Read Ebook: A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts by Crumpler Rebecca Lee

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 274 lines and 39010 words, and 6 pages

Formerly, dropsical, emaciated, half-starved, fretful babes were very numerous; but since, of late, judicious legislation has been brought to bear on the matter of adulterating milk, things have changed.

Henceforth we may hope to hear that infantile deaths from this probable cause decrease annually.

With meagre feeding a "bouncing fat boy" will soon present the appearance of a wrinkled old man. And, too, the condition in which food is presented to a child is equally as important as the quality and quantity. It is impossible to rule the stomach of another; a spunky child will resent the attempt some way, and at some time, even though it be after the injury is irreparable. A uniformity in heating the milk or food of any kind is very important. Hot things should never enter a babe's mouth. If milk is in the least sour, it is running a great risk to try to sweeten it by adding soda, as some persons do, for convenience.

The coarse habit of "stuffing" babes, to avoid frequent feeding of them, should vanish like dew before the noonday sun; as it probably will, under the management of educated mothers and nurses. The old-fashioned way of compelling babes to suck a "sugar teat" or a piece of fat meat rind for hours together to keep them quiet, is cheating, to say the least. Our domestic fowls will eat meal, grain and vegetables when they can get them. And if all supply of food is cut off, they may be seen to pick, pick, day after day; this they will do if the ground is frozen and bare. But are they getting food? Nay, they are only tasting, smelling, and hunting for food.

Sucking a sugar teat or meat rind, like gum-chewing, tends to undermine the natural vigor of the mind, by a waste of the fluids that are intended to prepare the food for making pure blood.

A child can just as kindly be fed, changed, and laid quietly to rest; it does not need patting or rocking.

Baby raising is made irksome by adults themselves. The feeding and putting to sleep should be superintended by some competent person, as by intrusting it to children, or even young girls, the feeding may be imperfect. Many children scream with fright at the noise created to get them to sleep.

Canned or otherwise prepared baby-food is quite uncertain, unless, in the case of canned milk, particular pains is taken to have the water hot, and the mass well dissolved; a large part will remain at the bottom of the vessel. Again, as there is more than one brand of this article, it is hard to find out which is the purest, as all are advertised to be the best. Of course the largest firm will have the largest sales. Then the price is not so convenient at all times, rather encouraging the habit of rinsing the can; while all infants' food should be prepared fresh when wanted.

Some babes spit up their food from the first, but there is nothing alarming about that. Should what is spit up smell sour, and appear undigested, small doses of pulverized magnesia--say about as much as will lay on a five-cent silver piece--will correct it, while any known cause should be removed at once. In case of purging in early infancy, it is a mistake not to stop it as soon as possible. It is always safe, after removing the cause, to quiet the motion of the bowels; a thing which can be done only by proper scientific means, that no one should fail to secure.

Very many women have milk in the breasts before the birth of a child. Others do not have any for some days after confinement, yet may appear comfortable. It is no uncommon thing for them to forget that they have another very important task to perform,--that of preparing healthy meals for the offspring. If, at this time, company is allowed, talking and laughing indulged in, the symptoms of the coming milk may be greatly augmented; so that what might have been a slight chill, headaches or fever may become so severe as to require prompt medical aid. Indeed diarrhoea, convulsions, or even insanity may be brought on through the means of any excitement whatever, between the birth of the child and the establishment of the milk.

Giving castor-oil or other nauseous drugs is quite risky, even when prescribed by a physician; as many women are of such a costive habit, that it requires a very large dose to move the bowels. I repeat, it is risking too much, when given in the ordinary ways, for both mother and child. On the part of the mother, an overdose may cause excessive purging and consequent weakness. On the part of the child, should it be nursing while the physicking is going on, the result may be griping and purging, ending its life in a few hours. Every means should be resorted to to move the bowels, where such relief is really needful, before administering physic.

Many women have a large passage during the delivery of the child; and therefore need not be disturbed about that matter for days, or even a week, all other things being favorable. For it should be borne in mind that the internal organs are, in a measure, paralyzed by the interruptions of nature during labor, and that time is needed to rest the nerves and bring things in proper order. Headache, so commonly complained of after delivery, is more from exhaustion of the nervous system than from constipation. For this reason should extreme quiet be observed for about nine days. When physic must inevitably be given during the coming of the milk, it is decidedly best to keep the babe from the breast until it is all through with.

