The truth about the baby. Tubercular troubles, how to grow fat, also overcome disease

Chap. 3. Pregnancy: The Morning Sickness 22

Quickening Period 22

Changes in System and Disposition ... 23

Rest, Bathing and Exercise 24

Care of Vagina 24

Urine 24

Constipation 25

Care of the Teeth 26

Enlargement of the Abdomen 27

Duration of Pregnancy 27

Sex of Child 27

Preface

A MOTHER'S DEVOTION

Every human being lias traits and tastes for certain work in life. Many miss their true vocation, either through the influence of others or through lack of finances, and are compelled to go through life handicapped. Some of these at a later time may manage to reach the proper path; others are doomed to disappointment and failure.

Especially is this true of the real physician. True physicians are born, not made, and a man or woman may graduate from some large medical college laden down with technical knowledge and still lack the practical knowledge of how to heal the sick. Education is clearly one thing, the natural-born trait clearly another.

Almost from the time of my earliest memory begins, I was determined to be a physician, so that I could help the sick and sufi'ering. When a child, my favorite pastime was that of playing doctor, bundling my small brother up in old shawls, and giving him bread pills and doses of water from an old bottle. Women and children appealed to me especially.

To train as a nurse, I entered St. Lake's hospital, Denver, Colo., at the age of 18 years. I intended to enter some medical college in the East after my graduation there, to take up diseases of women and children. I believed that in order to make a successful physician, a thorough training in care of the sick would be an essential factor and I set out to acquire the practical experience necessary. Soon after entering St. Luke's, I was given full charge of a large ward ; and worked so hard that my health began to fail and I was obliged to go on a vacation.

Shortly after entering upon this vacation, I met Mr.

Alberty, and being young, foolish and in love, I married. My husband would not listen to my continuing my studies further, and although I was obliged to give them up for a time, as I grew older the longing seemed to grow in intensity. HaYing begun to raise a family, however, I could not see my way clear.

When my first baby was born, I felt that I was wellequipped to raise him to healthy manhood. The natural mother instinct, as well as the training I had received in the hospital should surely prove sufficient. As I had plenty of milk, there was no difficulty about the feeding question; and he grew naturally into a beautiful, healthy boy. There was but little to be learned, for there was no trouble, and when everything runs smooth there is no knowledge to be gained.

Belladonna was used to dry up the abundant supply of milk, and this medicine ruined the mammary glands and forever spoiled all future prospects for me in nursing my offspring. Great as this misfortune Avas to me, it has proved to be a great blessing to others, and I have been enabled to save many little lives, because it was necessary for me to solve the bottle-baby problem.

When next baby came, trouble began. My mother instinct, as well as my hospital training, proved to be of little use after all ; they could not save my poor, suffering baby. He was placed in the care of the best physicians, who did everything they could, but without any success. Cow's milk in nearly every form was tried; baby foods of different brands were attempted, and failed. I grew desperate and almost frantic, as I saw my poor baby dying by inches, suffering the tortures of the starving, and yet powerless to relieve him..

He grew thinner daily, more hungry and miserable ; his feedings were cut down to smaller and smaller amounts — "dieted," it was called. I made desperate appeals to the doctor to put forth every effort to save my boy, and it seemed to me that for a poor helpless baby to die in that manner was one of the most agonizing deaths any human being could experience.

Experiments, were tried, first one and then another..

I learned much in the line of research, but my heart grew sick and tired of it all. I felt that if I could have been a ijhysician I would surely have spent my life in looking up a food that the weakest, frailest stomach could digest. Why was all this experimenting? Surely, there was some way beside it! But the truth did not begin to dawn on me until it was too late, when my poor, mistreated baby was far beyond all human aid.

Then I was a sadder and wiser woman. My heart went out in love and sympathy to every suffering baby in the world. There was a determination to find in some way a food that every baby could thrive on. I felt that if I could only accomplish that, I would do more good in the world than even as a physician, for in the latter case I could reach only those in my immediate vicinity. From a light-hearted, care-free woman I passed into a serious, determined one. Believing that God had put in the world everything for our good, and a remedy for every ill, I prayed as only a desperate mother can pray for guidance and wisdom in my search. I knew that all my succeeding babies would have to be raised on the bottle ; and also that I had not the grace to go through with many such experiences as that I had just encountered.

Consulting with the best physicians, I found some very indifferent, while some took it as a matter of course that a large majority of babies were born only to die through lack of nourishment. There was a lack of interest and concern ; so much so that I was aroused to the fullest extent, and concluded that if others felt as strong on the subject as I did, the world would be turned upside down to find the food that I was looking for. The indifference I had met only made me more determined than ever. I cannot tell here of my efforts and struggles; I can only say there was an undying hope.

My third boy was born, and the rounds began. At once he was placed under the care of an excellent, conscientious physician, but we soon saw the baby was going just as the other boy. At the end of a trying^ l'^ THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BABY

agonizing dav, I felt that I must do something desperate. I had stood all a human being could ; I meant business. The next day I consulted with my physician, and he told me frankly that he had done all he could. He told me of the thousands of babies that had died through malnutrition. I left his office determined that I would take my child's case into my own hands and if he died, it would be because no earthly power could save him.

I had become pretty Avell versed in the experimenting business, and I thought I would like to try a little along a new line. As my baby had just had a course of the old, tried-out method on which so many thousands had died, I felt that something new might possibly give results. So I began to put little scraps of knowledge together and was determined to profit by all past experiences. I went back to some of the old modes, making variations here and there. Finally an idea came to me, which I tested out and obtained excellent results. It was far from being perfect, yet was a start in the right direction.

