Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-11-23

Weaving her first baby is a dread event to every
mother. However short or long a period she has
nursed him, she is loath to deny herself the ecstacy
Of feeling her child draw on her for nourishment
and strength, the pressure of the little head against
her breast. the clinging of moist lips, the reaching
out Of helpless little fingers. Once baby is weaned
she knows that she will feel this JOY to a lesser
degree and gradually baby will grow from her toward
the sterners things Of life.
Then. too, when, the baby has thrived on breast
milk, there Is always more,or less fear of substituting
artificial food for that which Nature has so gener-
ously and safely supplied. For this reason weaving
should be a gradual process, not abrupt, unless
emergencies demand sudden weaving.
Such emergencies~include acute illness on the part
of the mother, fever, tuberculosis, serious kidney
Affections, al nervous breakdown, anemia or progress
sive loss of weight in the mother. In such cases the
baby must be weaned at once. Again, there are
instances where the mother seems well, but the baby
at six months or more suddenly begins to lose weight
and to develop symptoms OF retarded physical devel.
opment. These symptoms are:
J.. Excessive vomiting. with loss of weight or no
increase of weight for two weeks or more.
2. A persistent %diarrhoea, with loss of weight or
no increase of weight for two weeks Or more.
If there is a progressive gain in weight, however,,
loose bowels are not a danger signal.
8. Steady loss of weight extending over a period
of three weeks or more, in spite of the fact that
otherwise the child seems normal.
From this it will be seen that the baby should
be weighed regularly. In fact, a pair of scales has
taken the place of the soothing syrup or %paregoric
bottle in the modern nursery. They are the indicator
of babys condition. From these variations in weight,
causes Of illness are traced. The illness is not
drugged nor the small protesting voice Of the sick
baby silenced by narcotics.
When any such emergency arises, the process Of
weaving must be short and quick. Generally a train
ed nurse ora firm, intelligent and patient member
of the family must take the baby away from the
sick mother. If, as l suggested in the third article
Of this series, the baby has learned to take an Occa-
sional bottle, of modified milk, the task of weaving
will be frightened. If he has not been trained to do
this, then the process of weaving is trying to both
mother and nurse.
The cylindrical bottle described in an earlier talk
should be filed with modified milk and then set in a
pan of hot until the milk reaches what is
known as body temperature. This is tested by drop
ping a little on the forearm, never by putting the
nipple to the adults mouth and tasting the milk.
AS the baby drinks slowly, the bottle may be encased
in a wooden bag or knitted cover to hold the heat.
The hole in the nipple should be large enough for
the milk to run out easily.
When a baby under eight months is weaned, IT is
safest to start him on modified milk, that is, milk
diluted with water and sugar.
At ten months, both breast-fed and bottlefed
babies should be prepared gradually for weaving. A
baby nine months old in good physical condition may
be taught to drink from a cup. At first only modified
milk is served to him this way and in small portions.
Next comes milk combined with thin oatmeal or bar.
ley cruel. Then soft cereals may be fed with a
spoon. and finally stale bread, softened in warm milk.
These soft foods, however, should not be served in
quantity, just occasionally as an alternate with the
breast milk or modified bottle milk. They are the
gradual, gentle preparation for the final weaving at
twelve months. It is not good for either mother or
child to nurse the baby exclusively after the twelfth
month. In fact, 1t should be weaned completely at
about this time, or the mother becomes anemic and
the. baby no longer gains in weight, while its muscles
become fabEy.
The weaving of a bottle-fed baby is no less serious
than that of the %breast-fed baby. At fourteen months,
the bottlefed baby should be having three bottles a
day and two meals of soft food. At sixteen months,
the diet shifts to three daily meals of soft food and
a bottle at TO- o'clock. At eighteen, the bottle is laid
aside, there are no night feelings, and baby Is
weaned.
The ~Dreastfed baby that gains steadily needs
nothing but breast milk UP to the time the scheduled
weaving begins, but the bottle-fed baby should have
from two 10 eight teaspoonfuls Of trained orange
juice daily, from six months upward. This is be-
cause in the mothers milk there is a certain acid
can be inflicted in conformity with civilized laws;
but in view OF the fact that there are several states
in which capital punishment has been abolished, and
Of the further fact that the innate chivalry of Amerl-
cans revolts at the thought Of putting q woman to