LITMIR.BIZ

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      There are some females who ought never to undertake the office of suckling, both on account of their own health, and also that of their offspring.

      THE WOMAN OF A CONSUMPTIVE AND STRUMOUS CONSTITUTION OUGHT NOT.—In the infant born of such a parent there will be a constitutional predisposition to the same disease; and, if it is nourished from her system, this hereditary predisposition will be confirmed.

      "No fact in medicine is better established than that which proves the hereditary transmission from parents to children of a constitutional liability to pulmonary disease, and especially to consumption; yet no condition is less attended to in forming matrimonial engagements. The children of scrofulous and consumptive parents are generally precocious, and their minds being early matured, they engage early in the business of life, and often enter the married state before their bodily frame has had time to consolidate. For a few years every thing seems to go on prosperously, and a numerous family gathers around them. All at once, however, even while youth remains, their physical powers begin to give way, and they drop prematurely into the grave, exhausted by consumption, and leaving children behind them, destined, in all probability, either to be cut off as they approach maturity, or to run through the same delusive but fatal career as that of the parents from whom they derived their existence."[FN#5] There is scarcely an individual who reads these facts, to whom memory will not furnish some sad and mournful example of their truth; though they perhaps may have hitherto been in ignorance of the exciting cause.

      [FN#5] Combe's Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation of

       Health, etc.

      It is, however, with the mother as a nurse that I have now to do, and I would earnestly advise every one of a consumptive or strumous habit (and if there is any doubt upon this point, the opinion of a medical adviser will at once decide it) never to suckle her offspring; her constitution renders her unfit for the task. And, however painful it may be to her mind at every confinement to debar herself this delightful duty, she must recollect that it will be far better for her own health, and infinitely more so for that of the child, that she should not even attempt it; that her own health would be injured, and her infant's, sooner or later, destroyed by it.

      The infant of a consumptive parent, however, must not be brought up by hand. It must have a young, healthy, and vigorous wet-nurse; and in selecting a woman for this important duty very great care must be observed.[FN#6] The child should be nursed until it is twelve or fifteen months old. In some cases it will be right to continue it until the first set of teeth have appeared, when it will be desirable that a fresh wet-nurse should be obtained for the last six months.[FN#7] If the child is partially fed during the latter months (from necessity or any other cause), the food should be of the lightest quality, and constitute but a small proportion of its nutriment.

      [FN#6] See "Choice of a Wet-nurse," p. 28.

      [FN#7] One that has been confined about six weeks or two months.

      But not only must the nourishment of such a child be regarded, but the air it breathes, and the exercise that is given to it; as also, the careful removal of all functional derangements as they occur, by a timely application to the medical attendant, and maintaining, especially, a healthy condition of the digestive organs. All these points must be strictly followed out, if any good is to be effected.

      By a rigid attention to these measures the mother adopts the surest antidote, indirectly, to overcome the constitutional predisposition to that disease, the seeds of which, if not inherited from the parent, are but too frequently developed in the infant during the period of nursing; and, at the same time, she takes the best means to engender a sound and healthy constitution in her child. This, surely, is worth any sacrifice.

      If the infant derives the disposition to a strumous constitution entirely from the father, and the mother's health be unexceptionable, then I would strongly advise her to suckle her own child.

      THE MOTHER OF A HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE NERVOUS TEMPERAMENT OUGHT NOT.—There are other women who ought never to become nurses. The mother of a highly nervous temperament, who is alarmed at any accidental change she may happen to notice in her infant's countenance, who is excited and agitated by the ordinary occurrences of the day; such a parent will do her offspring more harm than good by attempting to suckle it. Her milk will be totally unfit for its nourishment: at one time it will be deficient in quantity, at another, so depraved in its quality, that serious disturbance to the infant's health, will ensue. The young and inexperienced mother, who is a parent for the first time, and altogether ignorant of the duties of her office, and at the same time most anxious to fulfil them faithfully, is but too frequently an instance in point; although at a future period she will generally make a good nurse. The following is an illustration:—

      In December, 1838, I attended a young married lady in her first confinement, and in excellent health. She gave birth to a fine, plump, healthy boy. Every thing went on well for three weeks, the mother having an abundant supply of milk, and the infant evidently thriving upon it. About this time, however, the child had frequent fits of crying; the bowels became obstinately costive;—the motions being lumpy, of a mixed colour, quite dry, and passed with great pain. It became rapidly thin, and after a while its flesh so wasted, and became so flabby, that it might be said literally to hang on the bones. The fits of crying now increased in frequency and violence, coming on every time after the little one left the breast, when it would commence screaming violently, beat the air with its hands and feet, and nothing that was done could appease it. Having lasted for half an hour or more, it would fall asleep quite exhausted; the fit recurring again, when again it had been to the breast.

      It was very evident that the infant's hunger was not satisfied, as it was also but too evident its body was not nourished by the parent's milk, which, although abundant in quantity (the breast being large and full of milk), was at this time seriously deteriorated in its nutritive quality. This was caused, I believe, from great anxiety of mind. Her nurse became suddenly deranged, and the whole responsibility and care of the child thus devolved upon the mother, of the duties connected with which she was entirely ignorant.

      A wet-nurse was obtained. In a very few hours after this change was effected, the screaming ceased, the child had quiet and refreshing sleep, and in twelve hours a healthy motion was passed. The child gained flesh almost as quickly as it had previously lost it, and is now as fine and healthy an infant as it promised to be when born.

      Whenever there has existed previously any nervous or mental affection in the parent, wet-nurse suckling is always advisable; this, with judicious management of childhood, will do much to counteract the hereditary predisposition.

      THE MOTHER WHO ONLY NURSES HER INFANT WHEN IT SUITS HER CONVENIENCE OUGHT NOT.—The mother who cannot make up her mind exclusively to devote herself to the duties of a nurse, and give up all engagements that would interfere with her health, and so with the formation of healthy milk, and with the regular and stated periods of nursing her infant, ought never to suckle. It is unnecessary to say why; but I think it right, for the child's sake, to add, that if it does not sicken, pine, and die, disease will be generated in its constitution, to manifest itself at some future period.

      The child, then, under all the foregoing circumstances, must be provided with its support from another source, and a wet-nurse is the best.

2. WET-NURSE SUCKLING.

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      Ill health and many other circumstances may prevent a parent from suckling her child, and render a wet-nurse necessary. Now, although she will do wisely to leave the choice of one to her medical attendant, still, as some difficulty may attend this, and as most certainly the mother herself ought to be acquainted with the principal points to which his attention is directed in the selection of a good nurse, it will be well to point out in what they consist.

CHOICE OF A WET-NURSE.

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