But, as a general thing, other means will answer; such as wringing a cloth out of hot water and applying over the abdomen, or belly, rubbing down and across the back and loins, giving large drinks of hot water without sugar, keeping the body warm and moist for a while, but never an injection unless directed by a practitioner.

I would suggest that a few dollars paid to a physician for a half-dozen extra visits during the first weeks of confinement, might prevent months and years of gloom in many families. Again, there are many women that take suddenly ill with vomiting and purging about the time for the milk to appear. The violence with which this trouble progresses, and the depressing consequences by which it is characterized, have indeed caused it to be termed "child-bed cholera"; and although it may arise from a previously disordered liver or stomach, it seldom happens unless there has been indulgence in suppressed laughing, inhaling peculiar odors, over-eating or drinking. Although the coming of the milk is most commonly ushered in with some degree of chill or fever, there are as many, no doubt, who experience no change whatever, it being so slight. Hence it probably would be best if the term "milk fever" were never used until really apparent. If, after lactation has become perfect, it should go and come, means should be at once resorted to insure its continuance. Wine, ale or beer are not advisable for this purpose. They may surely lead to the habit of moderate intemperance, while their benefits are only temporary. Pure blood is the basis for pure milk, therefore nutritive articles of diet are of more permanent use.

It is well to bear in mind that a scarcity of milk during the month should never be taken as an excuse for refusing to nurse the child; for if it can get but a spoonful a day, it greatly encourages the chance for increasing it. The mother's milk is the fountain of life to the babe, and therefore seldom dries up unless there be some unnatural obstruction. It has been said by many close observers, that when the milk goes away without some perceptible cause, the child is not to live.

What will cause the milk to disappear in some women, will not in others. Peculiar odors, or pungent, volatile applications will completely and forever drive the milk from the breasts of some women; and a cessation of the milk is frequently a forerunner of consumption of the lungs or tumors about the ovaries. If the nipples crack and bleed, they should be anointed with goose oil, occasionally cold cream, or wet with a solution of sal ammonia, or vinegar and water. This done in the intervals of the babe's sleep, care should be taken to wipe the nipples before offering them to it. When a mother gives up to the thought that the suckling is the hardest part to bear, and impatiently deprives her infant of the breast, the pleasures of life must be to her of small value. "Try, try again," is an adage worth heeding.

Should there be humor in the blood, as there ofttimes is, the nipples will not readily heal while the child nurses; in which case it is advisable to feed the child from a bottle and treat the mother. After relief is obtained, the nursing can be resumed. In ordinary cases a poultice made of bruised burdock root and elm flour, together with a tea made by steeping burdock root and drinking a pint a day; keeping the bowels regular, eating rye and Indian bread, and taking about a half teaspoonful of calcined magnesia dissolved in water, once a day, will effect a cure. The poultice should be made soft and applied fresh twice a day between two thin cloths.

A lady of wealth may get discouraged and give her babe to the care of another, whose babe may in consequence have lo be put in some charity-house or otherwise to board. Her babe may thrive and live; while that of her wet-nurse may soon pine away and die. No one can avoid distressing others unless he strives, to the best of his ability, to bear his own burdens.

There are many families in moderate circumstances who, no doubt, feel unable to keep more than one fire going during the cold season; yet nevertheless subject themselves and children to frequent and severe colds by the sudden change from a hot room to a cold sleeping-apartment. This might in a great measure be prevented by a little extra care to secure tenements with sufficient rooms on one floor.

An infant should never be allowed to take its regular naps in a hot kitchen, amid steam and dust; or in an ironing-room, with all of its day-clothes on, beside extra cover, and then be undressed and put to bed in a room that no heat, not even that of the sun, is allowed to enter. Piling on heavy comforters renders the breathing heavy. No baby's face should be covered while asleep. It is wonderful to see how hard some of these little victims struggle to breathe while they sleep, if sleep it can be called. Some babes kick off the cover, and after being very warm get very cold; to avoid which, soft flannel night-drawers, made so as to include socks and all, should be used.

