Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene; Infants -- Health and hygiene
Certainly not. The practice of giving composing medicine to a young
child cannot he too strongly reprobated. If he does not sleep enough,
the mother ought to ascertain if the bowels be in a proper state,
whether they be sufficiently opened, that the motions be of a good
colour--namely, a bright yellow, inclining to orange colour--and free
from slime or from bad smell. An occasional dose of rhubarb and
magnesia is frequently the best composing medicine he can take.
86. _We often hear of coroner's inquests upon infants who have been
found dead in bed--accidentally overlaid what is usually the cause_?
Suffocation, produced either by ignorance, or by carelessness. From
_ignorance_ in mothers, in their not knowing the common laws of life,
and the vital importance of free and unrestricted respiration, not
only when babies are up and about, but when they are in bed and
asleep. From _carelessness_, in their allowing young and thoughtless
servants to have the charge of infants at night, more especially as
young girls are usually heavy sleepers, and are thus too much
overpowered with sleep to attend to their necessary duties.
A foolish mother sometimes goes to sleep while allowing her child to
continue sucking. The unconscious babe, after a tune, looses the
nipple, and buries his head in the bed-clothes. She awakes in the
morning, finding, to her horror, a corpse by her side, with his nose
flattened, and a frothy fluid, tinged with, blood, exuding from his
lips. A mother ought, therefore, never to go to sleep until her child
have finished sucking.
_The following are a few rules to prevent an infant from being
accidentally overlaid_--(1.) Let your baby while asleep have plenty of
room in the bed. (2.) Do not allow him to be too near to you; or if he
he unavoidably near you (from the small size of the bed), let his face
be turned to the opposite side. (3.) Let him lie fairly either on his
side, or on his back. (4.) Be careful to ascertain that his mouth be
not covered with the bed-clothes; and, (5.) Do not smother his face
with clothes, as a plentiful supply of pure air is as necessary when
he is awake, or even more so, than when he is asleep. (6.) Never let
him lie low in the bed. (7.) Let there be _no_ pillow near the one
his head is resting on, lest he roll to it, and thus bury his head in
it Remember, a young child has neither the strength nor the sense to
get out of danger; and, if he unfortunately either turn on his face,
or bury his head in a pillow that is near, the chances are that he
will be suffocated, more especially as these accidents usually occur
at night, when the mother, or the nurse, is fast asleep. (8.) Never
intrust him at night to a young and thoughtless servant.
THE BLADDER AND THE BOWELS OF AN INFANT.
87. _Have you any hints to offer respecting the bowels and the bladder
of an infant during the first three months of his existence_?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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