Thomas de Quincey - "The Caesars"

Various - "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327"

Douglas Houghton Campbell - "Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany"

Susanna Moodie - "The Monctons: A Novel, Volume I"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Mother and Her Child

W >> William S. Sadler >> The Mother and Her Child





NORMAL BREAST WEANING

As a general rule the normal, healthy, breast-fed baby is given a
feeding of a bottle each day after he is ten months old. These bottles
are increased in number until, by the time the baby is a year old, he
is gradually weaned from the breast. Should the ninth month of baby's
life arrive in the hot summer months we urge the mothers to continue
breast feeding, with possibly the addition of some fruit juices, as
noted elsewhere, until early autumn. Under no circumstances should the
baby be weaned and compelled to use cow's milk during the season of
the year when the risks of contamination are greatest. If the baby is
nursed up to the close of his first year he hardly need be trained to
use the bottle, but may take his food from a cup. From one to two
months should always be consumed in weaning the baby, unless sudden
weaning is necessitated by ill health, as noted elsewhere. The baby
should have, if possible, from thirty to forty days to accustom
himself to cow's milk exclusively.

If the child is weaned slowly there should be no trouble with the
breasts, but in the instance of sudden weaning the mother should
restrict her liquids, put on a tight breast binder, and for a day or
two should take a dose of a saline cathartic, which will assist in
taking care of the liquids and thus decrease the secretion of milk.


NORMAL BOTTLE WEANING

If the bottle food is agreeing with the baby he should be allowed to
use it up to the end of the first year when he will be given whole
milk with possibly the addition of a little lime water. We see no
reason why the child should give up his bottle during the second year
unless other food is refused--unless he will not accept other food
than from his bottle--and if you are convinced that he has formed the
"bottle habit," then the milk should be put into a tiny cup or glass,
and he should learn to sip it along with his solid foods; but if he
takes his other foods without any hesitancy, then we know no reason
why he should not take his milk in this comfortable manner from his
bottle at least two or three feedings each day.

If you desire to wean him from his bottle, serve the first part of it
with a spoon from a cup or glass and then give him the remainder in
the bottle. The beautiful picture of a big, robust baby lying on his
back, knees flexed, both hands holding his beloved bottle still
lingers in my mind as one of the pleasant memories of my lad's
babyhood days, and at the close of the second year, when the beloved
bottle was left behind, I believe I missed something as well as did
the lad.

I recall no difficulty with his taking the food from a cup. The
success of all normal weanings is due entirely to the fact that it is
done gradually and slowly, and under no circumstances should it be
roughly and abruptly attempted--particularly in case of the bottle
feeding.


TRAINING THE BOWELS AND BLADDER

Reference is made to this subject in another part of this book--where
we went into the detail of keeping the daily record of these
physiological occurrences--and it was found that the bowels moved and
the bladder was emptied at about the same time each day. Any mother,
caretaker, or nurse, who will take the time to keep a daily record of
the hours of defecation and urination, will observe the time carefully
and will catch the child on nearly every occasion before an accident
occurs. Often as early as four months the bowels will move in an
infant's chamber at regular times each day. The nurse or mother places
this receptacle in her lap and holds the child gently and carefully
upon it. A little later it can be made to sit on a special chair
prepared for the purpose, and at eight or nine months by careful
training the urination can be controlled, and by the end of the first
year the diapers ought to be discontinued.

If the child has not learned to control the bladder by the age of two
years, medical attention should be called to the fact and remedial
measures instituted.


BABY'S SPEECH

The baby should begin to talk at one year. He early learns to say
"mamma" and "papa," and gradually adds nouns to his vocabulary, so
that at eighteen months the normal child should have a vocabulary of
one hundred to one hundred and fifty words. As he nears the two-year
mark, he has acquired a few simple verbs and he can possibly put three
words together, such as, "Willie wants drink." Pronouns come in late,
as we all recall that the young child usually speaks of himself by his
own name.

