DIET

29. _Are you an advocate for putting a baby to the breast soon after
birth, or for waiting, as many do, until the third day_?

The infant ought to be put to the bosom soon after birth, the
interest, both of the mother and of the child demands it. It will be
advisable to wait three or four hours, that the mother may recover
from her fatigue, and, then, the babe must be put to the breast. If
this be done, he will generally take the nipple with avidity.

It might be said, at so early a period that there is no milk in the
bosom; but such is not usually the case. There generally is a
_little_ from the very beginning, which acts on the baby's bowels like
a dose of purgative medicine, and appears to be intended by nature to
cleanse the system. But, provided there be no milk at first, the very
act of sucking not only gives the child a notion, but, at the same
time, causes a draught (as it is usually called) in the breast, and
enables the milk to flow easily.

Of course, if there be no milk in the bosom--the babe having been
applied once or twice to determine the fact--then you must wait for a
few hours before applying him again to the nipple, that is to say,
until the milk be secreted.

An infant, who, for two or three days, is kept from the breast, and
who is fed upon gruel, generally becomes feeble, and frequently, at
the end of that time, will not take the nipple at all. Besides, there
is a thick cream (similar to the biestings of a cow), which, if not