Chapter 15—Feeding of Children
The Ministry of Healing, 383
The best food for the infant is the food that nature provides. Of
this it should not be needlessly deprived. It is a heartless thing for a
mother, for the sake of convenience or social enjoyment, to seek to
free herself from the tender office of nursing her little one.
The mother who permits her child to be nourished by another
should consider well what the result may be. To a greater or less
degree the nurse imparts her own temper and temperament to the
nursing child.
The Health Reformer, September 1, 1871 (Healthful Living,144)
It ever has appeared to me to be cold, heartless business for mothers
who can nurse their children to turn them from the maternal breast to
the bottle. But in case that it is necessary, the greatest care must be
exercised to have the milk from a healthy cow, and to have the bottle,
as well as the milk perfectly sweet. This is frequently neglected, and
as the result, the infant is made to suffer needlessly. Disturbances of
the stomach and bowels are liable to occur, and the much-to-be-pitied
infant becomes diseased, if it were healthy when born.
The Health Reformer, September 1, 1871 (Healthful Living,144)
Mothers sometimes depend upon a hireling.... A stranger performs
the duties of the mother, and gives from her breast the food to sustain
life. Nor is this all. She also imparts her temper and her temperament
to the nursing child. The child’s life is linked to hers. If the hireling
is a coarse type of woman, passionate and unreasonable; if she is not
careful in her morals, the nursling will be, in all probability, of the
same or similar type. The same quality of blood coursing in the veins
of the hireling nurse is in that of the child.
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