Every mother's book, or The child's best doctor / by Alfred Fennings.
- Fennings, Alfred.
- Date:
- [between 1890 and 1899?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Every mother's book, or The child's best doctor / by Alfred Fennings. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![the milk turns sour on the Infant’s stomach, and sickness, restlessness, and cries give notice of this injurious fact. Some mothers are so fond of cramming their Babies, that they would feed them during sleep if they could. Such too- kind Parents ought to know, that nearly all the complaints of in]ants are from Acidity, the result of over-full Stomachs. The bowels of an infant in health should be opened from two to four times in the twenty-four hours. The stools should be rather liquid, or of a lightish yellow colour ; should not have any sour smell, neither any white curds nor lumps in them. WEANING—The proper time for weaning is from seven to twelve months, or according to the Child’s health. From the first appearance of the TEETH, weaning should be gradually begun, giving instead some plain bread pudding or other light diet, once or twice a day. Bread and milk is the most nourishing food for all children. Let BREAD and MILK be the daily food of your weaned child. Chil¬ dren fed with it will thrive, be strong and healthy, and become little models of youthful strength and childish beauty, to whom the usual Diseases of Child¬ hood will bring but little danger. It is feeding Children upon stimulating Meats, and Food heating to the blood, that causes so many young ones to fall victims to Hooping Cough, Measles, and other inflammatory Complaints. Give vour Child whole-rneal Bread ; some of the white Bread has Alum put into it. This Alum chemically destroys all the hone-making substance which exists naturally in the Wheaten flour. If a child, then, eat only this Alumed Bread, how can he have strong bones, good legs, or avoid rickets ? Don’t have a bandy-legged, bow-knee’d, rickety Child, but give it good wholesome bone-making brown Bread to eat. CLOTHES—Never fasten the Infant’s clothes with pins, but use buttons, string, tape or thread. Let no tight bandage, nor cramping roller, nor stays, rob your Babe of half its breath, but let everything be free, easy, and loose.. Do not forget, that the bones of a new-born Infant are at first but little better than gristle, and, jelly-like, can be moulded to any shape. Many a suffering child has borne through life a contracted Chest, and forced-in Ribs, from having been early squeezed by their swaddling clothes, and numbers have, in various ways, been lastingly injured and deformed. In clothing a Baby never forget that it is of tire greatest consequence that no Cold nor Cough should be caught within the first twelve months of its tender life. Old and young should wear flannel next to the skin. WASHING—To keep the infant sweet and wholesome, let it be washed twice daily. Every morning well wash, with a soft sponge, the head, neck, face and limbs ; and every night the whole Body with every crease of skin. Do not use soap, except to the hands. ‘ Let the water used be blood-ivarm, that is, when it feels to the hand neither warm nor cold. After washing, briskly rub the Infant thoroughly dry with flannel or a soft cloth ; and then dust the joints, armpits, neck, &c., with a pure Toilet Powder or Fuller’s Earth. Chafjngs, and sores at the joints, are often great tell-tales of indolence and neglect. EXERCISE—The only exercise of a newly-born Infant is the dandling of the nurse, and its own lusty cries. It should, however, with the band, be briskly yet softly, rubbed all over its little body twice or three times a day. After a few weeks have passed, it may for a short lime have a daily roll on a carpeted floor. After some months’ rolling, the Babe will gain much strength, become ambitious, and with more or less success attempt to stand. Do not now](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30472891_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