Children are born mimics. If you talk baby talk to them, they will
talk baby talk back. For instance, a well known author told us just
the other day that for many years no other name was given to the
sewing machine in his house but the word "mafinge," and not until he
went to school did he correct the word "bewhind," for in the nursery
he learned the line "wagging their tails bewhind them." Baby talk is
very cunning, and often the adult members of the family pick it up and
keep it up for years, and only when they are exposed in public, as one
mother was on a suburban platform by her four-year-old lad shouting,
"Mamma, too-too tain tumin, too-too tain tumin," do they sense their
responsibility and realize how difficult it is to form new habits.
This poor mother tried in vain to have her little fellow say, as did
another little lad two and one-half years old, "Mother, the train's
coming; let's get on."

Many words of our beloved language at best are hard to understand; so
let us speak correct English to the little folks and they will reward
us by speaking good English in return.

If at two years the child makes no attempt at speech, suspicions
should be aroused concerning mutism or other serious nervous defects.
Medical advice should be sought.


DEFECTIVE SPEECH

All guttural tones which may be occasioned by adenoids or enlarged
tonsils, all lisping, stuttering, or defective speech of all words
should be taken in hand at the very start, as they are usually
overcome by constant repetition of the correct manner of speaking the
particular word in question. Children of defective speech need special
training, and should in no way be allowed rapidly to repeat little
nursery rhymes, as oftentimes this rapid repetition of rhymes by a
child with hereditary nervous defects may occasion stuttering or
stammering later on.


CALISTHENICS

Special exercise should not be forced upon young children. Physical
culture, along with many other things intended for sedentary adults,
should never be forced upon little folks who get all of the exercise
they need in the many journeys they take building their blocks,
sailing their boats, tearing down imaginary houses, making imaginary
journeys--from morning until night the little feet are kept
busy--never stopping until the sandman comes at sleepy time. Do not
yourself attempt to stimulate a child who seems backward. Consult your
physician. You had much better put a child out to grow up in the yard
by himself with his sandpile than to force calisthenics or advance
physical training upon him.


BOW LEGS AND WALKING

Do not attempt to hasten nature in aiding the child to walk. Let him
creep, roll, slide, or even hunch along the floor--wait until he pulls
himself to his feet and gradually acquires the art of standing alone.
If he is overpersuaded to take "those cute little steps" it may result
in bow legs, and then--pity on him when he grows up. Sometimes flat
foot is the result of early urging the child to rest the weight of the
body upon the undeveloped arch. A defect in the gait or a pigeon toe
is hard to bear later on in life. A certain amount of pigeon-toeing is
natural and normal. If the baby is heavy he will not attempt to walk
at twelve months. He will very likely wait until fourteen or fifteen
months. The lighter-weight children sometimes walk as early as eleven
months, but they should all be walking at eighteen months, and if not,
it is usually indicative of backward mentality.

If the training of the bowels and bladder will replace the diapers
with drawers, the baby will attempt to walk sooner than when
encumbered with a bunglesome bunch of diaper between the thighs. The
little fellow runs alone at sixteen months and thoroughly enjoys it,
and the wise mother will pay no attention to the small bumps which are
going to come plentifully at this particular time.


SUMMARY OF BABY'S DEVELOPMENT

He discovers his hands at three or four months. At six months he sits
alone, plays with simple objects, grasps for objects, and laughs aloud
from the third to the fifth month. He says "goo goo" at four or five
months. At one year he should stand with support, listen to a watch
tick, follow moving objects, know his mother, play little games, such
as rolling a ball, should have trebled his birth weight, and have at
least six teeth, and should use three words in short sentences. At
eighteen months he should say "mamma" spontaneously, walk and run
without support, should have quite a vocabulary, should be able to
perform small errands like "pick up the book," and should have twelve
to sixteen teeth. At two years he should be interested in pictures,
able to talk intelligently, and know where his eyes, nose, mouth,
hands, and feet are. At three years, he should enumerate the objects
in a picture, tell his surname, and repeat a sentence with six words.

In the case of a premature baby or a very delicate child, or as a
result of a prolonged illness or a very severe sickness, such as
spinal meningitis, the time of these mental and physical developments
may all be postponed, while rickets, which will be spoken of later, is
often the cause of late sitting, late standing, and late walking.


