Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/95

 altogether. It causes at first a little trouble, but that trouble is amply repaid by the good consequences that ensue; among which must be named the dispensing with such incumbrances as diapers. Diapers frequently chafe, irritate, and gall the tender skin of a baby. But they cannot, of course, at an early age be dispensed with, unless a mother has great judgment, sense, tact, and perseverance, to bring her little charge into the habit of having the bowels relieved and the bladder emptied every time he is either held out or put upon his chair.

Before giving an infant a particle of aperient medicine, try, if the bowels are costive, the effect of a little raw sugar and water, either half a teaspoonful of raw sugar dissolved in a teaspoonful or two of water, or give him, out of your fingers, half a teaspoonful of raw sugar to eat. I mean by raw sugar, not the white, but the pure and unadulterated sugar, and which you can only procure from a respectable grocer. If you are wise, you will defer as long as you can giving an aperient. If you once begin, and continue it for awhile, opening medicine becomes a dire necessity, and then woe-betide the poor unfortunate child!

It might sometimes be necessary to give opening medicine, but the less frequently the better. The following, when it becomes absolutely necessary to give an aperient, are some of the best, simple, and safe that can be administered by a mother to her baby. I give you several, as it might be well, from time to time, to vary them: (1.) One or two teaspoonfuls of fluid magnesia, made palatable by the addition of a little sugar, may be chosen; or (2.) The popular remedy of syrup of rhubarb and castor oil:

Take of—Syrup of Rhubarb, Castor Oil, of each half an ounce:

To make a Mixture. A teaspoonful to be taken early in the morning, first well shaking the bottle.