It is erroneous to suppose that women
when nursing require to be much more highly fed than at other times: a
good nurse does not need this, and a bad one will not be the better for
it. The quantity which many nurses eat and drink, and the indolent life
which they too often lead, have the effect of deranging their digestive
organs, and frequently induce a state of febrile excitement, which
always diminishes, and even sometimes altogether disperses, the milk.
It will be necessary then to guard against the nurse overloading her
stomach with a mass of indigestible food and drink. She should live as
much as possible in the manner to which she has been accustomed; she
should have a wholesome, mixed, animal and vegetable diet, and a
moderate and somewhat extra quantity of malt liquor, provided it agree
with her system.
A very prevailing notion exists that porter tends to produce a great
flow of milk, and in consequence the wet-nurse is allowed as much as
she likes; a large quantity is in this way taken, and after a short
time so much febrile action excited in the system, that instead of
increasing the flow of milk, it diminishes it greatly. Some parents,
however, aware of this fact, will go into an opposite extreme, and
refuse the nurse even that which is necessary.
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