The Mother and Her ChildSadler, William S. (William Samuel)
Science
The Mother and Her Child
Sadler, William S. (William Samuel)
Child care; Infants -- Care; Infants -- Health and hygiene; Pregnancy
A young mother came running into my office one day saying: "Doctor, it
won't work, the food's all wrong; my baby is not going to live, for
he throws up his food nearly all the time." We arranged to be present
when the next feeding time came and watched the proceedings. A dear
old friend had told her "she must 'mother' her baby at the nursing
time," and so she had held the child in a semi-upright position as she
endeavored to hold the bottle as near her own breast as was possible.
The hole in the nipple was a bit large, which occasioned the
subsequent bolting of the food, and then to continue the "mothering"
she swayed him to and fro, all of which was interrupted suddenly by
the vomiting of a deluge of milk.
[Illustration: Fig. 10. Heating the Bottle]
I drew the shade in an adjoining room, opened the windows, and into a
comfortable carriage-bed I placed the baby on his side. Seating myself
beside him I held the warm, bottled meal as he nursed. Several times I
took it from his mouth, or so tipped it that "bolting" was impossible.
Gradually, carefully, and slowly, I took the empty bottle away from
the sleepy babe, and as I closed the door the mother said in anxious
amazement: "He won't forget I'm his mother if I don't hold him while
he nurses?" You smile as I smiled at this girl-mother's thought; but,
nevertheless there are many like her--anxious, well-meaning, but
ignorant.
The infant stomach is little more than a tube, easily emptied if the
baby's position is not carefully guarded after nursing. No bouncing,
jolting, patting, rocking, or throwing should take place either just
before, during, or immediately after meals.
TIME ALLOWANCE FOR ONE FEEDING
From twelve to twenty minutes is long enough time to spend at a bottle
meal. The nipple hole may have to be made larger, or a new nipple with
a smaller hole may have to be purchased. When new, you should be able
to just see a glimmer of light through the hole, and if the infant is
too weak to nurse hard, or the hole too small, it may be made larger
by a heated hatpin run from the inside of the nipple out; great care
must be taken, else you will do it too well. If the nipple hole is too
large, bolting is the sure result; while too small a hole results in
crying and anger on the part of the hungry child, because he has to
work too hard to get his meal.
AFTER THE FEED
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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