DEFICIENCY OF MILK.
Deficiency of milk may exist even at a very early period after delivery, and yet
be removed. This, however, is not to be accomplished by the means too frequently
resorted to; for it is the custom with many, two or three weeks after their
confinement, if the supply of nourishment for the infant is scanty, to partake
largely of malt liquor for its increase. Sooner or later this will be found
injurious to the constitution of the mother: but how, then, is this deficiency
to be obviated? Let the nurse keep but in good health, and this point gained,
the milk, both as to quantity and quality, will be as ample, nutritious, and
good, as can be produced by the individual.
I would recommend a plain, generous, and nutritious diet; not one description of
food exclusively, but, as is natural, a wholesome, mixed, animal, and vegetable
diet, with or without wine or malt liquor, according to former habit; and,
occasionally, where malt liquor has never been previously taken, a pint of good
sound ale may be taken daily with advantage, if it agree with the stomach.
Regular exercise in the open air is of the greatest importance, as it has an
extraordinary influence in promoting the secretion of healthy milk. Early after
leaving the lying-in room, carriage exercise, where it can be obtained, is to be
preferred, to be exchanged, in a week or so, for horse exercise, or the daily
walk. The tepid, or cold salt-water shower bath, should be used every morning;
but if it cannot be borne, sponging the body with salt-water must be substituted.
By adopting with perseverance the foregoing plan, a breast of milk will be
obtained as ample in quantity, and good in quality, as the constitution of the
parent can produce, as the following case proves:
I attended a lady twenty-four years of age, a delicate, but healthy woman, in
her first confinement. The labor was good. Every thing went on well for the
first week, except that, although the breasts became enlarged, and promised a
good supply of nourishment for the infant, at its close there was merely a
little oozing from the nipple. During the next fortnight a slight, but very
gradual increase in quantity took place, so that a dessert spoonful only was
obtained about the middle of this period, and perhaps double this quantity at
its expiration. In the mean time the child was necessarily fed upon an
artificial diet, and as a consequence its bowels became deranged, and a severe
diarrhea followed.
For three or four days it was a question whether the little one would live, for
so greatly had it been reduced by the looseness of the bowels that it had not
strength to grasp the nipple of its nurse; the milk, therefore, was obliged to
be drawn, and the child fed with it from a spoon. After the lapse of a few days,
however, it could obtain the breast-milk for itself; and, to make short of the
case, during the same month, the mother and child returned home, the former
having a very fair proportion of healthy milk in her bosom, and the child
perfectly recovered and evidently thriving fast upon it.
Where, however, there has been an early deficiency in the supply of nourishment,
it will most frequently happen that, before the sixth or seventh month, the
infant's demands will be greater than the mother can meet. The deficiency must
be made up by artificial food, which must be of a kind generally employed before
the sixth month, and given through the bottle.
