The infant must be brought up on the breast, and if the mother is not of a decidedly healthy and robust constitution, she must obtain a wet-nurse possessing such qualifications.  The breast-milk, and nothing beside, must form the nutriment of the child for at least nine months; and if the infant is delicate or strumous, it will be prudent to continue it even six months longer.  When the period arrives for the substitution of artificial food, it must be carefully selected; it must be appropriate to the advancing age of the child; nutritious and unirritating.  Good air and daily exercise, and the bath or sponging, are of much importance; in short, all those general measures which have a tendency to promote and maintain the tone and general health of the system, and thus induce a vigorous and healthy constitution, and to which reference has been so fully made in the first chapter of this work, must be strictly regarded and followed out by the parent.

The condition of the digestive organs must be the mother’s especial care.  Costiveness must be guarded against; and if at any time the secretions from the bowels indicate the presence of derangement, the medical attendant must be applied to, that appropriate remedies may without delay be exhibited.  Their disordered condition is frequently productive of head-disease.  Again and again have I clearly traced the origin of the complaint, of which I am now writing, as more immediately resulting from disorder of the digestive apparatus.  To a child thus predisposed to water in the head, the healthy state of these organs is not only of first consequence, but any deviation from health to be dreaded, to be immediately attended to, and guarded against in future; and, as there is a great liability to these attacks at the time of weaning, the above remarks especially apply to that period, when due attention must be particularly paid to the plan of diet adopted.

During teething the mother must be especially watchful, for it is at this time that the disease so commonly appears; the irritation produced by this process being a frequent exciting cause.  Every thing, therefore, that will tend to allay excitement of the system, must be strictly enforced, as well as all causes avoided, which would produce derangement of the stomach and bowels.  The head should be kept cool.  For this purpose it must be sponged night and morning throughout the whole period of teething; a horse-hair pillow used in the cot; and nothing but a light straw hat should be worn, except in winter, The diet should be moderate, and carefully regulated after leaving the breast, and the child should be as much as possible in the open air.  The mouth must be occasionally examined, and if the gums become hot or distended, they must be scarified or lanced, as may be advised.  If the parent finds at any time an unusual heat about the head, the medical man must be at once consulted; or if there is watchfulness or indisposition to sleep at the proper periods, or frequent startings in the sleep, irritability of temper, and much crying, danger should be apprehended, and prompt and judicious means employed.