If greater care were paid to the rules of health, such as attention to
diet, exercise in the open air, thorough ablution of the _whole_
body--more especially when he is being washed--causing the water, from
a large and well-filled sponge, to stream over the lower part of his
bowels; the regular habit of causing him, at stated periods, to be
held out, whether he want or not, that he may solicit a stool. If all
these rules were observed, costiveness would not so frequently
prevail, and one of the miseries of the nursery would be done away
with.

Some mothers are frequently dosing their poor unfortunate babes either
with magnesia to cool them, or with castor oil to heal their bowels!
Oh, the folly of such practices! The frequent repetition of magnesia,
instead of cooling an infant, makes him feverish and irritable. The
constant administration of castor oil, instead of healing the bowels,
wounds them beyond measure. No! it would be a blessed thing if a babe
could be brought up without giving ham a particle of opening medicine;
his bowels would then act naturally and well: but then, as I have just
now remarked, a mother, must be particular in attending to Nature's
medicines--to fresh air, to exercise, to diet, to thorough ablution,
&c. Until that time comes, poor unfortunate babies must be,
occasionally, dosed with an aperient.

97. _What are the causes of, and remedies for, Flatulence_?

Flatulence most frequently occurs in those infants who live on
_artificial_ food, especially if they be over-fed. I therefore beg to
refer you to the precautions I have given, when speaking of the
importance of keeping a child for the first five or six months