A practical treatise on the management and diseases of children / by Richard T. Evanson and Henry Maunsell.
- Evanson, Richard Tonson, 1800-1871.
- Date:
- 1843
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A practical treatise on the management and diseases of children / by Richard T. Evanson and Henry Maunsell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![overloading the stomach by a mass of indigestible food and drinks, and keeping the system under a continued fever of digestion ? or, is it not rather by allowing the person to live, as much as possible, in the manner customary with her, supposing that to be one which has hitherto preserved her in good health,— permitting her to eat her usual meals, which she will probably do with increased appetite, and not inculcating upon her the necessity of taking drinks more stimu- lating, or in larger quantities (relatively with her probably increased consumption of food), than she has been in the habit of using ? With hired nurses, it is especially necessary to act upon the principle just laid down ; for these persons, coming from the scanty table of their own homes, are apt to indulge their appetites, from mere novelty, if, as is usually the case, their employers show any disposition towards the encouragement of a stall-feeding system. Nurses should not be kept,upon any one description of food exclusively, but should have, as is natural, a wholesome, mixed, animal and vegetable diet, with or without wine, according as they may have been accustomed to live ; but we may, perhaps, allow them, with advantage, somewhat of an extra, though never an unreasonable quantity of malt drink, providing always that it be found to agree with their digestive system. [Wine and malt drinks are neither proper nor necessary additions to the diet of nurses. A healthy nurse requires nothing beyond good wholesome food of easy digestion, and water as a drink. — C] The catemenia, in some instances, appears in a nursing woman, and, where it does, is likely to interfere with the thriving of the child Whenever, therefore, we find an infant becoming thin, weakly and cross, without any sufficient cause being assignable, we should inquire into this circumstance, and if a change has occurred, it will generally be found advisable to procure another nurse ; or to anticipate the time of weaning. Irritability of temper, and indulgence in passion, interfere with the secretion of milk to such an extent, that a child has been known to be attacked with convulsions immediately after being suckled by a nurse, who was at the time suffering under the effects of a fit of anger. A knowledge of this circumstance influences many persons to indulge nurses in the most extravagant whims, lest their temper should be crossed, and the child thereby injured. Irritable persons are, unquestionably, unfitted to nurse or manage children ; but we apprehend, that over-indulgence is not the way to improve temper : and as we fear that the most learned diatribe from us, would have little efficacy in supplying a good disposition where Providence has not created it, we shall not pursue this subject farther. IV. CHOICE OF A NURSE. When circumstances prevent a parent from suckling her own child, it is important that we should have some principle to guide us in our selection of a strange nurse. Medical men are constantly asked for](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21118346_0043.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
