Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children Part 11

132. _Have you any remarks to make on the shoes and stockings of a child? and on the right way of cutting the toe-nails_?

He ought, daring the winter, to wear lamb's wool stockings that will reach _above_ the knees, and _thick_ calico drawers that will reach a few inches _below_ the knees; as it is of the utmost importance to keep the lower extremities comfortably warm. It is really painful to see how many mothers expose the bare legs of their little ones to the frosty air, even in the depths of winter.

Be sure and see that the boots and shoes of your child be sound and whole; for if they be not so, they will let in the damp, and if the damp, disease and perhaps death. "If the poor would take better care of their children's feet half the infantile mortality would disappear. It only costs twopence to put a piece of thick felt or cork into the bottom of a boot or shoe, and the difference is often between that and a doctors bill, with, perhaps, the undertaker's besides."--_Daily Telegraph_,

Garters ought not to be worn, as they impede the circulation, waste the muscles, and interfere with walking. The stocking may be secured in its place by means of a loop and tape, which should be fastened to a part of the dress.

Let me urge upon you the importance of not allowing your child to wear _tight_ shoes; they cripple the feet, causing the joints of the toes, which ought to have free play, and which should a.s.sist in walking, to be, in a manner, useless; they produce corns and bunions, and interfere with the proper circulation of the foot. A shoe ought to be made according to the shape of the foot--rights and lefts are therefore desirable. The toe-part of the shoe must be made broad, so as to allow plenty of room for the toes to expand, and that one toe cannot overlap another. Be sure, then, that there be no pinching and no pressure. In the article of shoes you ought to be particular and liberal; pay attention to having nicely fitting ones, and let them be made of soft leather, and throw them on one side the moment they are too small. It is poor economy, indeed, because a pair of shoes be not worn out, to run the risk of incurring the above evil consequences.

_Shoes are far preferable to boots:_ boots weaken instead of strengthen the ankle. The ankle and instep require free play, and ought not to be hampered by boots. Moreover, boots, by undue pressure, decidedly waste away the ligaments of the ankle. Boots act on the ankles in a similar way that stays do on the waist--they do mischief by pressure. Boots waste away the ligaments of the ankle; stays waste away the muscles of the back and chest; and thus, in both cases, do irreparable mischief.

A shoe for a child ought to be made with a narrow strap over the instep, and with b.u.t.ton and b.u.t.ton-hole; if it be not made in this way, the shoe will not keep on the foot.

It is a grievous state of things, that in the nineteenth century there are but few shoemakers who know how to make a shoe! The shoe is made not to fit a real foot, but a fas.h.i.+onable imaginary one! The poor unfortunate toes are in consequence screwed up as in a vice!

Let me strongly urge you to be particular that the sock, or stocking, fits nicely--that it is neither too small nor too large; if it be too small, it binds up the toes unmercifully, and makes one toe to ride over the other, and thus renders the toes perfectly useless in walking; if it be too large, it is necessary to lap a portion of the sock, or stocking, either under or over the toes, which thus presses unduly upon them, and gives pain and annoyance. It should be borne in mind, that if the toes have full play, they, as it were, grasp the ground, and greatly a.s.sist in locomotion--which, of course, if they are cramped up, they cannot possibly do. Be careful, too, that the toe-part of the sock, or stocking, be not pointed; let it be made square in order to give room to the toes. "At this helpless period of life, the delicately feeble, outspreading toes are wedged into a narrow-toed stocking, often so short as to double in the toes, diminis.h.i.+ng the length of the rapidly growing foot! It is next, perhaps, tightly laced into a boot of less interior dimensions than itself; when the poor little creature is left to sprawl about with a limping, stumping gait, thus learning to walk as it best can, under circ.u.mstances the most cruel and torturing imaginable." [Footnote: _The Foot and its Covering_, second edition. By James Dowie. London: 1872. I beg to call a mother's especial attention to this valuable little book: it is written by an earnest intelligent man, by one who has studied the subject in all its bearings, and by one who is himself a shoemaker.]

It is impossible for either a stocking, or a shoe, to fit nicely unless the toe-nails be kept in proper order. Now, in cutting the toe-nails, there is, as in everything else, a right and a wrong way. The _right_ way of cutting a toe-nail is to cut it straight--in a straight line. The _wrong_ way is to cut the corners of the nail--to round the nail as it is called. This cutting the corners of the nails often makes work for the surgeon, as I myself can testify; it frequently produces "growing-in" of the nail, which sometimes necessitates the removal of either the nail, or a portion of it.

133. _At what time of the year should a child leave off his winter clothing_?

A mother ought not to leave off her children's winter clothing until the spring be far advanced: it is far better to be on the safe side, and to allow the winter clothes to be worn until the end of May. The old adage is very good, and should be borne in mind:--

"b.u.t.ton to chin Till May be in; Ne'er cast a clout Till May be out."

