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PART I--INFANCY.

PRELIMINARY CONVERSATION ABLUTION MANAGEMENT OF THE NAVEL NAVEL RUPTURE--GROIN RUPTURE CLOTHING DIET VACCINATION AND RE-VACCINATION DENTITION EXERCISE SLEEP THE BLADDER AND THE BOWELS AILMENTS, DISEASE, ETC. CONCLUDING REMARKS ON INFANCY

PART II--CHILDHOOD

ABLUTION CLOTHING DIET THE NURSERY EXERCISE AMUSEMENTS EDUCATION SLEEP SECOND DENTITION DISEASE, ETC. WARM BATHS WARM EXTERNAL APPLICATIONS ACCIDENTS

ABLUTION, ETC. MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR CLOTHING DIET AIR AND EXERCISE AMUSEMENTS EDUCATION HOUSEHOLD WORK FOR GIRLS CHOICE OF PROFESSION OR TRADE SLEEP ON THE TEETH AND GUMS PREVENTION OF DISEASE, ETC. CONCLUDING REMARKS INDEX

ADVICE TO A MOTHER.

PRELIMINARY CONVERSATION

I am not overstating the importance of the subject in hand when I say, that a child is the most valuable treasure in the world, that "he is the precious gift of God," that he is the source of a mother's greatest and purest enjoyment, that he is the strongest bond of affection between her and her husband, and that

I have, in the writing of the following pages, had one object constantly in view--namely, health--

"That salt of life, which does to all a relish give, Its standing pleasure, and intrinsic wealth, The body's virtue, and the soul's good fortune--health."

Blessed is that mother among mothers of whom it can be said, that "she hath done what she could" for her child--for his welfare, for his happiness, for his health!

For if a mother hath not "done what she could for her child"--mentally, morally, and physically--woe betide the unfortunate little creature;--better had it been for him had he never been born!

ABLUTION

It will be necessary to use soap--Castile soap being the best for the purpose--it being less irritating to the skin than the ordinary soap. Care should be taken that it does not get into the eyes, as it may produce either inflammation or smarting of those organs.

If the skin be delicate, or if there be any excoriation or "breaking-out" on the skin, then glycerine soap, instead of the Castile soap, ought to be used.

As soon as the navel string comes away Do not be afraid of water,--and that in plenty,--as it is one of the best strengtheners to a child's constitution. How many infants suffer, for the want of water from excoriation!

A piece of flannel is, for the first part of the washing very useful--that is to say, to use with the soap, and to loosen the dirt and the perspiration; but for the finishing-up process, a sponge--a large sponge--is superior to flannel, to wash all away, and to complete the bathing. A sponge cleanses and gets into all the nooks, corners, and crevices of the skin. Besides, sponge, to finish up with, is softer and more agreeable to the tender skin of a babe than flannel. Moreover, a sponge holds more water than flannel, and thus enables you to stream the water more effectually over him. A large sponge will act Like a miniature shower bath, and will thus brace and strengthen him.

It should, provided it be done with a soft sponge and with care. If there be any difficulty in removing the substance, gently rub it, by means of a flannel, either with a little lard, or fresh butter, or sweet-oil. After the parts have been well smeared and gently rubbed with the lard, or oil, or butter, let all be washed off together, and be thoroughly cleansed away, by means of a sponge and soap and warm water, and then, to complete the process, gently put him in for a minute or two in his tub. If this paste like substance be allowed to remain on the skin, it might produce either an excoriation, or a "breaking-out" Besides, it is impossible, if that tenacious substance be allowed to remain on it, for the skin to perform its proper functions.

A babe ought, every morning of his life, to be thoroughly washed from head to foot, and this can only be properly done by putting him bodily either into a tub or into a bath, or into a large nursery basin, half filled with water. The head, before placing him in the bath, should be first wetted , then immediately put him into the water, and, with a piece of flannel well soaked, cleanse his whole body, particularly his arm pits, between his thighs, his groins, and his hams, then take a large sponge in hand, and allow the water from it, well filled, to stream all over the body, particularly over his back and loins. Let this advice be well observed, and you will find the plan most strengthening to your child. The skin must, after every bath, be thoroughly but quickly dried with warm, dry, soft towels, first enveloping the child in one, and then gently absorbing the moisture with the towel, not roughly scrubbing and rubbing his tender skin as though a horse were being rubbed down.

