The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-02
Home Nursing
Advice To Young Mothers

MM OST young mothers have rather I'VE miserable time.
 In the first place, the women next door almost always elects herself Adviser Extraordinary, and (particu- larly if she has had several children herself) undertakes to guide the young mother along untrammelled paths.
 She warns her of all the dreadful things that may happen to a new baby in the first year. She speaks, guarded ly, of the babies who die of summer complaint. Of malnutrition. Of con- vulsions while they are teething. She tells terrible stories of rickets, that dread disease through which the bones of little children become twisted and deformed. She speaks, little vaguely of heredity. She mentions tuberculo- sis and things like that. Then, too, she will tell the frightened young mother of the babies who die of croup. Of the babies who never survive the second summer, because, my dear, the second summer is always so hard on babies"
 If the baby is good and sleeps for hours at time she will tell the young mother that the baby is too good to live. "She will never raise it." If it cries very much she will warn the young mother of the danger of hernia, or rupture.
 Altogether, taken by and large, the young mother who lives next door to the well meaning woman who has been several times a mother, has a rather hard time of it, unless she asserts her self and dares to be independent. One need not be the mother of a dozen children to understand the science of taking proper care of babies. One has only to be intelligent and fairly dis corning.
 In the first place, young mother, wherever you are, don't believe all you hear. Try to turn a laughing face to the woman who tells you that mother hood is a terrible test-that one must sacrifice much and receive little to be a mother.
 Let your baby cry sometimes: It helps to expand his chest and it stimu lates and strengthens his lungs. If he cries necessarily 1t is wrong. He is in pain. You will quickly learn (by in- stinct, perhaps) to distinguish between the kinds of infant cries. There is the cry of pain, the cry of weariness, the sharp, unmistakable cry of hunger, and the wailing, protesting cry of illness. But the lusty cry of the healthy infant is normal. Let your baby cry for while every day, if he wants to. It does him no harm, and 1t expands and stim- ulates his lungs. The cry of temper is different. It develops in extreme :, infancy and can be readily recognized. Pay no attention to it. The baby will learn very quickly that screaming means nothing-n his mother is a wise woman. And he will stop.
 It is not altogether kind, perhaps, to warn the young mother against her neighbors. They generally mean well. Mt they are often very trying. Moth eSa forget so soon-about their babies. TheNwomen whose "baby" is old enough to vote can seldom recall the nights when he writhed with collie and she applied warm flannel to his stomach and forced castor oil down his throat, in momentary fear that he would strangle because he refused to "swal low"
 Every mother goes through the stage of forcing her baby, however much she loves it, to swallow castor oil. Castor ioil is little better for babies ha'. thing scientists have yet discovered. It often does lot of good, and it never does any harm. Just try it the next time the baby is restless and irritable.
 ou will be surprised at the way a restless, crying baby will settle down and sleep after a good dose of old fashioned castor oil!