134. _Have you any general remarks to make on the present fas.h.i.+on of dressing children_?

The present fas.h.i.+on is absurd. Children are frequently dressed like mountebanks, with feathers and furbelows and finery; the boys go bare-legged; the little girls are dressed like women, with their stuck-out petticoats, crinolines, and low dresses! Their poor little waists are drawn in tight, so that they can scarcely breathe; their dresses are very low and short, the consequence is, that a great part of the chest is exposed to our variable climate; their legs are bare down to their thin socks, or if they be clothed, they are only covered with gossamer drawers; while their feet are encased in tight shoes of paper thickness! Dress! dress! dress! is made with them, at a tender age, and when first impressions are the strongest, a most important consideration. They are thus rendered vain and frivolous, and are taught to consider dress "as the one thing needful" And if they live to be women--which the present fas.h.i.+on is likely frequently to prevent--what are they? Silly, simpering, delicate, lack-a-daisical nonent.i.ties; dress being their amus.e.m.e.nt, their occupation, their conversation, their everything, their thoughts by day and their dreams by night! Truly they are melancholy objects to behold! Let children be dressed as children, not as men and women. Let them be taught that dress is quite a secondary consideration. Let health, and not fas.h.i.+on, be the first, and we shall then have, with G.o.d's blessing, blooming children, who will, in time, be the pride and strength of dear old England!

DIET.

135. _At TWELVE months old, have you any objection to a child having any other food besides that you mentioned in answer to the 34th question_?

There is no objection to his _occasionally_ having, for dinner, either a mealy, _mashed_ potato and gravy, or a few crumbs of bread and gravy. Rice-pudding or batter-pudding may, for a change, be given; but remember, the food recommended in a former Conversation is what, until he be eighteen months old, must be princ.i.p.ally taken. During the early months of infancy--say, for the first six or seven--if artificial food be given at all, it should be administered by means of a feeding-bottle. After that time, either a spoon, or a nursing boat, will be preferable. The food as he becomes older, ought to be made more solid.

136. _At_ EIGHTEEN _months old, have you any objection to a child having meat_?

He ought not to have meat until he have several teeth to chew it with. If he has most of his teeth--which he very likely at this age will have--there is no objection to his taking a small slice either of mutton, or occasionally of roast beef, which should be well cut into very small pieces, and mixed with a mealy _mashed_ potato, and a few crumbs of bread and gravy; either _every_ day, if he be delicate, or every _other_ day, if he be a gross or a fast-feeding child. It may be well, in the generality of cases, for the first few months to give him meat _every other_ day, and either potato or gravy, or rice or suet-pudding or batter-pudding on the alternate days; indeed, I think so highly of rice, of suet, and of batter-puddings, and of other farinaceous puddings, that I should advise you to let him have either the one or the other even on those days that he has meat--giving it him _after_ his meat. But remember, if he have meat _and_ pudding, the meat ought to be given sparingly. If he be gorged with food, it makes him irritable, cross, and stupid; at one time, clogging up his bowels, and producing constipation; at another, disordering his liver, and causing either clay-coloured stools--denoting a _deficiency_ of bile, or dark and offensive motions--telling of _vitiated_ bile; while, in a third case, cramming him with food might bring on convulsions.

137. _As you are to partial to puddings for a child, which do you consider the best for him_?

He ought, every day, to have a pudding for his dinner--either rice, arrow-root, sago, tapioca, suet-pudding, batter-pudding, or Yorks.h.i.+re-pudding, mixed with crumbs of bread and gravy--free from grease. A well boiled suet-pudding, with plenty of suet in it, is one of the best puddings he can have; it is, in point of fact, meat and farinaceous food combined, and is equal to, and will oftentimes prevent the giving of, cod-liver oil; before cod-liver oil came into vogue, suet boiled in milk was _the_ remedy for a delicate child. He may, occasionally, have fruit-pudding, provided the pastry be both plain and light.

The objection to fruit pies and puddings is, that the pastry is often too rich for the delicate stomach of a child; there is so objection, certainly not, to the fruit--cooked fruit being, for a child, most wholesome; if, therefore, fruit puddings and pies be eaten, the pastry part ought to be quite plain. There is, in "Murray's Modern Cookery Book," an excellent suggestion, which I will take the liberty of quoting, and of strongly urging my fair reader to carry into practice:--"_To prepare fruit for children, a far more wholesome way than in pies and puddings_, is to put apples sliced, or plums, currants, gooseberries, &c., into a stone jar; and sprinkle among them as much Lisbon sugar as necessary. Set the jar on an oven or on a hearth, with a tea-cupful of water to prevent the fruit from burning; or put the jar into a saucepan of water, till its contents be perfectly done. Slices of bread or some rice may be put into the jar, to eat with the fruit."

