776 PLAIN FACTS 



3. The child should never be allowed to sleep at 

 the breast, nor with a nursing bottle to its mouth. 



4. The child should never be put to the breast to 

 stop its crying. Children cry in consequence of dis- 

 turbances of the stomach much more often than from 

 hunger. The child will often nurse as though hungry 

 when the stomach is already full of undigested food, 

 being induced to do so by the pain or discomfort which 

 it suffers. Children often cry in consequence of the 

 irritation of pins, but no matter whether any other 

 cause for crying should be found or not, the child 

 should not be nursed except at its regular hours. 



5. No other food but milk, except such fluids as are 

 used to dilute cow's milk, should be used until after 

 several teeth have made their appearance. As a rule, 

 bread and other farinaceous food cannot be digested 

 before the age of seven or eight months. Meat should 

 never be given to children until after they have ac- 

 quired a sufficient number of teeth to masticate it thor- 

 oughly, and then should be allowed only in very small 

 quantities once a day. Young children are very much 

 better off without meat. Convulsions in children are 

 often due to the use of meat. 



6. Children should never be given sugar-teats, can- 

 dies, sweetmeats, cheese, nor pastry. The habit many 

 nurses have of feeding an infant sugar and water every 

 hour or two, during the first one or two days of its life, 

 is a practice which cannot be condemned too strongly. 

 The same may be said to be the cause of colic and 

 other disturbances. Catnip tea and similar other decoc- 

 tions used at this time, are exceedingly harmful, not 

 only disturbing the stomach and giving the child dis- 

 comfort, but preventing the natural desire for food 

 and depriving the mother of the benefit to be derived 



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