The ears must, after each ablution, be carefully and well dried with a soft dry napkin, inattention to this advice has sometimes caused a gathering in the ear--a painful and distressing complaint, and at other times it has produced deafness.

Directly after the infant is dried, all the parts that are at all likely to be chafed ought to be well powdered. After he is well dried and powdered, the chest, the back, the bowels, and the limbs should be gently rubbed, taking care not to expose him unnecessarily during such friction.

Remember excoriations are generally owing to the want of water,--to the want of an abundance of water. An infant who is every morning well soused and well swilled with water seldom suffers either from excoriations, or from any other of the numerous skin diseases. Cleanliness, then, is the grand preventative of, and the best remedy for excoriations. Naaman the Syrian was ordered "to wash and be clean," and he was healed, "and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child and he was clean." This was, of course, a miracle; but how often does water, without any special intervention, act miraculously both in preventing and in curing skin diseases!

An infant's clothes, napkins especially, ought never to be washed with soda; the washing of napkins with soda is apt to produce excoriations and breakings-out. "As washerwomen often deny that they use soda, it can be easily detected by simply soaking a clean white napkin in fresh water and then tasting the water; if it be brackish and salt, soda has been employed."

The monthly nurse, as long as she is in attendance; but afterwards the mother, unless she should happen to have an experienced, sensible, thoughtful nurse, which, unfortunately, is seldom the case.

Flannel--a good, thick, soft flannel, usually called bathcoating--apron, made long and full, and which of course ought to be well dried every time before it is used.

Remember it is absolutely necessary to every child from his earliest babyhood to have a bath, to be immersed every morning of his life in the water. This advice, unless in cases of severe illness, admits of no exception. Water to the body--to the whole body--is a necessity of life, of health, and of happiness, it wards off disease, it brace? the nerves, it hardens the frame, it is the finest tonic in the world. Oh, if every mother would follow to the very letter this counsel how much misery, how much ill-health might then be averted!

MANAGEMENT OF THE NAVEL.

Take a piece of soft linen rag, about three inches wide and four inches long, and wrap it neatly round the navel string, in the same manner you would around a cut finger, and then, to keep on the rag, tie it with a few rounds of whity-brown thread. The navel-string thus covered should, pointing upwards, be placed on the belly of the child, and must be secured in its place by means of a flannel belly-band.

The nurse or the attendant ought immediately to take off the rag, and tightly, with a ligature composed of four or five whity-brown threads, retie the navel-string; and to make assurance doubly sure, after once tying it, she should pass the threads a second time around the navel-string, and tie it again; and after carefully ascertaining that it no longer bleeds, fasten it up in the rag as before. Bleeding of the navel-string rarely occurs, yet, if it should do so--the medical man not being at hand--the child's after-health, or even his life, may, if the above directions be not adopted, be endangered.

From five days to a week after birth; in some cases not until ten days or a fortnight, or even, in rare cases, not until three weeks.

Certainly not, it ought always to be allowed to drop off, which, when in a fit state, it will readily do. Meddling with the navel string has frequently cost the babe a great deal of suffering, and in some cases even his life.

A little simple cerate should be spread on lint, and be applied every morning to the part affected, and a white-bread poultice, every night, until it is quite healed.

NAVEL RUPTURE--GROIN RUPTURE.

A rupture of the navel is sometimes occasioned by a meddlesome nurse. She is very anxious to cause the navel-string to separate from the infant's body, more especially when it is longer in coming away than usual. She, therefore, before it is in a fit state to drop off, forces it away. The rapture, at another time, is occasioned by the child incessantly crying. A mother, then, should always bear in mind, that a rupture of the navel is often caused by much crying, and that it occasions much crying, indeed, it is a frequent cause of incessant crying. A child, therefore, who, without any assignable cause, is constantly crying, should have his navel carefully examined.

The best treatment is a Burgundy pitch plaster, spread on a soft piece of wash leather, about the size of the top of a tumbler, with a properly-adjusted pad fastened on the centre of the plaster, which will effectually keep up the rupture, and in a few weeks will cure it. It will be necessary, from time to time, to renew the plaster until the cure be effected. These plasters will be found both more efficacious and pleasant than either truss or bandage; which latter appliances sometimes gall, and do more harm than they do good.

CLOTHING.

I prefer flannel, for two reasons--first, on account of its keeping the child's bowels comfortably warm; and secondly, because of its not chilling him when he wets himself. The belly-band ought to be moderately, but not tightly applied, as, if tightly applied, it would interfere with the necessary movement of the bowels.