Comfortable sleeping apartments without fire are healthy. The lungs of grown persons break down from cause of too much pressure, much more infants; yet from all such exciting causes the air-tubes may escape, and the liver, stomach or bowels receive the whole mischief.

The sleep of children cannot be healthful if their clothes remain pinned down beneath and around them, and, it may be, tight leather shoes on. Besides, it cultivates untidyness to oblige them to submit to such management. On the contrary, every effort, even at the sacrifice of personal pleasure, should be put forth to insure that clean, sweet and undisturbed repose so much required, and without which few, if any, are perfectly developed.

When it is remembered that from the air we inhale come the principles of life, and how much it is in our power to avoid the contact with injurious particles or substances therein contained, many disadvantages in the matter of rearing the babe will disappear. The air they breathe should be as much one way as possible; no sudden gusts of wind should be forced upon them by hoisting a window when they are over-warm.

Children, of any age, should not be permitted to sleep in the open air, unless it might be for a few minutes, and where the air is extremely bland; which it seldom is, on our New England parks and gardens. A gradual change in the matter of bathing, dressing, feeding, and putting to sleep should be the rule.

The mother may at any time during lactation communicate cold to a child. My first experience in this matter was about thirty-five years ago, when assisting in the care of a child that was nursing. The mother being very warm one summer day, drank freely of ice-cold water while the babe of about six months was sucking. She had not much more than time to set the glass down when the babe was seized with rigid convulsions, and dropped from the breast. The mother became almost helpless with fright, and as the next farm was some distance off, I had to use my young brain. Therefore, I procured a tub with some warm water and a little mustard; it may have been a "fearful lot," but the infant was all right when I got through with it.

Over-work or great fatigue in any way should be avoided by women that suckle their children. If obliged to work and scrub, at home or elsewhere, they should endeavor to keep a strict watch over the condition of that life fountain, the breast-milk. There is no known law preventing carefulness.

Again, it is a mistake to indulge in drinking beers or other alcoholic slops to prevent the child's nursing cold. Early subsistence from the strength of whiskey, rum, beers and ales, like tobacco, tends to stunt the intellect and dwarf the stature of the youth of our land. It is much better to eat warm soups, or such solid food as will give permanent warmth to the blood, and insure a clear character to the being. When it is a babe's meal-time, it should be served with the most exquisite care, as upon that depends its proper growth and length of days. To prove this a fact, take, for instance, an old woman or old man upon whom adversity may have made some telling marks in their younger days, and whose days appear nearly at an end, and let such be well cared for in a neat, quiet, comfortable home; the chances are they will live on in brightness of hope for a number of years.

Contrary to the teachings of some so-called missionaries, I believe that neatness in arranging food, dress, or whatever pertains to order and pleasantness, is the most essential part of a Christian duty. For surely if the body is cherished as the image of our Maker, the soul-salvation is a possibility.

Now since we have noticed to some extent how sudden emotions, as of grief, anger or fright may shock the child at the breast through the agency of those little organs called nerves,--we will pass on to notice some of the causes of bowel complaints arising from the nature of the food eaten by the nurse. Probably there is no cause more frequently productive of infantile bowel complaints, both during and after the month, than that of the too early indulgence in a mixed diet. It may be well to enumerate some of the more objectionable articles of diet from the first day of confinement to the seventh or ninth month, or time for weaning. Of the vegetables,--beans, dry or green, cabbage, cooked or raw, beets, turnips, cucumbers, green peas, dandelions, spinach and Carolina potatoes. Pickles of all kinds. All of the finny tribe; oysters and lobsters being the most dangerous. Of the meats, fresh pork and veal. Of the desserts, egg custards, pastry, cheese and preserved fruits. Of the fluids--coffee--unless ordered for medicinal purposes--raw milk, wines, ales or beers. As a matter of convenience I will introduce what in reason should constitute the proper diet for the same period of time; the modes of preparation being left to those acting as nurses. A large number of women detest gruel, or "baby-food," as they term it. In this, many, no doubt, are excusable, owing to the condition in which it may previously have been presented to them; you can make a horse leave his oats by sprinkling pepper over them. But to the point: There are about an equal number who enjoy it, and it is always best to try and avoid whims and deny one's self in every possible manner till after the milk flows freely.

