The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-07-12
THE BABY.


From the New York Tribune.l
In July and August the baby becomes or
ought to become point Of public interest. Ii
grown men and women suffer from bad ven
tilation, uncleanliness, or indigestion, they
have themselves to blame. But when the poor
baby is the victim it is matter Of deliberate
cruelty Summer after summer teething chill
dren fall in hecatombs, sacrificed to the ignor-
ance or carel ssness Of their parents. This
year, however, as last, instructions have been
published by the boards Of health i'll some
neghboring cities by which the most
uneducated mother may understand how to
protect hei child from danger as far as is pos
sible during the season of heat and foul air
The directions are based upon plain principles
of common sense which we would suppose
would be patent to anybody OF ordinary intel
ligence but which are unfortunately the very
facts soonest ignored and neglec ed Irish or
German mothers, like Naaman Of old, are
usually willing to try any cure which any pro-
phet NAV recommend, the more miraculous
and difficult the better: but as for steady
washing of themselves or their children in the
waters of Jordan or Croton to make them
whole, they are apt, like the Syrian TO sniff
contemptuously at the idea, and go faithfully
on their way throug n dirt to death.
Washing, however, might be called the basis
Of baby's salvation through teething; thor
ough sousing of the little body in plenty OF
weather is extremely hot, tepid sponge bath
at night washing, too constantly OF all clothes
and cloths used by the infant, to afford it per-
fectly clean garments ut all times. Whatever
milk be given should be thoroughly sweet and
cool infants under two years should be re-
stricted in their diet to milk, oatmeal mush, or
Cruel carefully prepared, and beef broth or
minced raw beet in small quantities There
is q popular prejudice among uneducated
women against the meanness OF refusing food
to "their children which they eat
themselves >" TO- which is owing one
half the deaths among that class
Of infants. The swarms Of sallow, wizened-
faced baries which we see at the doors OF
tenement houses, are fed ON morsels Of pork,
vegetables unraised bread, and occasional
sips Of tea or lager beer, which may fall to
their mothers lucky lot 1t is not heat, or
malaria, or teething against which the doctors
have to contend so much, as the obstinate ig-
nomnce Of the parents. Fresh air is, OF
course, tonic and cure superior to any medi-
cine; every hour passed by the child under
the trees in the squares, or on the rver, gives
it new chance for life. No anodynes or
soothing syrups should be given except under
medical direction
as practical in effect, but which only affection
can suggest Ore is the laying aside for the
brief hot season the rigor Of parental disci-
pline. Many well-meaning women feel it to
be their duty to teach their children implicit
obedience at the earliest age, and to punish
any i'll temper or peevishness. Now, an in
FAINT never cries unless when hungry, hurt or
sick; the cutting Of the teeth frequently at
fects the brain, and produces a nervous IRA
tibility, which relieves itself by peevish COM
plants or crying.
To whip child for such conduct is sheer
cruelty, and simply increases what is all ac-
tual disease Through these perilous two
months the helpless little creatures require
not only the skillful care of a wise mother,
but the brooding love Of the most tender one.
If they do not fret and cry against the dis
comforts and pains of a world into which they
came without choice, and which shows them
just now its toughest side-what wonder.