Chapter 2
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attention to the laws of their being, a much better condition of things
can be established.
The period in which the infant receives its nourishment from the
mother, is critical. Many mothers, while nursing their infants, have
been permitted to over labor, and to heat their blood in cooking, and the
nursling has been seriously affected, not only with fevered nourishment
from the mother’s breast, but its blood has been poisoned by the
unhealthy diet of the mother, which has fevered her whole system
thereby affecting the food of the infant. The infant will also be affected
by the condition of the mother’s mind. If she is unhappy, easily
agitated, irritable, giving vent to outbursts of passion, the nourishment
the infant receives from its mother, will be inflamed, often producing
colic, spasms, and, in some instances, causing convulsions and fits.
The character also of the child is more or less affected by the nature
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of the nourishment received from the mother. How important then that
the mother, while nursing her infant, should preserve a happy state of
mind, having the perfect control of her own spirit. By thus doing, the
food of the child is not injured, and the calm, self-possessed course the
mother pursues in the treatment of her child has very much to do in
molding the mind of the infant. If it is nervous, and easily agitated, the
mother’s careful unhurried manner will have a soothing and correcting
influence, and the health of the infant can be very much improved.
Infants have been greatly abused by improper treatment. If it was
fretful, it has generally been fed to keep it quiet, when, in most cases,
the very reason of its fretfulness was because of its having received
too much food, made injurious by the wrong habits of the mother.
More food only made the matter worse, for its stomach was already
overloaded.
Children are generally brought up from the cradle to indulge the
appetite, and are taught that they live to eat. The mother does much
toward the formation of the character of her children in their childhood.
She can teach them to control the appetite, or she can teach them to
indulge the appetite, and become gluttons. The mother often arranges
her plans to accomplish a certain amount through the day, and when
the children trouble her, instead of taking time to soothe their little
sorrows, and divert them, something is given them to eat, to keep them
still, which answers the purpose for a short time, but eventually makes
things worse. The children’s stomachs are pressed with food when