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15. “SOBRE O BEBÊ”

            DEAR MRS. CAMERON, – I am sorry to hear your baby is not thriving quite so well as you could wish; but from the account you give me I gather that there is no reason to apprehend anything serious, and a little attention to hygiene will, I doubt not, speedily set matters right.

            As he is your first baby, of course you cannot be expected to display much experience in your management of him, and I fear that your nurse has some ideas about infantile diet which – to put it mildly – are slightly unscientific. Your baby was a healthy child enough when he was born, and as he has now reached the age of four months without any grave complaint, I feel sure that his present indisposition must be owing only to a want of judgment in your method of treating him.

            You tell me you nurse him yourself, that your health is good, as indeed it always has been, and that there is nothing amiss in your appetite, digestion, or strength. So far, this is all well, and we may assume, therefore, that the quality of milk your baby gets is above suspicion. But that is not everything; there must be law in the nursery as elsewhere in this world; times and seasons must be strictly observed, and the utmost attention given to details of feeding, clothing, and general sanitation.

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            First, then, I shall speak of your baby’s diet, and of the rules to be observed in regard to it.

            Let him be fed every three hours during the day, never more frequently, even though he should cry and seem hungry. Give him his last meal at night, about half-past ten, and he will then need nothing more until about five, or even six o’clock the following morning. It is a bad plan to rise in the night time to nurse a child; the mother’s rest is thereby broken, her functions disturbed, her health impaired, and habits engendered which will prove injurious alike to her own organism and to that of her child. Of course, during the first two or three months of infantile life, when the child requires feeding more frequently, the above rule cannot be observed; but after four months a healthy baby can very well sleep for six hours at night without needing any aliment. Accustom your infant, therefore, to sleep as long as he can without food. If you have been used to nurse him at intervals during the night, gradually lengthen those intervals until you approximate to the hours I have named. Three pints of milk daily is fully sufficient for a baby four months old, and as you are a healthy woman, this is about the quantity with which Nature will furnish you every twenty-four hours. Let this suffice, and on no account add to this regimen any kind of artificial food, otherwise you will ruin your baby’s digestion, and pre-dispose him to serious complaints in later life. Be careful, while he is being fed, to hold him in an easy and reclining position, and let him lean to the right side, not to the left, both during and after his meal, because the liver in infants is extremely large, and as this organ occupies the right side of the body, it will, if the child be laid on the left side, press unduly on the stomach, and so cause sickness and vomiting.

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            You say nothing about your own diet; but it is perhaps as well to suggest to you that boiled milk, eggs, fish, rice, sago, porridge, farinaceous puddings, and vegetables in moderation constitute the food most commendable to nursing mothers. Pea-soup, lentil-soup, turnips, and parsnips are especially useful. On the other hand, you should carefully avoid perk, veal, bacon, ham, salt beef, duck, goose, sausages, tripe, liver, kidneys, heart, and all rich dishes. Do not take alcoholic stimulants; it is far better to drink boiled milk and water while nursing, than porter, ale, or stout. I have seen the very best results to both mother and child from the adoption of a milk regimen by the former.

            Be sure you get, every day, a fair amount of exercise and fresh air, and let your mind rest as much as possible.

            You ask me at what age your baby should be weaned. It is customary to wean children at seven months, but I consider this too early an age. I think no child ought to be weaned until the first four teeth are through the gums, and this does not occur in some cases until the ninth or even the tenth month. Of course, if the mother’s health should fail, or the proper supply of milk not be forthcoming, some preparation of an artificial kind must be given to supplement the natural food. For this purpose, I recommend the following aliment, for the formula of which I am indebted to eminent medical writers: –

Fresh cow’s milk ..................................................  1 pint.

Skimmed milk ....................................................  ½ pint.

Hot filtered water ................................................  ½ pint.

Sugar of milk ...................................................  1 ounce.

Bicarbonate of soda, in powder .....................  10 grains.

            The sugar of milk, which can be bought at any chemist’s, should be first dissolved in the hot water, mixed, and

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then added to the other ingredients. For a child ten or twelve months old this food should be replaced by more solid aliments, such as boiled and sweetened cow’s milk, thickened with light biscuits, or rusks, tops and bottoms, etc., broken small and reduced to a pulp. Thickened milk can also be made by means of cooked wheat-flour, or other meal. To prepare this, spread the flour loosely over the surface of a clean, ungreased tin, and let it stand in a moderately hot oven until the flour becomes baked to a light brown. The object of this process is to break up the granules of the flour and thereby render the food easier of digestion. Remember that all infantile foods must be administered warm, not hot, but about the temperature of the mother’s milk, and that the feeding bottles and tubes used by the child must be kept scrupulously clean, and be well emptied and rinsed out after each meal. Do not make more food at a time than the quantity needed for one meal – about a quarter of a pint to half-a-pint – according to the age of the baby; and never keep until evening the food prepared in the earlier part of the day. When the bottle and tube are cleansed, let them lie in pure cold water until next wanted.

