PEDIATRICS Vol. 47 No. 2 February 1971, pp. 390
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by C., T. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by C., T. E., Jr.

DIETARY PAMPERING OF ENGLISH CHILDREN IN 1754 AND THE PHYSICIAN'S MALEVOLENT ROLE IN CHILD HEALTH, ACCORDING TO THE HONORABLE MRS. SEYMOUR

T. E. C. Jr. M.D.

Mothers in the past were no less interested in books about child care than are today's mothers. Any collector of books of this genre will soon find his bookshelves completely filled with eighteenth and nineteenth century items.

The most striking characteristic of these earlier predecessors of Doctors Spock and Gesell was their emphasis on the connection between daily tactics and moral strategy; practical advice was never given without constant doses of moral lessons as the excerpt below will prove:

In England there is one general Method of spoiling Children; it is by foolish Indulgencies. The Observation is a very common one; but those who make it do not know half its Force: It is not only that by these Indulgencies we make them peevish and tyranical (sic); though this were enough: we lay the Foundation of Ill Health, and bad Habits; and by that single Fault of pampering them in their Diet, we entail upon them Diseases, and we rob them of that Chearfulness (sic) of Disposition which is so amiable and so agreeable; for it depends, as already said, on Health.

If we look into the Generality of Families in which there are Children we shall find them eating ten Times a-day, and drinking all Day long. At their regular meals they eat what is improper. There are some few, who, to avoid this, run into the contrary Extreme, while the rest feed them immoderately, they starve them. One sees the first of these Faults universal; the other is met withal among some few Families of Quality.