WATER DRINKING
As soon as the new born babe is washed and dressed he is given two teaspoons of warmed, boiled water; and this practice is continued every two hours during the day, until as much as two to four ounces of unsweetened water is taken by the tiny babe during the twenty-four hours. Inanition fever--the fever that sometimes follows a failure to give water to the new born infant--is thus avoided. The bottle from which the water is given should be scalded out each time, the nipple boiled, and just before the "water nursing" the nipple should be swabbed with boracic acid solution.
REGULARITY IN FEEDING
From earliest infancy the baby should be nursed by the "clock," and not by the "squawk." Until he reaches his sixth-month birthday, he is fed with unerring regularity every three hours during the day. Asleep or awake he is put to the breast, while during the night he is allowed to sleep as long over the three-hour period as he will. Babies are usually nursed at night: during the early weeks, at nine o"clock in the evening, at midnight, and at six o"clock in the morning. After four months all nursing after ten P. M. may be omitted.
The baby is ordinarily allowed to remain at the breast for about twenty minutes. He may often be satisfied with one breast if the milk is plentiful; if not, he is given both b.r.e.a.s.t.s; and may we add the following injunction? insist that nothing shall go into your baby"s mouth but your own breast milk and warm or cool-boiled water; no sugar, whiskey, paregoric, or soothing syrup should be given, no matter how he cries. Never give a baby food merely to pacify him or to stop his crying; it will damage him in the end. More than likely he is thirsty, and milk to him is what bread and meat are to you, neither of which you want when you are thirsty.
POSITION OF MOTHER DURING THE NURSING
A perfectly comfortable position during nursing for both mother and babe is necessary for satisfactory results. During the lying-in period the mother should rest well over on her side with her arm up and her hand under her head, the other hand supports the breast and a.s.sists in keeping the nipple in the baby"s mouth, as well as preventing the breast from in any way interfering with baby"s breathing. A rolled pillow is placed at the mother"s back for support.
After the mother leaves the bed, she will find a low chair most convenient when nursing the baby, and if an ordinary chair be used, she will find that a footstool adds greatly to her comfort. Once during the forenoon and once during the afternoon the nursing mother will find it a wonderful source of rest and relaxation if she removes all tight clothing, dons a comfortable wrapper, and lies down on the bed to nurse her babe; and as the babe naps after the feed, she likewise should doze and allow mother nature to restore, refresh, and fit her for restful and happy motherhood.
Worry, grief, fatigue, household cares, loss of sleep, social debauches, emotional sprawls--all debilitate the mother, and usually decrease the flow of milk.
NURSING WHEN ANGRY AND OVERHEATED
Overheating, irritability, and sudden anger, almost invariably tend to raise the blood-pressure, which means the entry into the blood stream of an increased amount of epinephrin, which disturbs the baby greatly, often throwing him into convulsions or other sudden, acute illness.
Menstruation often interferes with the nursing mother, the milk becoming weaker at this time; however, if the infant continues to gain and the mother feels comparatively well, no attention need be paid to this fact.
Another pregnancy demands a drying up of the breast at once, as the tax is too great on the mother.
THE STOOLS
The stools of the breast-fed baby do not require as much attention as those of the bottle-fed child. In cases of constipation, after four months, from one teaspoon up to one-half cup of unsweetened prune juice may be given one hour before the afternoon feed.
In instances of colic with signs of fermentation in the stool, the mother may take several doses (under her physician"s orders) of common baking soda; or, if she is constipated, calcined magnesia will usually right the condition. Nature"s mother milk is so beautifully adapted to the baby"s needs that it is the rule for baby to have perfectly normal stools.
SYMPTOMS OF SUCCESSFUL NURSING
A happy baby is a satisfied baby. He lies quietly in a sleepy, relaxed condition if he has enough to eat, provided he is otherwise comfortable and dry. He awakens at the end of two hours and perhaps cries; but plain, unsweetened, warm, boiled water quenches his thirst, and he lies content for another hour, when he is regularly nursed. He gains on an average of about one ounce a day.
EARMARKS OF UNSUCCESSFUL NURSING
Constant discomfort, vomiting, fretful crying, pa.s.sing and belching of gas, colicky pain, disturbed sleep, greenish stools with mucus, are among the more prominent earmarks of unsuccessful nursing. These symptoms appearing in a pale, flabby, listless, indifferent or cross baby, with steady loss of weight continued over a period of three or four weeks, point to "nursing trouble;" which, if not corrected, will lead to that much dreaded infantile condition--malnutrition.
Bolting of food or overeating results in vomiting and gas, and thus interferes with normal nursing, as also may tongue-tie. A condition in the mouth, medically known as "stomat.i.tis," and commonly known as "thrush," often gives rise to a fretful cry when nursing is attempted.
In the first place, the baby cannot "hold on" to the nipple; while, in the second place, it hurts his inflamed mouth when he makes an effort to nurse.
Long continued nursing covering three-fourths of an hour or more, seizing of the nipple for a moment and then discarding it, apparently in utter disgust, are the earmarks of very scanty milk supply and should receive immediate attention.
AIDS TO THE MILK SUPPLY
Believing that many more mothers than do so should nurse their babies, we have carefully tabulated a number of aids to the milk supply, which we hope will be most earnestly tried before the baby is taken from the breast--for so many, many more bottle-fed babies die during the first year than the breast fed. The dangers of infection, the worry of the food preparation, the uncertainty of results, all call for a most untiring effort on the part of every doctor, nurse, and mother, in their endeavors to secure maternal nursing. The following is a summary of "aids to the milk supply:"
1. Regular periodical sucking of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s from the day of baby"s birth.
2. Systematic applications of alternate hot and cold compresses, followed by ma.s.sage to the b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
3. Three good nourishing meals each day, eaten with merriment and gladness of heart.
4. A gla.s.s of "cream gruel," milk, cocoa, or eggnog at the close of each meal, with a gla.s.s just before retiring.
5. Three outings each day in the open air.
6. Nurse the baby regularly and then turn its care over to another, you seek the out of doors and engage in walking, rowing, riding and other pleasurable exercise.
7. Take a daily nap.
8. You can bank on fretting and stewing over the hot cook stove to decrease your milk. It seldom fails to spoil it.
9. Regular body bathing, with cold friction rubs to the skin.
10. A happy, carefree mental state. Nothing dries up milk so rapidly as worry, grief, or nagging.
11. The administration, preferably in the early days, of desiccated bovine placenta; although it may be given at any time during the period of nursing.
WHEN THE BABY SHOULD NOT BE NURSED
As much as we desire maternal nursing for the babe, there do occur instances and conditions which demand a change to artificial feeding, such as the following:
1. A new pregnancy.
2. Mothers with uncontrollable tempers.
3. Cases of breast abscess.
4. Prolonged illness of the mother with high fever.
5. Wasting diseases such as tuberculosis, Bright"s disease, heart disease, etc.
6. Maternal syphilis.
7. When maternal milk utterly fails, or is wholly inadequate.
When a maternal anesthetic is to be administered, or in case of inflammation of the breast or during a very short illness not covering more than two or three days, then the breast pump may be used regularly every three hours to both b.r.e.a.s.t.s; the baby may be artificially fed and then returned to the breast after the effects of the anesthetic has worn off or the temperature has been normal for twenty-four hours.
There may also appear definite indications in certain children which make it imperative that the nursing child should early be weaned.
These manifestations of disordered nutrition and failing health admonish us to put the baby on properly modified milk, or to transfer it to a wet nurse.
These conditions are: