The new domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. ... ; To which is now first added, memoirs of the life of Dr. Buchan : and important extracts from other works, particularly his Advice to mothers, ... / by William Buchan.

Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The new domestic medicine : or, a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases, by regimen and simple medicines. With an appendix, containing a dispensatory for the use of private practitioners. ... ; To which is now first added, memoirs of the life of Dr. Buchan : and important extracts from other works, particularly his Advice to mothers, ... / by William Buchan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    bread may be mixed in veal or chicken broth, made into puddings, or the like. Bread is a proper food for children at all times, provided it be plain, made of wholesome grain, and well fermented; but when en- riched with fruits, sugars, or such things, it becomes very unwholesome. It is soon enough to allow children animal-food when they have got teeth to eat it. They should never taste it till after they are weaned, and even then they ought * to use it sparingly. Indeed when children live wholly on vegetable food, it is apt to be sour on their stomachs: but, on the other hand, too much flesh heats the body, and occasions fevers and other inflammatory diseases. This plainly points out a due mixture of animal and ve- getable food as most proper for children. Few things prove more hurtful to infants than the common method of sweetening their food. It entices them to take more than they ought to do, which makes them grow fat and bloated. It is pretty certain, if the food of children were quite plain, that they would never take more than enough. Their excesses are entirely owing to nurses. If a child be gorged with food at all hours, and enticed to take it, by making it sweet and agreeable to the palate, is it any wonder that such a child should in time be induced to crave more food than it ought to have? Children may be hurt by too little as well as too much food. After a child is weaned, it ought to be fed four or five times a day; but it should not have too much at a time. Children thrive best with small quantities of food frequently given. This neither overloads the sto- mach nor hurts the digestion, and is certainly most agree- able to nature. FV riters on nursing have inveighed with such vehe- mence against giving children too much food, that many parents, by endeavouring to shun that error, have run into the opposite extreme, and ruined the constitutions of their children. But the error of pinching children in their food is more hurtful than the other extreme. 2. D