabby baby, the dark, thin,  scrawny
one, the one with a big head, thin neck and extremities. Then
we have the medium baby, not very fat or very lean.  Babies
may be  classified  as to  temperaments  the same  as adults.
The characteristics  are not  as  plainly marked as  in adults;
but, with the temperaments of the  parents  as  a basis  from
which to work, we  very  soon  can distinguish to which tem-
perament the baby belongs.  This knowledge once acquired,
notably  at first by a study of the parents, is a good founda-
tion to the formation of healthy habits.  To know thoroughly 
A  STUDY OF BABIES.
149
the  individual baby  is a long stride toward right  care and
management.   Instead of using  the old  terms of  nervous,
bilious, sanguine, and lymphatic  temperament, we  prefer to
use  the more modern classification of Paul Gibier,  a French
physician,  viz.,  acid temperament,  alkaline  temperament,
and  neutral temperament.  In fact, most physicians  in study-
ing  infants and their diseases divide into acid, excessively
alkaline,  and  alkaline.   The neutral   temperament  is  the
normal one.   The acid corresponds to  the nervous, and  the
alkaline  to the bilious.   As infants  range from the neutral
temperament  toward the acid or alkaline, just in that degree
are  they  more difficult to care  for  and  train to  healthful
habits.   The baby of neutral temperament  is of fair size, with
firm flesh, well-developed  bony system,  broad shoulders and
head,  appears  well  nourished, eats heartily, sleeps  soundly,
cries lustily, is frolicsome, joyous, and happy.   This baby is
not  easily disturbed,  does  not take cold easily,  teeths early,
but does not walk or talk as young as the  acid temperament,
is never taken for a brilliant  or  "smart"  baby.   This baby
of neutral  temperament is a wholesome  baby, with plenty of
vitality,  not one of  the  rare hothouse plants  which  draw
attention by their exquisite frailty and  beauty; on  the con-
trary,  this baby  is  a very ordinary one,  with  more  body
than brain, but will  grow into a  stalwart  man with a  giant
intellect.
  The baby of acid temperament is under-weight.  The bones 
150         MOTHER,  BABY, AND NURSERY.
are small and short; the face is narrow;  the lips  are thin and
red; the skin is very  thin;  the veins  blue.  This  baby is
restless, and always in motion, a poor sleeper, subject to vio-
lent sicknesses, inclines to stomach and  bowel affections.  If
handfed, gives a world of trouble to find a food to agree with
it, very backward in teething, but early  to walk  and  talk, —
a delicate plant of rare beauty, demanding constant attention.
This baby often takes its food as if half-starved, but is poorly
nourished, because its power of absorption is low.   The alka-
line temperament is usually over-weight, one of those  very
fat, overgrown babies;  the flesh is flabby; it has large joints
and bones, is sleepy, very slow to walk, likes to be petted and
attended; one of those  babies that cannot  be put off.  This
baby is  very easy to take cold, and while not subject to as
violent  sicknesses as the acid temperament, yet  is  always
ailing, has croup, frets and frets, while very constipated, and 
A  STUDY OF BABIES.
151
 early develops catarrh.  The shape of the head of  babies is
 often a help to an understanding of their temperaments.
   No. 1.  The healthy type.
   No. 2.  The scrofulous type.
   No. 3.  The tuberculous type.
   The  healthy type  is the neutral  temperament.  The acid
 will incline toward the second,  or scrofulous  type, and the
 alkaline toward the  third or tuberculous  type.
   Climate has an effect on children.   New countries give us
 the neutral type;  while the extremely acid temperaments are
 the product of civilization and cities.  The alkaline type is
 more often developed in  the country.  These temperaments
 are a hint  to the care and management.  The acid baby
 must avoid acids  of  all kinds, needs to have  its casein and
 starch partially digested.   They need oils and fats  in  baths
 and  food.  Fruits must  be strictly kept away from them.
 The alkaline  baby eats too much, early develops a  taste for
 sweets,  fats disagree,  fruits  agree, and as a  rule is a great
 milk drinker.   These types of babies have been drawn in the
 extremes  so as to  be  more easily recognized.   We encounter
 all degrees of  these different types and temperaments; but by
 these  outlines  given we think a basis will  be found by which
 to study your  baby and help to a better understanding of its
requirements.   Since the baby of the household has not the
same parents as the neighbor's baby, it can hardly be expected
to alwavs  thrive on the same habits and food.   What is one's 
152        MOTHER, BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
meat is another's  poison is frequently verified in  the training
and  management of babies.   Parents  need  to  study their
baby from and by themselves.  Do unto the baby at all times
the same  as  you would like done for  yourselves in similar
circumstances. 