_Jam_--such as strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry--_is most wholesome for a child_, and ought occasionally to be given, in lieu of sugar, with the rice, with the batter, and with the other puddings.

Marmalade, too, is very wholesome.

Puddings ought to be given _after_ and not _before_ his meat and vegetables; if you give him pudding before his meat, he might refuse to eat meat altogether. By adopting the plan of giving puddings _every_ day, your child will require _less_ animal food; _much_ meat is injurious to a young child. But do not run into an opposite extreme: a _little_ meat ought, every day, to be given, _provided he has cut the whole of his first set of teeth_; until then, meat every _other_ day will be often enough.

138. _As soon as a child has cut the whole of his first set of teeth, what ought to be his diet?--What should be his breakfast_?

He can, then, have nothing better, where it agrees, than scalding hot new milk poured on sliced bread, with a slice or two of bread and b.u.t.ter to eat with it. b.u.t.ter, in moderation, is nouris.h.i.+ng, fattening, and wholesome. Moreover, b.u.t.ter tends to keep the bowels regular. These facts should be borne in mind, as some mothers foolishly keep their children from b.u.t.ter, declaring it to be too rich for their children's stomachs! New milk should be used in preference either to cream or to skim-milk. Cream, as a rule, is too rich for the delicate stomach of a child, and skim-milk is too poor when robbed of the b.u.t.ter which the cream contains. But give cream and water, where new milk (as is _occasionally_ the case) does not agree; but never give skim-milk. _Skim_-milk (among other evils) produces costiveness, and necessitates the frequent administration of aperients. Cream, on the other hand, regulates and tends to open the bowels.

Although I am not, as a rule, so partial to cream as I am to good genuine fresh milk, yet I have found, in cases of great debility, more especially where a child is much exhausted by some inflammatory disease, such as inflammation of the lungs, the following food most serviceable:--Beat up, by means of a fork, the yolk of an egg, then mix, little by little, half a tea-cupful of very weak _black_ tea, sweeten with one lump of sugar, and add a table-spoonful of cream. Let the above, by tea-spoonfuls at a time be frequently given. The above food is only to be administered until the exhaustion be removed, and is not to supersede the milk diet, which must, at stated periods, be given, as I have recommended in answers to previous and subsequent questions.

When a child has costive bowels, there is nothing better for his breakfast than well-made and well-boiled oatmeal stir-about, which ought to be eaten with milk fresh from the cow. Scotch children scarcely take anything else, and a finer race is not in existence; and, as for physic, many of them do not even know either the taste or the smell of it! You win find Robinson's Pure Scotch Oatmeal (sold in packets) to be very pure, and sweet, and good. Stir-about is truly said to be--

"The halesome parritch, chief of Scotia's food."--_Burns._

Cadbury's Cocoa Essence, made with equal parts of boiling water and fresh milk, slightly sweetened with lump sugar, is an admirable food for a delicate child. Bread and b.u.t.ter should be eaten with it.

139. _Have you any remarks to make on cow's milk as an article of food_?

Cow's milk is a valuable, indeed, an indispensable article of diet, for the young; it is most nouris.h.i.+ng, wholesome, and digestible. The finest and the healthiest children are those who, for the first four or five years of their lives, are fed _princ.i.p.ally_ upon it. Milk ought then to be their staple food. No child, as a rule, can live, or, if he live, can be healthy, unless milk be the staple article of his diet. There is no subst.i.tute for milk. To prove the fattening and strengthening qualities of milk, look only at a young calf who lives on milk, and on milk alone! He is a Samson in strength, and is "as fat as b.u.t.ter;" and all young things if they are in health are fat!

Milk, then, contains every ingredient to build up the body, which is more than can be said of any other known substance besides. A child may live entirely, and grow, and become both healthy and strong, on milk and on milk alone, as it contains every const.i.tuent of the human body. A child cannot "live by bread alone," but he might on milk alone! Milk is animal and vegetable--it is meat and bread--it is food and drink--it is a fluid, but as soon as it reaches the stomach it becomes a solid [Footnote: How is milk in the making of cheese, converted into curds? By rennet. What is rennet? The juice of a calf's maw or stomach. The moment the milk enters the human maw or stomach, the juice of the stomach converts it into curds--into solid food, just as readily as when it enters a calfs maw or stomach, and much more readily than by rennet, as the _fresh_ juice is stronger than the _stale_. An ignorant mother often complains that because, when her child is sick, the milk curdles, that it is a proof that it does not agree with him! If, at those times, it did _not_ curdle, it would, indeed, prove that his stomach was in a wretchedly weak state; she would then have abundant cause to be anxious.]--solid food; it is the most important and valuable article of diet for a child in existence. It is a glorious food for the young, and must never, on any account whatever, in any case be dispensed with. "Considering that milk contains in itself most of the const.i.tuents of a perfect diet, and is capable of maintaining life in infancy without the aid of any other substance, it is marvellous that the consumption of it is practically limited to so small a cla.s.s; and not only so, but that in sick-rooms, where the patient is surrounded with every luxury, arrow-root, and other compounds containing much less nutriment, should so often be preferred to it."--_The Times._