A woman cannot sink on plenty of nice oat, corn-meal, or flour-gruel, minute pudding or toast panada, given often in small quantities. Of course if any article, however well liked, is made by the gallon, so to speak, and warmed over and again, it will become to be loathed; and too great quantities taken may cause much distress in the stomach. Gruels of all kinds should be well mixed with boiling water in a clean, block tin, covered pail; then set in a clean vessel of water to boil, stirring it till well done. Coarse grain porridges should always be strained; as also should broths.

For fluids:--Shells, broma, hot milk, pure or watered to suit, are each of themselves nourishing. If the mother's milk is scant, a tea made of Indian posy or life everlasting, and drunk as table tea, with milk and sugar, if desirable, is good to increase it. The diet should become gradually solid, say in the early part of the day a broiled lamb chop, broiled beef, liver, tripe, sirloin steak, or broths without vegetables. Broiled meats retain the nutritive principles better than when otherwise cooked. If tea or coffee is found to lessen the flow of milk, it may be inferred that if continued, all of the fluids of the body will materially change.

Children are given to parents only for a lifetime; it may be long, or it may be very short; but to array them in fine linens, with bare neck and arms, as has been and is now to a great extent the custom in many refined communities, for public exhibition, is, it seems to me, a questionable act of parental affection. Yet many do so, and boast, when otherwise advised, of their ability to toughen. Mother, your child may be only one of a hundred to survive such experiments; ninety-nine may have been relieved by an early death.

I have looked upon the lifeless form of babes whose would-be friends had failed to toughen, but had succeeded in contributing a bud to the garden of the dead,--yea, shrouded just as they dressed them while living. Thanks to our Heavenly Father, these cruel customs are fast declining; and we may hope the day is not far distant when the feelings of the tender infants will be better protected, and their bodies covered with more comfortable material. We often see, and are expected to admire, pet dogs on the streets, covered well with cloth, though supplied with Nature's garment. Should pet Carlo die, his loss is mourned as much as that of many infants; in hundreds of cases, being borne to the cemetery followed by a number of carriages and placed in a locality adorned with monument and iron fence.

Too often babies are subjected to a variety of tortures unawares. They are expected to endure, and remain perfectly quiet, with cold food, hot food, cold air, hot air, clean clothes, dirty clothes, wet or dry clothes, thin or thick clothes, wind, dust, light or darkness, noise or quiet, scolding or caressing, squeezing, jolting and beating; finally they endure what no man or woman would, from one week to two years old, or till able to speak for deliverance. Previous to this time they could only squirm and kick and cry, and then, being considered sick, would be forced to take soothing drops or castor-oil. But now they can tell of their little trials by some "sound word" or striking sign.

One part of the clothing of infants should not press, nor be more thickly folded, than the other. Bands and straps should be made wide and smooth. The belly-band should always be fastened on the side.

While travelling in steam-cars, coaches, etc., infants should lie down as much as possible, as sitting upright and being jostled about is liable to strain or injure for life some part of the unfinished spine; and, too, it may bring on severe vomiting and purging. When a journey is to be taken over a long route and the child is fed from a bottle, some more solid food should be substituted; as the continual re-warming of the milk, combined with the motion, renders it unfit for nourishment. It is more frequently overfeeding and prolonged excitement that causes children to fret so when travelling, than a want of their accustomed food. A little finely-pounded, newly-corned, beef, and the compound Graham cracker, is a convenient lunch to take on a journey, especially in hot weather. This may be considered coarse fare for a babe two or three months old; but properly given, could it be so injurious as keeping them trotting, feeding on sweetened milk and water, alternating with cookies or candies? which, as many can testify, is practised daily on some of our routes of travel.

As a general thing, if babes are well fed and otherwise made comfortable at every convenient interval, then allowed to lie quiet or sleep, one will need no better company on a long journey. They soon get used to changes if the change really is for their comfort.

Fanning is good pastime for some women, but it is no less injurious to themselves than it is to infants, provided they apply it without regard to the condition of the body. When children are too warm their wraps should be adapted to the temperature; fanning can do more harm in a few moments, than could be repaired in a month.