When the child is two or three months old. The best way of leaving it off is to tear a strip off daily for a few mornings, and then to leave it off altogether. "Nurses who take charge of an infant when the monthly nurse leaves, are frequently in the habit of at once leaving off the belly-band, which often leads to ruptures when the child cries or strains. It is far wiser to retain it too long than too short a time; and when a child catches whooping-cough, whilst still very young, it is safer to resume the belly-band."

The generality of mothers use no pins in the dressing of their children; they tack every part that requires fastening with a needle and thread. They do not even use pins to fasten the baby's diapers. They make the diapers with loops and tapes, and thus altogether supersede the use of pins in the dressing of an infant. The plan is a good one, takes very little extra time, and deserves to be universally adopted. If pins be used for the diapers, they ought to be the Patent Safety Pins.

The head ought to be kept cool; caps, therefore, are unnecessary. If caps be used at all, they should only be worn for the first month in summer, or for the first two or three months in winter. If a babe take to caps, it requires care in leaving them off, or he will catch cold. When you are about discontinuing them, put a thinner and a thinner one on, every time they are changed, until you leave them off altogether.

If a babe does not wear a cap in the day, it is not at all necessary that he should wear one at night. He will sleep more comfortably without one, and it will be better for his health. Moreover, night-caps injure both the thickness and beauty of the hair.

Be sure that he is well wrapped up. He ought to have under his cloak a knitted worsted spencer, which should button behind, and if the weather be very cold, a shawl over all, and, provided it be dry above, and the wind be not in the east or in the north-east, he may then brave the weather. He will then come from his walk refreshed and strengthened, for cold air is an invigorating tonic. In a subsequent Conversation I will indicate the proper age at which a child should be first sent out to take exercise in the open air.

This, of course, will depend upon the season. In the summer, the right time "for shortening a babe," as it is called, is at the end of two months, in the winter, at the end of three months. But if the right time for "shortening" a child should happen to be in the spring, let it be deferred until the end of May. The English springs are very trying and treacherous, and sometimes, in April the weather is almost as cold, and the wind as biting as in winter. It is treacherous, for the sun is hot, and the wind, which is at this time of the year frequently easterly, is keen and cutting I should far prefer "to shorten" a child in the winter than in the early spring.

DIET

The infant ought to be put to the bosom soon after birth, the interest, both of the mother and of the child demands it. It will be advisable to wait three or four hours, that the mother may recover from her fatigue, and, then, the babe must be put to the breast. If this be done, he will generally take the nipple with avidity.

Of course, if there be no milk in the bosom--the babe having been applied once or twice to determine the fact--then you must wait for a few hours before applying him again to the nipple, that is to say, until the milk be secreted.

Immediately call the attention of the medical man to the fact, in order that he may ascertain whether he be tongue-tied. If he be, the simple operation of dividing the bridle of the tongue will remedy the defect, and will cause him to take the nipple with ease and comfort.

Wait with patience; the child will not, for at least twelve hours, require artificial food. In the generality of instances, then, artificial food is not at all necessary; but if it should be needed, one-third of new milk and two-thirds of warm water, slightly sweetened with loaf sugar , should be given, in small quantities at a time, every four hours, until the milk be secreted, and then it must be discontinued. The infant ought to be put to the nipple every four hours, but not oftener, until he be able to find nourishment.

We frequently hear of a babe having no notion of sucking. This "no notion" may generally be traced to bad management, to stuffing him with food, and thus giving him a disinclination to take the nipple at all.

A mother generally suckles her baby too often, having him almost constantly at the breast. This practice is injurious both to parent and to child. The stomach requires repose as much as any other part of the body; and how can it have if it be constantly loaded with breast-milk? For the first month, he ought to be suckled, about every hour and a half; for the second month, every two hours,--gradually increasing, as he becomes older, the distance of time between, until at length he has it about every four hours.

If a baby were suckled at stated periods, he would only look for the bosom at those times, and be satisfied. A mother is frequently in the habit of giving the child the breast every time he cries, regardless of the cause. The cause too frequently is that he has been too often suckled--his stomach has been overloaded, the little fellow is consequently in pain, and he gives utterance to it by cries. How absurd is such a practice! We may as well endeavour to put out a fire by feeding it with fuel. An infant ought to be accustomed to regularity in everything, in times for sucking, for sleeping, &c. No children thrive so well as those who are thus early taught.

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