DIET AFTER THE FIRST YEAR

Milk is the principal article of diet during the second year. It
should be given with regularity at distinct intervals of four meals a
day. It may be given from the nursing bottle, unless the child has
acquired the bottle habit and refuses to eat anything else but the
food from his bottle, in which case it should be given from a cup.
Beginning with the sixth month, aside from his milk, be it breast
milk or bottle milk, he is to be given orange juice once each day as
well as the broth from spinach and other vegetables. This is necessary
to give the child certain salts which are exceedingly essential to the
bottle baby.

At the close of the year when he is taking whole milk he should be
given arrowroot cracker, strained apple sauce, prune pulp, fig pulp,
mashed ripe banana (mashed with a knife), a baked potato with sauce or
gravy (avoiding condiments), and a coddled egg. Fruit juices may be
added to the diet, such as grape, pineapple, peach, and pear juice.
Later in the second year he may be given stale bread and butter, and
for desserts he may have cup custard, slightly sweetened junket, and
such fruit desserts as baked apple and baked pear.

We do not think it is necessary to give children much meat or meat
juices. We appreciate that there is a diversity of opinion upon this
subject, but we do not hesitate to say that in the families where meat
is little used, the children seem to grow up in the normal manner with
sound healthy bodies, sometimes having never tasted it. When meat is
used, it should be well cooked to avoid contamination with such
parasites as tapeworm and trichina; it should also be well chewed
before swallowing, as many of the intestinal disturbances of the older
children are due to the swallowing of unmasticated food such as
half-chewed banana, chunks of meat, rinds of fruit, and the skins of
baked potatoes.

Let the children's diet be simply planned, well cooked, thoroughly
masticated, and above all things have regular meal hours, and no
"piecing" between meals; and if the mother begins thus early with her
little fellow, she will be rewarded some later day by hearing him say
to some well-meaning neighbor, who has just given him a delicious
cookie or a bit of candy: "Thank you, I will keep it until meal time."
Children learn one of the greatest lessons of self control in
following the teaching that nothing should pass the lips between meals
but water or a fruit-ade. Children in the second year require four
meals a day, one of which is usually only the bottle or a cup of milk.
These meals are usually taken at six, ten, two, and six in the
evening. Oftentimes this early six o'clock meal is just a bottle or
cup of milk, as may also be the evening meal.


CANDY

Now, a word about candy. Pure candy is wholesome and nourishing. It is
high in calorific value, and children should be allowed to have it if
it does not enter the stomach in solutions stronger than ten or
fifteen per cent. We can see at a glance that chocolate creams,
bonbons, and other soft candies should never be given to children.
Candies that they can suck, such as fruit tablets, stick candy,
sunshine candy, and other hard confections that are pure, and free
from mineral colorings and other concoctions such as are commonly used
in the cheaper candies, may safely be given at the close of the
meals--but never between meals.

All such articles as tea, coffee, beer, soft candies, condiments,
pastries, and fried foods, should be positively avoided in the case of
all children under five and six years of age.

The diet from now on will be considered in the chapter "Diet and
Nutrition."




PART III

THE CHILD




PART III

THE CHILD




CHAPTER XXV

THE SICK CHILD


To the mother who has passed through the experience of bringing the
child into the world is usually given that intuitiveness which helps
her in caring for that child when it is well and in recognizing
certain symptoms when it is sick. The newborn baby brings with him a
large responsibility, but as the weeks pass by his care becomes less
and less of a nervous strain, as the routine duties, so nearly alike
each day of his little life, have made the task comparatively easy;
but when the baby gets sick, particularly if he is under one year of
age, and it is impossible for him clearly to make known his wants, and
being unable to tell where it hurts or how badly it hurts, the average
mother is likely to become somewhat panicky; and this confusion of
mind often renders her quite unfit successfully to nurse the sick
baby.


THE NURSE

It is often wise to secure the services of a trained nurse, and if the
family purse will allow such services, a good, sincere, capable,
practical nurse should be engaged, for her firm kindness will often
accomplish much more than the unintentional irritability and anxious
solicitude of an overworked and nervous mother.

Usually the mother not only attempts the care of the sick baby with
the long night vigil--often not having the opportunity to take a bath
or change her raiment day in and day out--but she often attempts to
manage the entire household as well, including the getting of the
meals and keeping the house cleaned, and it is not to be wondered at
that her nerves become overtaxed and in an unlooked for moment she
becomes irritable and cross with the sick child.

