exercise, sunlight and a well-balanced diet; but for the most part these were ignored, and parents instead listened to their parents and decided "If it was good enough for me, then it's good enough for him/her."
Though the baby carriage was invented in the 1840's, and made more popular when Queen Victoria purchased one, they were expensive and only enjoyed by wealthy families. Most children were carried about until they were old enough to walk, and while some experts encouraged creeping, most parents did not condone it, partly for sanitary reasons.
By 1894, Light on Dark Corners had this to say about teething and motherhood in general:
2. INFANT TEETHING - The first teeth generally make their appearance after the third month, and during the period of teething the child is fretful and restless, causing sometimes constitutional disturbances, such as diarrhoea, indigestion, etc. Usually, however, no serious results follow, and no unnecessary anxiety need be felt, unless the weather is extremely warm, then there is some danger of summer complaint setting in and seriously complicating matters.
3. THE NUMBER OF TEETH - Teeth are generally cut in pairs and make their appearance first in the front and going backwards until all are complete. It generally takes about two years for a temporary set of children's teeth. A child, two or three years old should have twenty teeth. After the age of seven they generally begin to loosen and fall out and permanent teeth take their place.
5. PERMANENT TEETH - The teeth are firmly inserted in sockets of the upper and lower jaw. The permanent teeth which follow the temporary teeth, when complete, are sixteen in each jaw, or thirty-two in all.
6. NAMES OF THE TEETH - There are four incisors (front teeth), four cuspids (eye teeth), four bicuspids (grinders), and four molars (large grinders), in each jaw. Each tooth is divided into the crown, body, and foot. The crown is the grinding surface; the body-the part projecting from the jaw is the seat of sensation and nutrition; the root is that portion of the tooth which is inserted in the alveolus. The teeth are composed of dentine (ivory) and enamel. The ivory forms the greater portion of the body and root, while the enamel covers the exposed surface. The small white cords communicating with the teeth are the nerves.
Many a Summer the grass has grown green,
Blossomed and faded, Our faces between;
Yet with strong yearning and passionate pain,
Long I tonight for your presence again.
-Elizabeth Akers Allen.
2. HER LOVE - Mother! ecstatic sound so twined round our hearts that they must cease to throb ere we forget it; 'tis our first love; 'tis part of religion. Nature has set the mother upon such a pinnacle that our infant eyes and arms are first uplifted to it; we cling to it in manhood; we almost worship it in old age.
3. HER TENDERNESS - Alas! how little do we appreciate a mother's tenderness while living. How heedless are we in youth of all her anxietjes and kindness! But when she is dead and gone, when the cares and coldness of the world Come withering to our hearts, when we experience for ourselves how hard it is to find true sympathy, how few to love us, how few will befriend us in misfortune, then it is that we think of the mother we have lost.
4. HER CONTROLLING POWER - The mother can take man's whole nature under her control. She becomes what she has been called," The Divinity of Infancy." Her smile is its sunshine, her word its mildest law, until sin and the world have steeled the heart.
6. HOME TIES - The young man or young woman, who love theIr home and love their mother, can be safely trusted under almost any and all circumstances, and their life will not be a blank, for they seek what is good. Their hearts will be ennobled, and God will bless them.
2. HOME MAKES THE MAN - It is a common saying, "Manners make the man;" and there is a second, that "Mind makes the man;" but truer than either is a third, that "Home makes the man." For the home-training includes not only manners and mind, but character. It is mainly in the home that the heart is opened, the habits are formed, attained, and character moulded for good or for evil.
4. THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN - The child's character is the nucleus of the man's; all after-education is but superposition; the form of the crystal remains the same. Thus the saying of the poet holds true in a large degree, "The child is father of the man;"or as Milton puts it," The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day." Those impulses to conduct which last the longest and are rooted the deepest, always have their origin near our birth. It is then that the germs of virtues or vices, of feelings or sentiments, are first implanted which determine the character of life.
5. NURSERIES - Thus homes, which are nurseries of children who grow up into men and women, will be good or bad according to the power that governs them. Where the spirit of love and duty pervades the home, where head and heart bear rule wisely there, where the daily life is honest and virtuous, where the government is sensible, kind, and loving, then may we expect from such a home an issue of healthy, useful, and happy beings, capable as they gain the requisite strength, of following the footsteps of their parents, of walking uprightly, governing themselves wisely, and contributing to the welfare of those about them.
6. IGNORANCE, COARSENESS AND SELFISHNESS - On the other hand, if surrounded by ignorance, coarseness, and selfishness, they will unconsciously assume the same character, and grow up to adult years rude, uncultivated, and all the more dangerous to society if placed amidst the manifold temptations of what is called civilized life. "Give your child to be educated by a slave," said an ancient Greek, " and, instead of one slave, you will then have two."
7. MATERNAL LOVE - Maternal love is the visible providence of our race. Its influence is constant and universal. It begins with the education of the human being at the outstart of life, and is prolonged by virtue of the powerful influence which every good mother exercises over her children through life When launched into the world, each to take part in its labors, anxieties, and trials, they still turn to their mother for consolation, if not for counsel, in their time of trouble and difficulty. The pure and good thoughts she has implanted in their minds when children continue to grow up into good acts long after she is dead, and when there is nothing but a memory of her left, her children rise up and call her blessed.
9. THE POOREST DWELLING - The Poorest Dwelling, presided over by a virtuous, thrifty, cheerful, and cleanly woman, may thus be the abode of comfort, virtue, and happiness; it may be the scene of every ennobling relation in family life; it may be endeared to man by many delightful associations; furnishing a sanctuary for the heart, a refuge from the storms of life, a sweet resting place after labor, a consolation in misfortune, a pride in prosperity, and a joy at all times.
10. THE GOOD HOME - Is thus the Best of Schools, not only in youth but in age. There young and old best learn cheerfulness, patience, self-control, and the spirit of service and of duty. The home is the true school of courtesy; of which woman is always the best practical instructor. "Without woman," says the Provencal proverb, "men were but ill-licked cubs." Philanthropy radiates from the home as from a centre. "To love the little platoon we belong to in society," said Burke," is the germ of all public affections." The wisest and best have not been ashamed to own it to be their greatest joy and happiness to sit "behind the heads of children" in the inviolable circle of home.
