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The
plan to be followed for the
first six months. Until the
breast- milk is fully
established, which may not
be until the second or third
day subsequent to delivery
(almost invariably so in a
first confinement), the
infant must be fed upon a
little thin gruel, or upon
one third water and two
thirds milk, sweetened with
loaf sugar.
After
this time it must obtain its
nourishment from the breast
alone, and for a week or ten
days the appetite of the
infant must be the mother's
guide, as to the frequency
in offering the breast. The
stomach at birth is feeble,
and as yet unaccustomed to
food; its wants, therefore,
are easily satisfied, but
they are frequently renewed.
An interval, however,
sufficient for digesting the
little swallowed, is
obtained before the appetite
again revives, and a fresh
supply is demanded.
At the
expiration of a week or so
it is essentially necessary,
and with some children this
may be done with safety from
the first day of suckling,
to nurse the infant at
regular intervals of three
or four hours, day and
night. This allows
sufficient time for each
meal to be digested, and
tends to keep the bowels of
the child in order. Such
regularity, moreover, will
do much to obviate
fretfulness, and that
constant cry, which seems as
if it could be allayed only
by constantly putting the
child to the breast. A young
mother very frequently runs
into a serious error in this
particular, considering
every expression of
uneasiness as an indication
of appetite, and whenever
the infant cries offering it
the breast, although ten
minutes may not have elapsed
since its last meal. This is
an injurious and even
dangerous practice, for, by
overloading the stomach, the
food remains undigested, the
child's bowels are always
out of order, it soon
becomes restless and
feverish, and is, perhaps,
eventually lost; when, by
simply attending to the
above rules of nursing, the
infant might have become
healthy and vigorous.
For the
same reason, the infant that
sleeps with its parent must
not be allowed to have the
nipple remaining in its
mouth all night. If nursed
as suggested, it will be
found to awaken, as the hour
for its meal approaches,
with great regularity. In
reference to night-nursing,
I would suggest suckling the
babe as late as ten o'clock
p. m., and not putting it to
the breast again until five
o'clock the next morning.
Many mothers have adopted
this hint, with great
advantage to their own
health, and without the
slightest detriment to that
of the child. With the
latter it soon becomes a
habit; to induce it,
however, it must be taught
early.
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