Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Science
Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)
Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Diet; Hygiene
Fat babies are thought to be healthy babies. This is a mistake, for the
fatter the baby, the more liable it is to fill an early grave.
Thoughtful, knowing people realize that a child that weighs eight pounds
or more at birth is an indication of maternal law breaking. Both the
mother and the child will have to pay for this sooner or later.
Overweight is a handicap. It prevents complete internal cleansing and
combustion, without which health is impossible.
Because of the false ideas prevalent regarding weight of infants, it is
well to put a little emphasis on the subject. If the mother has lived
right during pregnancy, the child is often light at birth, sometimes
five pounds or less. The average doctor will shake his head and say that
the baby's chance to live is very small. The friends, neighbors and
relatives will say the same. They are wrong. Let the parents remember
that light children are not encumbered with fat, and rarely with
disease. A light baby is generally all healthy baby, and if properly
cared for and not overfed will thrive. Parents of such babies should be
thankful, instead of being alarmed.
It is not natural for babies to weigh nine or ten pounds at birth, and
when they do it is a sign of maternal wrong doing, whether she has been
cognizant of it or not. Babies should not be fat, nor should they be fat
when they grow older, if the best results are desired.
In babies it is better to strive for quality than for quantity.
Every mother who is capable of doing so should nurse her baby. There is
no food to take the place of the mother's milk. The babies build greater
strength and resistance when they are fed naturally than when they are
brought up on the bottle. Babies thrive wonderfully in an atmosphere of
love, and they draw love from the mother's breast with every swallow.
From the information available, which is not as complete and definite as
could be desired, it appears that from six to thirteen bottle-babies die
during the first year where only one breast-fed child perishes. The
bottle-baby does not get a fair start. If a mother is ill and worn out
she should not be asked to nurse the baby. If the mother has fever she
should not risk the baby's health through nursing. Some mothers do not
have enough milk to feed the baby. Nearly all who live properly give
enough milk to nourish their infants at first. If there is not enough
milk, the child should be allowed to take what there is in the breasts
and this should be supplemented with cow's milk.
Dr. Thomas F. Harrington said recently:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account