            If you cannot trust your milkman, or if, for any reason, you suspect the fresh milk you buy to be watered, or unwholesome, you will find the Swiss unsweetened condensed milk, which is sold in tins by all grocers, a good and safe substitute. Dilute it with from four to six times its volume of warm water. Remember, however, that even the unsweetened milk does not keep well after the tin is opened, therefore be cautious in using it. Do not on any account use the sweetened milk. The sugar contained in it cannot be digested by a baby’s stomach. Later still, when your child is able to masticate well, you can give such foods as porridge – Nichols’ “Food of Health” is

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the best I know of for the purpose – Brown and Poison’s corn flour, sago, hominy, semolina, light custard pudding, bread jelly, fruit syrups, and so forth. But I would never permit a child of tender years to consume flesh meats in any form.

            Next, let me give you a few suggestions about clothing. Your baby’s garments should be loose and frequently changed. As children of an early age require much warmth, the best material for their underclothing is soft fine flannel. Be sure you have your baby’s nightgown made of flannel, with a long skirt, for, like all children, he will certainly be apt to toss off his bedclothes at night, and it is therefore necessary he should be protected against any chill that might ensue before you awake and can cover him up again. You must be careful to keep his feet warm all day and night, and for this purpose nothing will be found so useful as knitted woollen socks. Let him always sleep in his crib beside your bed, but not with you in your own bed. Keep him out of currents of air, and be careful not to place his crib between a window and door. Until he is fully three years old, he will want to sleep the greater part of the day. Six hours every day should be passed by him in slumber, besides the repose of the night. But if, at any time, either night or day, he should not seem inclined to sleep when he is laid down for the purpose, do not rock him. Rocking induces slumber, it is true, but it is by congesting the blood vessels of the brain, which are in childhood singularly susceptible and delicate. Take the child in your arms, if he will not sleep, sing to him, or put him on a mattress in front of the fire and let him feel the warmth of the flame on his body. Children are often sleepless because they are cold.

            Twice a day, morning and evening, let your baby have

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a bath of soft water. The water used must be tepid, about 85º or 90° Fahr. For the morning bath use Pears’ unscented soap, making a lather of it, and applying it plentifully over the whole body, the head included. In the evening you do not need the soap. Be sure you do not use hard water, containing alkaline salts, for your child’s bath. Immediately after he is washed, envelope him in a warmed Turkish towel, and rub him all over, thoroughly and briskly. Then powder him from head to foot with simple violet powder, taking care to employ the best quality you can procure. As soon as the child is dressed in the morning, or even before he is dressed, if the weather be not too cold, put him on his mattress before the fire, and let him kick there to his heart’s content. If this is done before he is dressed, he should be loosely wrapped in flannel, in such a way as not to impede his free movements. As he grows older, let him crawl about as he likes, only mind that no pins are dropped about on the floor, and that all draughts are carefully excluded from under doors and windows.

            Exercise, untrammelled and vigorous, is as necessary in infancy as in adult age. In fine weather you must see that your baby gets taken out into the open air once every day about noon, for an hour, well protected from cold, but without any constriction about the throat. Cloaks or tippets hanging from the neck are most injurious, the free passage of the air in the windpipe is thereby hindered, and choking may ensue. I hope you get plenty of sunshine and air in your nursery. While the nurse and baby are out for their walk, open the windows of their room; and, unless the weather be too cold, do the same again later in the day while you take the baby into the drawing-room for a change. Sunshine, remember, is the best thing possible for your child, and

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you should let him have all you can of it. Fire-warmth is the next best thing, but nothing can compensate for the want of sun-heat and light. Mind you keep an efficient nursery-guard before your fire, and burn wood, if you can, rather than coal.

Seções: Índice Geral   Seção Atual: Índice   Obra: Índice   Anterior: 14. Sobre Perfumes   Seguinte: 16. Sobre a Cultura da Beleza, Graça e Saúde na Juventude – I