With Your Baby... His Food, His Company, His Health, and His Bath

1 — Science is marching on in your service, Madam; so consider this progress since your grandmother's day. She had none of these modern means, and often the child would suffer or fall ill from the vessels in which his food was brought; but the mother of today knows that by following the doctor's directions in feeding her child, and by sterilizing the utensils by boiling them over the fire, she secures her child against illness or death.

2 — Layla has passed three months of age, and she can now take other foods alongside milk. Her mother has begun by giving her fruit, to be followed later by meat and vegetables.

The mother prepares a variety of foods and leaves the choice to the little girl: she gives her a little taste on a spoon, and if she approves, that kind is served to her; if not, she replaces it with another.

3 — You can glimpse the marks of tenderness and cheer on the mother's face. She is nursing the baby, and in doing so she is carrying out nature's own feeding, which she finds a pleasure not to be exchanged for any other.

4 — In her time alone... yet she has something to delight her eyes: it is the toy that every child prefers.

5 — Like every child, Layla's head in the first months is covered by a thin layer of skin; the mother takes care to wash it, then rubs it with oil — and here it is, the layer has vanished... so no fear of the bath from now on!

6 — The time every mother adores. Everything is clean and sweet-smelling, and Layla seizes the chance to free her little body from the weight of clothes, so she plays and frolics. Bath oil is essential in cleansing the body, and powder keeps the skin from chapping.

7 — The doctor examines Layla's gums, to make certain they are free of inflammation or disease.