Getting ready to be a mother : $b a little book of information and advice for the young woman who is looking forward to motherhoodVan Blarcom, Carolyn Conant
Science
Getting ready to be a mother : $b a little book of information and advice for the young woman who is looking forward to motherhood
Van Blarcom, Carolyn Conant
Infants -- Care; Obstetrics; Pregnancy
The tub or basin should be about three-quarters full of water at 100° F.
for the new baby; about 95° F. after the third month and gradually
lowered to 85° F. or 90° F. for the baby a year old. The temperature of
the water should not be guessed at, but tested with a thermometer,
though in an emergency you may safely use water that feels comfortably
warm to your elbow.
Lay a folded towel in the bottom of the tub, before beginning, as babies
are often frightened by coming in contact with the hard surface.
It is a good plan to wear a waterproof apron, covered with one of
flannel over which is laid a soft towel, until the bath is finished. The
towel is then slipped out, leaving the dry, flannel apron to wrap about
the baby. Wash your hands thoroughly with hot water and soap, before
beginning; sit squarely, with your knees together, on a chair without
arms; take the baby in your lap and undress him under a blanket. In
order that the bath may be given deftly and quickly it is well to bathe
the different parts in the same order every day, for practice makes
perfect.
It is usually a routine to weigh the baby every morning, during the
first two or three weeks and once or twice a week afterwards, though
premature babies and those who are frail are sometimes weighed at longer
intervals because of the inadvisability of disturbing them so often. The
baby is undressed for his bath, wrapped in a blanket, and laid in the
scoop or basket of a beam scale and a note made of the entire weight,
for if he is placed in the scales without protection he is likely to be
chilled and frightened. The weight of the blanket is ascertained
separately and deducted from the total thus giving the baby’s exact
weight.
The eyes should be bathed first, with pledgets of sterile cotton dipped
in warm boracic acid solution, each pledget being used but once. To
prevent the solution from running from one eye into the other, the
baby’s head is turned slightly to one side and the lower eye wiped
gently from the nose outward. The lids may then be separated by placing
one thumb below the brow and lifting it slightly, and the eye flushed
with a gentle stream by squeezing a freshly soaked pledget just above
it. The head is turned to the other side and the eye on that side bathed
in like manner.
The mouth is swabbed out _very gently_ with boric-soaked cotton wrapped
about the tip of the little finger, care being taken not to injure the
delicate mucous lining. The nostrils are cleaned with little spirals of
cotton dipped in mineral oil or olive oil.
The face is then washed with warm water, no soap, and patted dry. The
scalp, neck and ears are washed with soap and water and thoroughly dried
by patting and by wiping gently in the creases. The body should then be
soaped with your hand, only one part being uncovered at a time in order
to avoid chilling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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