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LACTATION AND MANAGEMENT OF INFANTS. 453
CHAPTER XXIX.
LACTATION AND THE MANAGEMENT OF INFANTS.
When the nurse takes the infant, it is covered with
a slimy matter, with more or less of a whitish substance,
not easy to remove. Some babies are much cleaner
than others, but all need a pretty thorough washing.
The water should be nearly blood-warm ; and it is best
to rub the skin all over first with some soft sweet oil,
especially in the folds of the skin. Wash them with
some fine, delicate soap and water, taking great care
not to get the soap-suds into the eyes.
The next thing is the dressing of the navel string.
Take a piece of old, fine, soft linen, fold it so as to
hand of four
make a piece as as large the palm of your
thicknesses, tear or cut a hole through the middle, so as
to draw the navel string through it. Put a thin linen
bandage over all, to keep it in place.
Now Mr. Baby is ready to be dressed. Its clothes
must be in every respect comfortable ; neither tight
euough to impede respiration, nor long enough to pre
vent its kicking about. Its arms and neck should be
covered, as well as its legs. The diaper should be
loose, so as not to chafe, and pinned with a patent safety
pin. Most poor babies are strangled, and fettered, and
frozen with their clothes.