In my study of foods I found certain ones Avhich gave different results. Some of these ingredients I combined in a way that proved to be highly scientific. At the time it was nothing but pure ignorance on my part. The combination worked to perfection. Careful study still Avas needed to balance everything, so that any baby could thrive on the new food; but I was successful.

To say that I was jubilant would be expressing it very mildly. Love and determination had won at last ; I felt that every mother in the country would rejoice, and every physician would welcome my discovery.

Yet when I announced what I had and what it would do, the unexpected happened. I was called crazy ; told frankly that I Avould be in the insane asylum inside of six months. My neighbors all felt sorry, and tried to reason with me. Some said I was a quack; some said my food was doped ; while everyone looked on me with suspicion.

On meeting a few mothers with starving, dying

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BAliY 13

babies, I made an appeal for the sake of the little babies. I foiiud the mother iuditferent, and I was either told phiinly to mind my own business, or that the baby was under the care of a specialist. Still it was plain to be seen that the baby Ayas starying just the same.

Finally I was almost ready to giye up in disgust, but decided to put forth a last effort; the old determination to win or die was still there ; I had gone through too much to giye up in this manner. Surely, I thought, there Ayere mothers who were desperate as I once AA'as, so desperate that I Ayould gladly haA^e gone a thousand miles with my baby, had I but heard of any one who could help it.

I placed an ad or announcement in one of the Seattle newspapers. A fcAA^ mothers ansAyered, most of them cases giA^en up as hopeless ; and the poor mothers came to me as a last resort. Such a miserable, desperate band of helpless babies and hopeless mothers — skeptical, unbelieying, suspicious ! Hoaa' happy I was, now that I could atone a little for my baby.

Eyery one of those babies I brought to perfect health and flesh. The grateful mothers told others, my success was without a parallel, in fact, miraculous. All that came to me were desperate, hopeless cases. My reputation became established; my food was in demand.

Hearing of the thousands of babies dying in New York and of the great efforts being put forth to saA^e them, and of the physicians who Ayere working so brayely, spending their liyes in behalf of them, I decided to go there. I felt that surely, AA^hen there Ayas such interest in behalf of them, I could get some people to try my new food now, as it had been proyen that it would do all that was claimed for it, and more, time after time.

On consulting some of the physicians and nurses in New York, I was told that no baby foods were used — merelA' modified cow's milk. If that failed, eyerything else, they said, surely would; and they absolutely refused to giye any food whatsoeyer a trial.

No wonder the babies die, I said to myself, by the thousands, when there is no mode of combining cow's milk, top milk, lime water and sugar of milk so as to decrease to any extent the size of the natural curd of the cow's milk!

I visited some of the infants' hospitals and saAv so many starving, dying babies that I begged and pleaded to be allowed to save just a few. Surely, it seemed to me, when death was to claim some of them so soon, I would be permitted to help a few; but I was refused.

A friend — a noted surgeon in New York — said to me : "Mrs. Alberty, go home and forget it. You have a noble purpose, but it's no use. I should be glad to help you, but being a surgeon, baby foods are out of my line. These New York physicians will never listen to you. They are accustomed to seeing babies die like flies."

Meanwhile the baby food for which I had striven so hard, was fast gaining a foothold in the Avest. Many physicians were recommending it, and I was successful, as far as it went. But there still remained that same old longing which had grown up with me from childhood.

Mothers began to come to me to consult me in cases of pneumonia, cholera infantum, and other diseases. I was always able to help them, in fact, so much so that at last I determined to enter Hahnemann's Medical College at Chicago. At this time, hoAvever, the method of drugless healing was fast becoming so popular that I decided to look into it. I had seen failure after failure result from use of medicines, and I was looking for one of the most successful methods. I began a study of anatomy, physiology, and the more I pondered and looked into nature's ways, the more I was drawn to the drugless method.

I became a student of mechanotherapy, hydrotherapy (water cure), suggestive therapeutic, and osteopathy. I graduated from the American College of Mechano-Therapy, at Chicago, and received my diploma, joining the Washington Association of Drugless Phvsicians.

During this time I was successful in saving many infants' lives, and was looked upon as an authority on the subject of babies. To cure children of scurvy, rickets, cholera infantum, infectious diarrhoea, eczema, indigestion, infantile paralysis, pneumonia, bronchitis and the diseases of the stomach and intestines were every day occurrences.

I found that there is only one right way, and that way does not call for experimenting. The experimenting should come while the knowledge is being acquired ; but when it is acquired, the student should become a true specialist in every sense of the word.

It may seem a broad statement when I say most emphatically that I do not believe in the death of infants. Thousands are slaughtered yearly under the so-called scientific methods of breast feeding and bottle feeding. I can surely stand by my statement after ten years of successful treatment, including the bringing to health of hundreds of babies which had been given up as hopeless.

God put us here to live from infancy to old age. We are gradually coming back to nature, and studying her marvelous methods, putting aside much of man's wisdom and theories. We are learning to arouse activity in the functions of the body, knowing that "poor circulation brings poor health." Our bodies are made up of the food we eat, and nature never intended that we should be sick. Health is a natural law ; if we eat the right kind of food, breathe properly, drink the right amount of water and take the proper amount of exercise, we will be proof against disease, living to a hale, hearty old age, enjoying life to the last instead of desponding, becoming sick and gloomy, and waiting for death to free us from a miserable existence.

Copyrighted 1912 by Ada M. Alberty, M. T. D.

Notice.— All persons are warned against republishing the contents of this book, or any part thereof for any purpose whatsoever, without written authority.

ADA M. ALBERTY, M. T. D.