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24

CHILDEEN.

given to a child should be drugs. This is beginning withmedicine betimes, and no wonder that they generally endwith it. It sometimes happens, indeed, that a child does notdischarge the meconium so soon as could be wished. Thishas induced physicians, in such cases, to give something ofan opening nature to cleanse the first passages. Mid wiveshave improved upon this hint, and never fail to give syrups,oils, &c, whether they be necessary or not. Cramming aninfant with such indigestible stuff, as soon as it is born, canhardly fail to make it sick, and is more likely to occasion dis-eases than to prevent them. Children are seldom long afterthe birth without having passage both by stool and urine,though these evacuations may be wanting for some time with-out any danger. But if children must have something beforethey be allowed the breast, let it be a little thin water-pap, towhich may be added an equal quantity of new milk. Ifthis be given without any wines, sugars, or spiceries, it willneither heat the blood, load the stomach, nor occasion gripes.

Upon the first sight of an infant, almost every person isstruck with the idea of its being weak, feeble, and wantingsupport. This naturally suggests the need of cordials. Ac-cordingly, wines are universally mixed with the first food ofchildren. Nothing can be more fallacious than this way ofreasoning, or more hurtful to infants than the conduct foundedupon it. Children need very little food for some time afterthe birth, and what they receive should be thin, weak, light,and of a cooling quality. A very small quantity of wine, oreven sugar, is sufficient to heat and inflame the blood of aninfant ; but every person conversant in these matters mustknow that most of the diseases of infants proceed from theheat of their humors.

If the mother or nurse has enough of milk, the child willneed little or no other food before the third or fourth month.It will then be proper to give it, once or twice a day, a littleof some food that is easy of digestion, as water-pap, milk-pot-tage, weak broth with bread in it, and such like. This willease the mother, will accustom the child by degrees to takefood, and will render the weaning both less difficult and lessdangerous. All great and sudden transitions are to be avoidedin nursing. For this purpose, the food of children ought notonly to be simple, but to resemble, as nearly as possible, theproperties of milk. Indeed milk itself should make a princi-pal part of their food, not only before they are weaned, butfor a long time after.