A lady, going visiting with her first heir, was asked to lay off her babe's wraps. "Oh," said she, "there is no use in putting handsome wraps on baby, if I am to take them off while visiting." I may have said quite enough to prove that exposing babes to the sudden changes of temperature and atmosphere may be productive of a variety of stomach and intestinal complaints at each season of the year. Even when precaution is exercised there will be unguarded moments when the germ of disease will enter the system; but those moments should be few. I have tried to prescribe preventives as I go along which I know can be read and put up by almost any housekeeper, whether she has graduated in Chemistry or not.

Extra caution should be exercised with small children in midsummer as school vacations draw near, as then the older children are much depended upon to care for the younger. It frequently happens that a child who has been quite thrifty begins to fall back about vacation time.

I hope no one will understand me as advocating heat alone as a life preserver, for I do not. It is heat alone that renders the systems of many children so susceptible to colds. It is uniformity and moderation in their whole management that I am trying to impress upon the minds of all who may desire to profit thereby.

It is claimed, and no doubt rightfully, that it is the children of the poorer classes who suffer most in large cities from bowel complaints. To this too many are ready to say, "Amen."

But there are duties involving upon each and all, rich or poor, from which none can expect to be excused till the last known part has been performed. As the chances now appear, there need be no lack of the common comforts of life in most of our large cities and towns. This is a land of opportunities; in it the laborer gets, or should get, his hire. It therefore becomes his privilege to aid by prudence, industry, and economy, in elevating his family to the discouragement of pauperism and wilful neglect of the laws of health.

It very often happens that those very persons, who claim to be too poor to obtain the necessary comforts of life for their little ones, will not hesitate to purchase some extortionately high-priced article, for which they must enslave themselves to pay by the week or month, and which is of far less value than their own or their children's health. I would suggest here that an extra ten-cent piece be deposited in safe keeping each day as a surety for a baby's comforts for the first six months; which should afterward be increased to twenty cents a day, and thus continued during its childhood.

When a child is five or six months old, it is best to begin to feed once or twice a day, so that the weaning may not be too suddenly enforced upon it. Bread, crumbled in a small quantity of milk, corn-meal pudding, mutton or chicken broth, Graham biscuit; very little salt added to the porridges is healthy. But no disagreeable substances, such as aloes, pepper or salt, should be applied to the nipples for the purpose of weaning a child; a plaster of wool or fur is more safe for the health of the child.

In this climate there are many families who fear to wean their children at any season of the year; many of them migrating from a climate less variable, and in which the customs of feeding infants are altogether different. Such mothers are deserving of no small share of sympathy. I am acquainted with hundreds of them; thank God there are some good mothers, good enough to take the blame upon themselves should their infants sicken and die after being weaned. But for all such there may be found in this little cabinet a consoling word.

Weaning is advisable before June and before December. But if a child does not thrive by reason of some constitutional weakness of the mother, it could probably rally faster by being fed otherwise, at any season of the year.

But whether a child is weakly or not it can gain nothing by continuing to suck after the ninth month; therefore, weaning is recommended about this period. If the mother breeds fast, a prolonged season of nursing but keeps her unprepared, both in strength and household matters, for the next. Then, too, it retards the healthy development of the new being, should she become pregnant while nursing. Although the mother's milk is essential to the proper growth of the child, history records evidences of noble-minded men and women who never nursed the breast, yet lived to a great age.

A great deal depends upon circumstances; for instance, it may be that even with apparently nutritive milk, the bones remain soft, the joints weak, and the flesh wastes away or remains the same. Such cases are not uncommon, especially among the very hard-working people or real indigent. Hence the necessity of seeking medical advice as to the best possible means of supplying the blood with those principles apparently lacking.

From my experience as nurse, I can say that weaning from the breast may be successfully accomplished if begun pleasantly, but decidedly, and continued. The months of May and October in the New England States are the most favorable; April and November in the Middle States, while in almost all of the Southern States weaning is advisable in March and November or December.

Waiting for a child to get all of its teeth is merely a matter of choice. Beside the inconvenience of the differences in the periods of time when the teeth get through, there is an unnecessary drain on the system of the mother, with no benefit whatever to the child.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet