Part 5

The tendency of the body, that has been incorrectly fed for many years, to protest against the right kind and the right combinations of food, is often very deceptive. It is not always correct to say that the food did not agree with the stomach, but more correct to say that the different foods did not agree with themselves. The patient should be thoroughly acquainted with these facts, and mentally prepared for some temporary discomforts or physical protest against the new system.

INFANT FEEDING

The tremendous mortality among infants and children is due to incorrect feeding more than to all other causes. In the process of reproducing animal life, nearly all abnormal conditions are eliminated. The best that is in the mother is given to the child. The trend of Nature is upward toward higher intelligence and more perfect physical development. For this reason infants are usually healthier than their parents, though millions of babies are rapidly broken in health by improper feeding.

The economy of Nature is perfect, therefore all natural forces conspire to preserve the life of the young. This is the natural law governing the preservation and the development of human life, and that this condition does not obtain is the most striking evidence of our lack of knowledge in feeding the young.

Infant feeding must be considered from two points of view: (1) Dealing with the child or infant as we find it, where the mother has so violated Nature's laws of nutrition and hygiene as to afford no breast-milk for her child; (2) where this condition does not prevail, and the child receives ample nourishment from the breast of the mother.

We will first consider the diet and the conduct of the mother during pregnancy and prior to it.

Preparation for motherhood is one of woman's most sacred duties, because it involves not only the happiness and health of herself, but it shapes, in a large degree, the mental and the physical conditions of another being which will wield an influence over its whole life.

The common error of most women is that they do not desire children when they are first married, and in the pursuit of other pleasures they violate and disregard the laws of Nature; the baby is a mere accident--probably unwelcome. During the entire embryonic period the same old habits and diet are indulged in; the mental and the physical condition of the being-to-be has received no consideration, and, unwelcome in a strange world, the little eyes are opened. Then the instinctive love of the mother is kindled and lavished; the child's every want is law; it needs maternal nourishment and the mother desires to give it, but the natural fountain is insufficient, and probably dry. The mother's thoughts and inspirations can no longer become a part of the child, except through education in later years--they are two separate beings; the opportunity to endow it with a part of her life is forever gone.

Under the most favorable conditions we meet a constant resistance to life, and the higher we ascend in the scale of civilization the greater is the resistance encountered. It is therefore the duty of the mother, as also of the father, to remove every obstacle that would offer resistance to the physical and mental growth of the child. In order to do this it is necessary to carry out certain well-established laws concerning diet, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and mental training.

GENERAL RULES FOR THE PROSPECTIVE MOTHER

From the time conception is recognized the following general rules should be observed:

1 The corset or all tight-fitting garments that would in any way interfere with freedom of exercise and thorough development of the abdominal muscles should be discarded.

2 As much time as possible--at least two hours each day--should be spent in the open air, and a system of moderate trunk exercises followed, together with deep breathing, calculated to expand the lungs to their fullest cell capacity, which is Nature's method of burning or oxidizing waste matter, and thereby keeping the blood pure.

3 The mental occupation should be an important factor in the daily regimen. Some congenial study should be chosen with the view of making it useful, while some remunerative employment should be sought and indulged in for a portion of each day. Avoid idleness by all means, or an idle roaming of the mind and spirit. Learn to think, to concentrate, to work, and to do something for others, as it is from these things that all happiness is gained.

4 The diet of the future mother should be governed somewhat by the laws laid out in the first part of this lesson; that is, age, temperature of environment, and occupation should be considered in its selection.

SPECIAL RULES FOR THE PROSPECTIVE MOTHER

There are some specific rules in regard to diet, however, which every mother should observe. The diet should be balanced so as to contain all the needed elements of nourishment in approximately the right proportions. The proportions, however, should differ in many cases from that which she would take if she were in a normal state, especially in regard to starchy foods or calcareous matter. An abundance of green salads, sweet ripe fruits, fresh vegetables in season, eggs, milk, nuts, and not more than two ounces of bread, potatoes, or dried beans should be taken daily. If flesh food or something salty is craved, tender chicken, or fish, may be allowed in small quantities.

It should be borne in mind that I do not advocate the use of flesh foods, but during pregnancy the appetite is varying and sometimes tyrannical, and it has been found better to compromise with this condition than to combat it. The use of a limited quantity of tender meat, or any other article of good food for which there should arise a craving, is therefore advisable.

In the selection of meats, the flesh of young animals is best, for the reason that young animals are more healthy and less liable to contamination by dis-ease. The meat of either fowl or fish is rather appetizing, and often satisfies the craving that many pregnant women have for the heavier meats such as pork or veal, which are, of course, very much more difficult to digest.

There is, notwithstanding the opinion foolishly held by many doctors, no difference in the nutritive qualities of white or dark meat, as either variety is nourished by identically the same blood supply, and contains the same sort of protoplasm.

So it is a mistaken idea to think that there is any appreciable difference in the digestibility of white meat as compared with dark, except as the effect of mental suggestion may be operative. Of course, we know that if you tell a person often enough that a certain thing is true, eventually he will act upon it automatically. And so it is with the white and dark meat fetich.

THE NURSING MOTHER

If the mother supplies enough milk, this is infinitely superior to any artificial combination of so-called infant foods. Unfortunately a large majority of children are not breast-fed, and must depend upon the various commercial infant-foods, or upon the judgment of the untrained nurse, or the mother.

The majority of mothers, if so disposed, could, by studying their own diet, supply the most robust child with ample breast-nourishment until it is ten or twelve months old, after which period the infantile crisis would be passed, and millions of little lives would thereby be saved. However, the confinement and the trouble to which the mother is subjected by the nursing baby causes the majority of infants to be weaned within a few weeks after birth, and turned over to the hazard of prepared food, soporific drugs, and nurses.

If mothers could realize the love that is daily kindled and strengthened; if they could be made to know how much more their children would love them, and they would love their children; if they could look into the years and see how the link of love between them and their children had been shaped, molded, and fashioned by the simple act of nurturing them from the breast (to say nothing of the lives that would be saved), the artificially-fed baby would be a rarity, and the mother would be queen in the hearts of the nation's children.

The most beautiful thing that ever graced the canvas of art, or shed its love into the cold realism of nature, is a nursing baby pushing from its satisfied lips the mother's breast, and smiling its sweet content into her face.

It is almost criminal to withdraw the breast from an infant, and to turn it over to the treachery of prepared foods, when, by devoting a little time each day to the study of the science of eating, it is possible for the mother to supply the child with her own milk.

CARE OF THE CHILD