From the 1st moment the infant is applied at the breast, it have to be nursed upon a particular plan. This is necessary to qualify for the well-doing of the child, tending to contribute essentially to preserve the health of your parent, who will thus be rendered the perfect nurse, and her duty as well will become a pleasure.
This suggests, however, a careful attention on the a part of the mother to her own health; for that of her child is basically dependent upon it. Healthy, nourishing, and digestible milk should be procured only from your healthy parent; and it is against sense to expect that, if a mother impairs her health and digestion by improper diet, neglect of exercise, and impure air, she can, nevertheless, provide as wholesome and uncontaminated a fluid for her child, as if she were diligently attentive to these important points. Every instance of indisposition within the nurse is liable to affect the infant.
And this leads me to look at, that it is a common mistake to suppose that, because a woman is nursing, she ought therefore to live very fully, and so as to add an allowance of wine, porter, or other fermented liquor, to her usual diet. The only real result of this plan is, to cause an unnatural degree of fullness from the system, which places the nurse about to disease, and which of itself frequently puts a stop to the secretion of your milk, instead of increasing it. The proper plan of proceeding is obvious enough; only let attention be paid to the standard laws of health, as well as the mother, if she use a sound constitution, will make the best nurse than by any foolish deviation founded on ignorance and caprice.
The next case proves the correctness of this statement:
A young lady, confined together with her first child, left the lying-in room along at the expiration generally the third week, a reliable nurse, along with perfect health. She had some slight trouble with her nipples, but this was soon overcome.
The porter system was now commenced, and at a pint to a pint and also a half of this beverage was taken in the four and twenty hours. This was resorted to, not because it has any deficiency in the provision of milk, for it had been ample, and also infant thriving upon it; but because, having become a nurse, she was told that it was usual and necessary, knowing the without it her milk and strength would ere long fail.
After this plan was followed for a few days, the mother became drowsy and disposed to sleep at the daytime; and headache, thirst, a hot skin, in reality, fever supervened; the milk diminished in quantity, and, for the very first time, the stomach and bowels with the infant became disordered. The porter was ordered that they are left off; remedial measures were prescribed; and all symptoms, both in parent and child, were after some time removed, and health restored.
Having been accustomed, before becoming a mother, to take a glass or two of wine, and occasionally a tumbler of table beer, she was advised to follow precisely her former dietetic plan, but considering the addition of half a pint of barley-milk morning and night. Both parent and child continued in excellent health usually in the remaining period of suckling, and also latter didn't taste artificial food until the ninth month, the parent's milk being all-sufficient for its wants.
Not a soul can doubt the porter was in this case the source of the mischief. The patient had gone into the lying-in-room in full health, rejoiced, and came out from her chamber (comparatively) as strong as she entered it. Her constitution had not been previously worn down by repeated child-bearing and nursing, she had an ample supply of milk, and was fully capable, therefore, of performing the duties which now devolved upon her, without resorting to any unusual stimulant or support. Her previous habits were totally at variance with the plan which was adopted; her system became too full, disease was produced, and the result experienced was nothing more than what probably be expected.
The plan to be followed for the 1st six months. Until the breast- milk is fully established, which probably are not until the 2nd or third day after delivery (almost invariably so in a primary confinement), the infant have to be fed upon a little thin gruel, or upon one third water and two thirds milk, sweetened with loaf sugar.
After this point it must obtain its nourishment on the breast alone, and for a week or ten days the appetite belonging to the infant must remain the mother's guide, as to the frequency in offering the breast. The stomach at birth is feeble, and as yet unaccustomed to food; its wants, therefore, are easily satisfied, but they may be frequently renewed. An interval, however, sufficient for digesting the little swallowed, is obtained before the appetite again revives, and a fresh supply is demanded.
On the expiration of weekly or so it is essentially necessary, and with some children this can be done with safety from the initial day of suckling, to nurse the infant at regular intervals of three or four hours, day and night. This allows sufficient time for each meal to become digested, and tends to keep the bowels of the child in order. Such regularity, moreover, will do much to obviate fretfulness, and that constant cry, which seems as if maybe allayed only by constantly putting the child on the breast. A young mother very frequently runs into a significant error in this particular, considering every expression of uneasiness as an indication of appetite, and whenever the infant cries offering it the breast, although ten minutes may well not have elapsed since its last meal. That is an injurious and even dangerous practice, for, by overloading the stomach, the meals remains undigested, the kid's bowels will always be out of order, it soon becomes restless and feverish, is, perhaps, eventually lost; when, by simply going to the above rules of nursing, the infant might have become healthy and vigorous.
For a similar reason, the infant that sleeps with its parent must not be allowed to possess the nipple remaining in its mouth all night. If nursed as suggested, will probably be found to awaken, as the hour for its meal approaches, with great regularity. In reference to nighttime-nursing, I would suggest suckling the babe as late as ten o'clock p. m., and never putting it to the breast again until five o'clock the next morning. Many mothers have adopted this hint, with great advantage to their health, and without the slightest detriment to that of the child. When using the latter it soon becomes a habit; to induce it, however, it must be taught early.
The foregoing plan, and without variation, have to be pursued to the sixth month.
After the sixth month to made the effort of weaning, if the parent has a large supply of excellent and nourishing milk, and her child is healthy and evidently flourishing upon it, no change in its diet ought to be made. If otherwise, however, (and this will but too frequently be the case, even before the sixth month) the child can be fed twice in the middle of the day, and that sort of food chosen which, after a little trial, is found to agree best.
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