A treatise on the diseases of children : with directions for the management of infants / by the late Michael Underwood.

  • Underwood, Michael, 1736-1820.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases of children : with directions for the management of infants / by the late Michael Underwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    It would, I perceive, lead me beyond all bounds to enter further into this matter ; I shall, therefore, only add, that infants certainly ought not to be fed lying on their backs, but sitting upright, how- soever contrary to long established usage, as they will in this posi- tion swallow their food more easily, as well as more readily perceive when they have had enough. So also children nourished at the breast, ought to be withdrawn from it for a short time, especially just after waking from a long sleep; whereby, besides other advantages, much undue labour to the stomach may be pre- vented, as well as enabling it to retain what it has received, apart of which is otherwise very frequently thrown up. If milk be the proper food for infants brought up by hand, the next inquiry will naturally be, what milk is the best ? and what is the fittest instrument for feeding with ? And it is from long expe- rience, as well as from reason and analogy, that I venture again to recommend the ingenious contrivance of the late Dr. Hugh Smith, which I shall presently describe. The milk he likewise advises, is cow's milk, in preference to all others, as being the most nourishing, and therefore, in general, the most proper; and I wish to refer the inquisitive reader to such other reasons as the doctor has given,* to which I can add nothing but my own experience of their validity. To the milk should be added a little thin gruel, or barley-water, which forms a very smooth and pleasant nourish- ment ; the latter being more proper if the bowels are too open. A few weeks after birth, and I think in general the sooner the better, instead of the barley-water or gruel, there should be mixed with the milk a small quantity of a light jelly made from harts- horn shavings, boiled in water to the consistence that veal broth acquires when it has stood to be cold.t The design of the jelly is obvious and rational, at once calculated to render the food more nutritive, as well as to correct in some measure the acescency of the milk ; this quality being thought to abound in the milk of dif- ferent animals, in proportion to the quality of vegetables on which they feed.J And the milk of quadrupeds we know is produced from vegetable juices only, whilst breast-milk is formed by a mix- ture of animal and vegetable food. A little Lisbon sugar may be added to this compound of jelly and milk, if the child be not inclined to a purging ; or in that case a little loaf sugar ; but the less of either the better. It will be proper to have the milk and jelly warmed separately, and no more at a time than may be wanted ; when it should be put into the sucking pot, which must be very carefully cleansed and scalded, at least once every day, *See his Treatise on the Management of Children, in a Series of Letters addressed to Married Women. f There is sometimes a difficulty in making this jelly, on account of the harts- horn being bad ; those who shave it, often mixing the shavings of trotters, which may, however, be distinguished by their britlleness. If the shavings are good, two ounces of them, boiled very slowly in a quart of water to a pint, will make the jelly of a proper consistence. % See Dr. Young, De Natura et Usu Lactis, in Diversis Animalibus.