 
THE  BABY. 
THE  BABY'S BASKET.
                " Oh, mothers, with your babies gay,
                 How dare you be so glad ! "

 "  I ^HE baby's  basket,  especially when fitted for the first
  -*-  born, is of  great interest and pleasure to the expectant
 mother.   It makes no  difference whether it is the little roll
 of clothing laid carefully away in the  bureau drawer in some
 humble cottage, or one of the elaborate symphonies in white,
 blue, or  yellow in  some mansion.  Alike will these prepara-
 tions for the little stranger be found to pulsate with throbs of
 mother-love.
   What  shall  be found  in  the  baby's  basket?  First, two
 white strings of about six inches in length, made by doubling
 coarse white thread two or three times and twisting hard; a
 pair of sharp scissors, these will be needed by the physician;
 an old woollen blanket or a very large canton flannel napkin
 to receive the baby at first; a roll of  old linen pieces  to  be
used for various  purposes, dressing the cord, washing the
eyes, mouth, etc.:  a roll  of old white  pieces to be put inside
the napkins to catch the first discharges, to be put under the 
 154        MOTHER,  BABY,  AND  NURSERY.
 chin  when giving the baby  hot water,  etc.; a  roll of old
 flannel pieces, if hot cloths should be needed to the abdomen
 or elsewhere, let these rolls be generous  enough at the least
 to last  throughout  the first  week; a flannel band without
 seams or hem,  and the garments for the  first dressing;  a
 cushion with two sizes of  safety pins, and some needles and
 thread are not a bad idea,  for some nurses prefer to sew on
 the band instead of using safety-pins;  some diapers, soft and
 those that have  been laundried,  for the first use;  a bottle of
 oil, either salad, cocoanut, or better, home rendered  lard; a
 drying blanket  to be used the first week in oiling the baby,
 and one or two soft  crib blankets for wrapping the little one
 in his crib or cosey corner.  A baby's hair-brush is  better
 than  one of the little combs.
  Later  the basket  may be fitted with sponges, towels, and
 drying blankets  for the baths  of water.   A powder-puff with
 a dish of scorched  wheat flour  may be  added later, if the
 baby is inclined to chafe.   After the  baby is a  few months
 old, if the scalp is inclined  to be dirty,  a bottle of bay rum, to
 be used a very little  on the head after the bath when  the hair
 is brushed, will keep  a scalp  not diseased  perfectly clean.
 A basket with compartments will be found most convenient,
 so that the bath articles can be  kept aside from  the  wearing
apparel.   If possible, let the basket be of ample size to hold
all of the garments and things needed  in  the bath  and dress-
ing.   The basket may also contain a few raisins,  large  fresh 
                 THE BABY'S  BASKET.              155
ones,  in case  needed at  the  dropping of the cord.  Such a
basket, while not a necessity, yet is a convenience and care-
saving to every nurse and mother; and we wish every expec-
tant mother might be  given  the  happiness and flush of joy
that comes from preparing a basket for the baby. 
NURSERY POINTERS.
 "OABIES who have no artificial food after birth until the
 -*-^  milk comes,  have very little trouble  from colic; but
the baby who  is kept quiet  on sugar and water, or milk and
water, or catnip  tea, or something else,  will  almost  surely
have colic.
  Sleeplessness, restlessness, a nervous irritability, and no
gain in flesh are symptoms of malnutrition.
  Keep on hand  some  blue litmus paper, to be  had of any
druggist, and  dip a small piece of it into the baby's food.  If
this blue paper turns red, the  food is acid and not fit for the
baby.
  It is during dentition the  demands of nutrition  reach
their  maximum requirement.
  Bottle-fed babies are apt  to be overfed, and  the substitu-
tion of water rather than the  prepared  food  once in a while
will not only correct  troubles  from overfeeding, but equally
satisfy the body.
  Give clear cool (never cold or ice,) sterilized water  out of
a nursing-bottle, and let the baby drink  without stint.
  Most mothers need  to supplant  their own efforts after five
or seven months of nursing with some other food. 
NURSERY" POINTERS.
157
   Nursing babies suffer more frequently than people generally
 suppose from thirst.   Milk  appeases  hunger, but does not
 satisfy thirst.
   The mother's milk is the food par excellence for the baby.
   Many a nursing baby suffers on account of the dietetic sins
 of its mother.
   Alcohol and beer increase the flow of milk,  but make it of
 poor quality.
