The care of infants : a manual for mothers and nurses / by Sophia Jex-Blake.

  • Sophia Jex-Blake
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The care of infants : a manual for mothers and nurses / by Sophia Jex-Blake. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/136 (page 16)
    a popular idea, by no means discouraged by the women themselves, that wet-nurses should live a life of positive idleness, and be fed on the fat of the land, with abundance of malt liquors, or stimulants in some other shape. Nothing can bo further from the truth. In order to the forma- tion of healthy milk it is necessary that the woman herself should be healthy; and the very sudden change from probably insufficient food to a liberal table, and from over-exertion to an easy life, involves in any case some risk of derange- ment of health; and the risk should be reduced to a minimum by a moderate and very simple diet, with a fair amount of work or exercise in some form.^ Alcohol in any shape is distinctly undesirable (unless given for any special reason by medical orders), and a good plain diet of farin- aceous food, porridge, etc., with one meat meal in the day, and plenty of milk or cocoa to drink, is far more desirable for the woman herself, and for the baby dependent on her, than any more lux- urious fare. The supper should always consist of weU-made gruel, with plenty of milk, and of nothing else. Whether the infant is suckled by its own mother or by a stranger, it is equally important that the general health of the milk-provider should be carefully guarded. Indigestion, constipation, 1 See Manual of Diet, by Dr. King Chambers. Smith, Elder, and Co., 1875.