Better babies and their careRichardson, Anna Steese
Science
Better babies and their care
Richardson, Anna Steese
Infants -- Care; Infants -- Health and hygiene
The small town or country mother, whose ice supply is irregular and who
depends upon an old-fashioned ice-chest or perhaps a spring or cool
well for chilling the baby’s milk, faces a more difficult problem.
It is especially important that she keep the milk bottle tightly
stoppered. If she uses the old-fashioned ice-chest, where food and
ice are not separated and where germs lodge easily, she had best pack
the stoppered bottles in a covered pail and set them next to the ice.
If she has no refrigerator at all, she should induce her men-folk to
provide a substitute, if it is only one strong wooden pail set within
another, the sawdust and ice packed between. Then she can thrust her
stoppered bottles into the inner pail, cover all with heavy felting or
burlap, and feel tolerably safe.
At one of the contests a mother told me how sad experience had taught
her the importance of having such a safeguard in her home. With her
first baby she kept the milk in a tin pail, hung in the cool water of
an old well. The milk absorbed germs and the doctor traced the baby’s
death from acute bowel trouble to these germs.
Next in importance to the supply and storing of milk comes the care of
the utensils for modifying it and feeding it to the child. These should
be kept in a sanitary condition that is absolutely above suspicion. If
the mother herself does not take charge of this task, she must delegate
another member of the family or a servant upon whose faithfulness she
can depend. The supply of milk for the ensuing day should be cared for
at a certain hour each morning, soon after the milk is delivered. The
utensils should be used for this purpose alone, and should not be kept
in a cupboard with ordinary cooking equipment.
For the ordinary modifying of milk the following utensils are needed:
A strong measuring glass, holding sixteen ounces, divided into ounces,
which can be bought at any hospital supply house and in many department
and drug stores; a two-quart pitcher with a wide neck; a glass funnel,
which fits easily into the neck of the nursing bottle; an enameled
tablespoon; an enameled saucepan for boiling the water or gruel; a
quart glass jar, with an air-tight cover, in which the boiled water or
gruel is set away until it is cool; a wire rack, which will hold eight
or ten nursing bottles; eight or ten plain, round, cylindrical bottles
with a narrow neck; a half dozen plain nipples of a size to fit around
the neck of the bottles; a long-handled brush for washing the bottles;
soap, washing-powder and borax for cleaning purposes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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