   If the baby gets something in  its ear or nose that is  not
 readily removed,  let it alone until the doctor arrives, for the
 more it is worked at the more firmly wedged it becomes.
   If an insect gets into the ear, lay the baby down on its side
 with the ear up.  Fill the ear with  sweet oil,  and  the insect
 will probably float into view.
   Sometimes  an  infant's tongue can be  exposed to view by
 simply pressing the cheeks gently  with thumb and finger.   If
 necessary, hold the nose for a moment, and the tongue will
 come in view.
   The baby should be trained to speak plainly and distinctly.
 Baby talk, so cunning, should  be  overcome as  it grows.   As
 birds learn to sing by imitation, so  babies imitate the voices
 they hear.   The  full, round, and sweet, clear voices of later
years are the tones of babyhood.
  Milk should be the  basis of all infant's food.
  A child nursed for even a few months  makes a better fight
for life than one entirely handfed. 
 158        MOTHER, BABY.  AND NURSERY.
   A baby may be filled up to the neck with milk, and still be
 hungry.
   Plenty of  foolish mothers are found who  put a taste of
 everything into the baby's mouth, and sometimes what is
 merely intended to be sucked  slips down.  Strange  food is
 swallowed  and strange tastes created.
   A leading  physician in one of  our great cities relates  the
 following.  Some years ago I was called to see a baby who
 was  suffering  from chronic indigestion.  The  father  and
 mother were  young; in fact, it was their first baby.   After
 prescribing very carefully and regulating the diet, etc., I left
 the case  for twenty-four  hours.  Next day I  found a neigh-
 bor, Mrs. T., had assured them that my prescription was  all
 wrong, thrown away my medicine, and prescribed something.
 The condition  of my mind may  be imagined.   I said,  with
 considerable vigor,  that  either  Mrs.  T. or myself must be
 discharged.   The young  mother appealed to me in this way:
 " Just think," said  she, " of Mrs. T. 's experience.   She has
 had eleven babies and lost ten."
  Unceasing vigilance and the exercise of good common-sense
are necessary  in the treatment of babies.
  Wrapping the baby  in  a thin  blanket at the  moment of
immersion in the water when bathing, slipping it  off when
the baby has  become accustomed to the water, will prevent
any shock  to the young  infant in its first contact with the
water. 
NURSERY POINTERS.
159
  Severe chafing may be a form of eczema, or wrong urine in
the baby.   If not healed by plain oil or scorched wheat flour,
which  has  been scorched to a chocolate brown, ascertain the
cause of the chafing from the physician before applying any
of the numerous powders in the markets.
  In babies'  food  it is  well  to  remember that farina is a
laxative and  rice water  an astringent.
  The breath of an infant  or child should  be odorless or
"sweet," except, perhaps, immediately after eating.  The
persistent presence  of an odor indicates disease.
  Hot water is the best anodyne and nervine for children.
  The old  adage " spitting  babies " are healthy babies is a
falsehood.  Healthy babies do not vomit. 
NURSERY  DON'TS.
 T~\ON'T  forget that  the  quantity and quality of  the
 ■■-^   mother's milk can be improved by dietetic and hygienic
means.
  Don't forget a good  place for microbes to lodge  and culti-
vate is  in the rubber nipple.  This adjunct of the nursing-
bottle should be scalded by boiling water each time  it is used.
Simply to soak the nipple in warm water is not enough, turn,
rub, scald, and rinse.
  Don't put a second supply of food into a bottle containing
the remains  of a  former feed.
  Don't forget to give  water occasionally to peevish, fretful
babies.  It will soothe the baby, and benefit many cases of
indigestion.
  Don't fail to remove the baby from the  breast after it is
asleep.
  Don't let  every one kiss the baby.
  Don't prepare more  than enough food at one time for  the
baby.
  Do not burn a lamp in  the sleeping room of an  infant. 
NURSERY DON'TS.
161
  Do not let the creeping or walking infant carry everything
it picks up to its mouth.
  Don't cover the baby's head in the house, asleep or awake.
  Don't neglect a constipated baby.
  Don't hamper  the  baby by  tight  or heavy clothing so it
cannot kick  and  move around.
  Do not stuff a new-born baby.
  Do not fail to watch the  closure of the  fontanelles in the
baby before time for the teeth, to know if the bone growth is
all right.
  Don't think that the neighbor's baby is the only one affected
by Hereditary and Prenatal Influences.
  Don't fail to treat the baby as a sensitive, intelligent being
from the first mordent of its  birth.
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