Do not let me be misunderstood. I do not mean to say, but that the mixing of farinaceous food--such as Lemann's Biscuit Powder, Robb's Biscuit, Hard's Farinaceous Food, Brown and Polson's Corn Flour, and the like, with the milk, is an improvement, in some cases--a great improvement; but still I maintain that a child might live and thrive, and that for a lengthened period, on milk--and on milk alone!

A dog will live and fatten for six weeks on milk alone; while he will starve and die in a shorter period on strong beef-tea alone!

It is a grievous sin for a milkman to adulterate milk. How many a poor infant has fallen a victim to that crime!--for crime it may be truly called.

It is folly in the extreme for a mother to bate a milkman down in the price of his milk; if she does, the milk is sure to be either of inferior quality, or adulterated, or diluted with water; and woe betide the poor unfortunate child if it be either the one or the other! The only way to insure good milk is, to go to a respectable cow-keeper, and let him be made to thoroughly understand the importance of your child having _genuine_ milk, and that you are then willing to pay a fair remunerative price for it. Rest a.s.sured, that if you have to pay one penny or even twopence a quart more for _genuine_ milk, it is one of the best investments that you ever have made, or that you are ever likely to make in this world! Cheap and inferior milk might well be called cheap and nasty; for inferior or adulterated milk is the very essence, the conglomeration of nastiness; and, moreover, is very poisonous to a child's stomach. One and the princ.i.p.al reason why so many children are rickety and scrofulous, is the horrid stuff called milk that is usually given to them. It is a crying evil, and demands a thorough investigation and reformation, and the individual interference of every parent. Limited Liability Companies are the order of the day; it would really be not a bad speculation if one were formed in every large town, in order to insure good, genuine, and undiluted milk.

_Young_ children, as a rule, are allowed to eat too much meat. It is a mistaken notion of a mother that they require so much animal food. If more milk were given and less meat, they would he healthier, and would not be so predisposed to disease, especially to diseases of debility, and to skin-disease.

I should strongly recommend you, then, to be extravagant in your milk score. Each child ought, in the twenty-four hours, to take at least a quart of good, fresh, new milk. It should, of course, be given in various ways,--as bread and milk, rice-puddings, milk and differents kinds of farinaceous food, stir-about, plain milk, cold milk, hot milk, any way, and every way, that will please his palate, and that will induce him to take an abundant supply of it. The "advice" I have just given you is of paramount importance, and demands your most earnest attention. There would be very few rickety children in the world if my "counsel" were followed out to the very letter.

140. _But suppose my child will not take milk, he having an aversion to it, what ought then to be done_?

Boil the milk, and sweeten it to suit his palate. After he has been accustomed to it for a while, he will then, probably, like milk. Gradually reduce the sugar, until at length it be dispensed with. A child will often take milk this way, whereas he will not otherwise touch it.

If a child will not drink milk, he _must_ eat meat; it is absolutely necessary that he should have either the one or the other; and, if he have cut nearly all his teeth, he ought to have both meat and milk--the former in moderation, the latter in abundance.

141. _Supposing milk should not agree with my child, what must then be done_?

Milk, either boiled or unboiled, almost always agrees with a child. If it does not, it must be looked upon as the exception, and not as the rule. I would, in such a case, advise one-eighth of lime water to be added to seven-eighths of new milk--that is to say, two table-spoonfuls of lime water should be mixed with half a pint of new milk.

142. _Can you tell me of a way to prevent milk, in hot weather, from turning sour_?

Let the jug of milk be put into a crock, containing ice--Wenham Lake is the best--either in the dairy or in the cellar. The ice may at any time, be procured of a respectable fishmonger, and should be kept, wrapped either in flannel or in blanket, in a cool place, until it be wanted.

143. _Can you tell me why the children of the rich suffer so much more from costiveness than do the children of the poor_?

The princ.i.p.al reason is that the children of the rich drink milk without water, while the children of the poor drink water without, or with very little, milk--milk being binding, and water opening to the bowels. Be sure then, and bear in mind, _as this is most important advice_, to see that water is mixed with all the milk that is given to your child. The combination of milk and water for a child is a glorious compound--strengthening, fattening, refres.h.i.+ng, and regulating to the bowels, and thus doing away with that disgraceful proceeding so common in nurseries, of everlastingly physicking, irritating and irreparably injuring the tender bowels of a child.