No matter how low the financial conditions of the family may be,
outside help is always essential in cases of severe or long-continued
illness of the children. Should the mother insist upon caring for the
baby herself, then all household duties should be given over to
outside help, and as she takes the role of the nurse, the same daily
outing and sleep that an outside nurse would receive should be hers to
enjoy.

Dr. Griffith has so ably detailed the "features of disease" that we
can do no better than to quote the following:[A]

[A] From Griffith's _Care of the Baby_, copyrighted by W. B. Saunders
Company.


POSITION

The position assumed in sickness is a matter of importance. A
child feverish or in pain is usually very restless even when
asleep. When awake it desires constantly to be taken up, put down
again, or carried about. Sometimes, however, at the beginning of
an acute disease it lies heavy and stupid for a long time. In
prolonged illnesses and in severe acute disorders the great
exhaustion is shown by the child lying upon its back, with its
face turned toward the ceiling, in a condition of complete
apathy. It may remain like a log, scarcely breathing for days
before death takes place. Perfect immobility may also be seen in
children who are entirely unconscious although not exhausted.

A constant tossing off of the covers at night occurs early in
rickets, but, of course, is seen in many healthy infants,
especially if they are too warmly covered. A baby shows a desire
to be propped up with pillows or to sit erect or to be carried in
the mother's arms with its head over her shoulder whenever
breathing is much interfered with, as in diphtheria of the larynx
and in affections of the heart and lungs. The constant assumption
of one position or the keeping of one part of the body still, may
indicate paralysis. When, however, a cry attends a forcible
change of position, it shows that the child was still because
movement caused pain.

Sleeping with the mouth open and the head thrown back often
attends chronic enlargement of the tonsils and the presence of
adenoid growths in young children, although it may be seen in
other affections which make breathing difficult. In inflammation
of the brain the head is often drawn far back and held stiffly
so. Sometimes, too, in this disease the child lies upon one side
with the back arched, the knees drawn up, and the arms crossed
over the chest. A constant burying of the face in the pillow or
in the mother's lap occurs in severe inflammation of the eyes.


GESTURES

The gestures are often indicative of disease. Babies frequently
place the hands near the seat of pain; thus in slight
inflammation of the mouth they tend to put the hand in the mouth;
in earache to move it to the ear; and in headache to raise it to
the head. In headache or in affections of the brain they
sometimes pluck at the hair or the ears, although they may often
do this when there is no such trouble. Picking at the nose or at
the opening of the bowel is seen in irritation of the intestine
from worms or oftener from other cause. A child with a painful
disease of its chest may sometimes place its hand on its abdomen,
or a hungry child try to put its fists into its mouth.

In approaching convulsions the thumbs are often drawn tightly
into the palms of the hands and the toes are stiffly bent or
straightened. Very young babies, however, tend to do this,
although healthy. The alternate doubling up and straightening of
the body, with squirming movements, making of fists, kicking, and
crying, are indications of colic. This is especially true if the
symptoms come on suddenly and disappear as suddenly, perhaps
attended by the expulsion of gas from the bowel.


SKIN COLOR

The color of the skin is often altered in disease. It is yellow
in jaundice, and is bluish, especially over the face, in
congenital heart disease. There is a purplish tint around the
eyes and mouth, with a prominence of the veins of the face, in
weakly children or in those with disordered digestion. A pale
circle around the mouth accompanies nausea. The skin frequently
acquires an earthy hue in chronic diarrhea, and is pale in any
condition in which the blood is impoverished, as in Bright's
disease, rickets, consumption, or any exhausted state. Flushing
of the face accompanies fever, but besides this there is often
seen a flushing without fever in older children the subjects of
chronic disorders of digestion. Sudden flushing or paling is
sometimes seen in disease of the brain.


