View report page

52
most cases is more fancied than real and may be easily overcome.
When once a mother has been persuaded to put her baby in a suitable
cot she never has one in her bed again.
A very large percentage of infants are breast-fed during the first
months of life, but it is very doubtful how many of these children get
only the breast. Many of them get sugar, treacle, or condensed milk
on the so-called " comforters," which are very doubtful blessings, and
in many cases are certainly injurious owing to the dirty condition in
which they are kept. There is still a fondness for "boiled bread,"
particularly amongst mothers of large families or the young mothers
who are themselves survivors of large families fed in infancy in this
manner.
The long-tube bottle, although not entirely a thing of the past is
not so much in evidence now, but it will continue in favour with the
mother who objects to the trouble of feeding her infant.
It is difficult in some cases to make the mothers understand that
it is not kindness, but cruelty, to give the baby a bit of "anything
that's going" as it is often expressed, indeed it is useless to hope for
reform on this point in some instances.