Masturbation Is a Bad Habit: An Era Gone By

Lovely article. As a single mom, I learned to give baths in a jiffy. Fast and effective. I never bought a bath tub and instead sanitized the kitchen sink and bathed baby in there. Lots of it is part of my culture and perhaps 'dangerous' to some. Never soaped my child's face either. Plain water. In this mobile and fast-paced days, being a single working momma, I'd never accomplish anything if I followed instructions, recipes or lists lol.

I enjoy reading your posts about the history of care. I also wonder what advancements will occur over my lifetime. What will we look back and frown upon as being dangerous ignorance?

This article reminded me of the many kids I have taken care of bathed, and have explored while bathing...I always wondered what nurses of a different era would've though to such "exploring". Great article!

I cringed when I read toothpick. I was like "what is that for?" then I realized q-tips were brand new back then so not everyone could afford them and just cringed; of course it happened, nice ruptured ear drum (and was the cotton still stuck in there? Hello infection.).

Quote from xoemmylouoxI enjoy reading your posts about the history of care. I also wonder what advancements will occur over my lifetime. What will we look back and frown upon as being dangerous ignorance?

Years ago I found a small book that was given to my grandma to take to the doctor when my dad needed checkups. My dad was born in 1953. It had weekly tips and instructions. My grandma wrote in other instructions given to her by the doctor that were specific to my dad's needs or her questions. One of the things in the book was to start feeding a baby finely pureed meats and egg yolks by age 6 weeks, and introducing pureed veggies by 2 months of age. Another talked about how mother's milk was inadequate and formula was better. It gave instructions on how to make the formula, which seemed to be lacking in a lot of nutrients compared to formula made today. It is probably why they had to supplement with the pureed foods. It gave instructions to always wear a clean apron when feeding the baby its bottles. Overall quite fascinating stuff. Also, referring to the title of the article, preventing masturbation was one of the main reasons circumcisions became so popular in Victorian times and became a routine procedure for the educated upper class. Masturbation was thought to lead to mental illness and moral failings. It also defined the upper class from lower class, who could not afford the procedure or didn't see why it was necessary. This is aside, of course, from the minority religious groups who saw it a necessary part of their religious practices.

I have a great collection of vintage books, many of which are medically oriented. From The Care of the Baby, by J.P. Crozer Griffith MD 1905:In this connection we may leave for a moment the exercise of the body-muscles in general to consider the training of certain others--namely, those which control the emptying of the bladder and the bowels. By the time it is three months old the baby becomes conscious of these acts, and even before this early age its education may be begun. It is most liable to empty its bladder soon after a meal, and to open its bowels with some regularity as to time. If the mother will hold it over a receptacle on her lap a little while before either evacuation is expected, the child will very gradually learn to recognize the purpose of the procedure and will act accordingly. As the baby grows old enough to sit up, even though partially supported, it may be placed in the nursery chair at the proper time, and always with the greatest regularity as to the hour. Patience and perseverance will accomplish the desired teaching at last. It scarcely need be remarked that punishment for delinquencies in this line is totally out of the question at any age. Of course, children differ in the rapidity with which they learn this control. Many have accomplished it by the age of a year: most should have done so by eighteen months of age; all ought to have learned it by the end of the second year at latest, and some may be trusted during the day when six months old, or even consideraby less than this. The control is always decidedly less during the night.

Nice title to draw us all in...Great article. My mother the nurse would clean out my ears and bellybutton with a Q-tip- hard! And loaded me with TALC- now all powder is corn starch based. On hot nights I had the treat of being doused in Jean Nate- which in those days was pure rubbing alcohol.I had baths in the sink, my kids had the plastic bath tub. No car seats.It will be interesting to see how our practices will be viewed in 40 years.An aside:My boys were allowed to "touch it" whenever they wanted, but as they got older I told them they had to go in private if they wanted to touch it. My then 3 year old said "MOM, I want to TOUCH my WINKY!" went in to the bathroom for 2 seconds and came out, yelling "DONE!"*facepalm*

Quote from xoemmylouoxWhat will we look back and frown upon as being dangerous ignorance?

I'm not that old...really. There were no car seats used when my sister and I grew up, we didn't use seat belts and cars weren't air conditioned so during summer trips there were my dads cigarette ashes and random papers flying all over the car. Dad also always had a beer open after he was done with coffee. We took an over 3000 mile round trip to the Grandparents every summer, looking back it's kind of miracle nothing bad ever happened.

As a new Mom 25+ years ago, my "helpful" mother in law told me that my cat would suck all the air of my baby's lungs and suffocate him! She also said that a fan blowing on a baby would cause the infant to have a heart attack!

Butter on burns?