Marriage Relation
33
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
[125]
colic, spasms, and, in some instances, causing convulsions and fits.
The character also of the child is more or less affected by the nature
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 fretful,
they have generally been fed to keep them quiet, when, in most cases,
the very reason of their fretfulness was because of their having received
too much food, made injurious by the wrong habits of the mother. More
food only made the matter worse, for their stomachs were 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.
[126]
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 have been pressed with food,
when they had not the least want of it. All that was required was a
little of the mother’s time and attention. But she regarded her time as
altogether too precious to devote to the amusement of her children.
Perhaps the arrangement of her house in a tasteful manner for visitors