[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Beckenham 1907].

  • Beckenham (London, England). Urban District Council
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Beckenham 1907]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/44 page 6
    ADVICE TO MOTHERS IN THE EEEDING AND CARE OE THEIR INEANTS. 1. Breast milk is the food designed by Nature for the feeding of infants. Cows’ milk is a makeshift and should be used only in the event of the mother’s milk failing. If the mother have plenty of breast milk the infant should not have any other food whatever until it is eight months old when it may be gradually « weaned. 2. If the mother have only a little milk the child may be suckled twice daily, night and morning, and the mother should take a cup of milk gruel or of milk half an hour before nursing. 3. Nursing mothers should not take alcoholic, beverages—beer, stout, wines and spirits—to produce a flow of milk, alcohol improves neither the quantity nor the quality of the milk, but it does pass into the infant’s system. 4. Mothers who are nursing require a sufficiency of nourishing food, plenty of fresh air and exercise, and if they be accustomed to do household work the domestic duties should not be discontinued during nursing. - 5. To produce good nourishing milk, mothers should avoid worry and anxiety, and should not give way to temper. 6. If the infant must be brought up by hand, it should be fed with unskimmed cows’ milk warmed and diluted with water. Begin with one part cows’ milk and two parts water and sweeten the mixture with a little sugar. Gradually increase the quantity of milk until when the child is six months old it can be taking two parts milk and one part water. Sometimes it assists the digestion of cows’ milk to dilute with bar¬ ley water instead of plain water. To make barley water, put four teaspoonfuls of pearl barley with a quart of cold water, boil down to two-thirds of a quart,, and strain through muslin. Keep this in a cool place. It must be made daily, as it will not keep longer.
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