FACIAL EXPRESSION

The expression of the face varies with the disease. In whooping
cough and measles the face is swollen and somewhat flushed,
giving the child a heavy, stupid expression. There is also
swelling of the face, especially about the eyes, in Bright's
disease. Repeated momentary crossing of the eyes often indicates
approaching convulsions. In very severe acute diarrhea it is
astonishing with what rapidity the face will become sunken and
shriveled, and so covered with deep lines that the baby is almost
unrecognizable. The same thing occurs more slowly in the
condition commonly known as marasmus. Often the face has an
expression of distress in the beginning of any serious disease.
If the edges of the nostrils move in and out with breathing, we
may suspect some difficulty of respiration, such as attends
pneumonia. The baby sleeps with its eyes half open in exhausted
conditions or when suffering pain.


THE HEAD

The head exhibits certain noteworthy features. Excessive
perspiration when sleeping is an early symptom of rickets. It
must be remembered, however, that any debilitated child may
perspire more or less when asleep. Both in rickets and in
hydrocephalus (water on the brain) the face seems small and the
head large, but in the former the head is square and flat on top,
while in the latter it is of a somewhat globular shape. The
fontanelle is prominent and throbs forcibly in inflammation of
the brain, is too large in rickets and hydrocephalus, bulges in
the latter affection, and sometimes sinks in conditions with only
slight debility.


THE CHEST

The chest exhibits a heaving movement with a drawing in of the
spaces between the ribs in any disease in which breathing is
difficult. A chicken-breasted chest is seen in Pott's disease of
the spine, and to some extent in bad cases of enlargement of the
tonsillar tissue; a "violin-shaped" chest in rickets; a bulging
of one side in pleurisy with fluid; and a long, narrow chest,
with a general flattening of the upper part, in older children
predisposed to consumption.


THE ABDOMEN

The abdomen is swollen and hard in colic. It is also much
distended with gas in rickets, and is constantly so in chronic
indigestion in later childhood. It is usually much sunken in
inflammation of the brain or in severe exhausting diarrhea or
marasmus. It may be distended with liquid in some cases of
dropsy.


THE CRY

The study of the cry furnishes one of the most valuable means of
learning what ails a baby. A persistent cry may be produced by
the intense, constant itching of eczema.

The paroxysmal cry, very severe for a time and then ceasing
absolutely, is probably due to colic, particularly if accompanied
by the distention of the abdomen and the movements of the body
already referred to. A frequent, peevish, whining cry is heard in
children with general poor health or discomfort. A single shrill
scream uttered now and then is often heard in inflammation of the
brain. In any disease in which there is difficulty in getting
enough air into the lungs, as in pneumonia, the cry is usually
very short and the child cries but little, because it cannot hold
its breath long enough for it. A nasal cry occurs with cold in
the head.

A short cry immediately after coughing indicates that the cough
hurts the chest. Crying when the bowels are moved shows that
there is pain at that time. A child of from two to six years,
waking at night with violent screaming, is probably suffering
from night terrors. In conditions of very great weakness and
exhaustion the baby moans feebly, or it may twist its face into
the position for crying, but emit no sound at all. This latter is
also true in some cases of inflammation of the larynx, while in
other cases the cry is hoarse or croupy. Crying when anything
goes into the mouth makes one suspect some trouble there. If it
occurs with swallowing, it is probable that the throat is
inflamed.

With the act of crying there ought always to be tears in children
over three or four months of age. If there are none, serious
disease is indicated, and their reappearance is then a good sign.


COUGHING

The character of the cough is also instructive. A frequent, loud,
nearly painless cough, at first tight and later loose, is heard
in bronchitis. A short, tight, suppressed cough, which is
followed by a grimace, and, perhaps, by a cry, indicates some
inflammation about the chest, often pneumonia. There is a brazen,
barking, "croupy" cough in spasmodic croup. In inflammation of
the larynx, including true croup, the cough may be hoarse,
croupy, or sometimes almost noiseless.

The cough of whooping cough is so peculiar that it must be
described separately when considering this disease. Then there
are certain coughs which are purely nervous or dependent upon
remote affections. Thus the so-called "stomach cough" is caused
by some irritation of the stomach or bowels. It is not nearly so
frequent as mothers suppose. Irritation about the nose or the
canal of the ears sometimes induces a cough in a similar way.
Enlarged tonsils or elongated palate or throat irritation may
also produce a cough.

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