Too much importance can not be attached to the absolute cleanliness that should be observed in the care of the child.
Many mothers are very particular that the young baby shall have his morning bath; but as he grows older, it is dropped, the mother not realizing that the daily bath will add tone and vigor to a child at two years as much as at two months.
I recall an unusually robust, rosy-cheeked little maiden whose mother was thus reaping the results of hygienic carefulness. Instead of dropping the practise of daily bathing her, as mothers often do, she gradually lowered the temperature of the water used, until the little thing was getting a brisk, short, cold bath every morning. She loved it, and began calling for it as soon as she awoke, and was able to take it herself by the time she could dress herself. I wish every child might have the benefit of so vigorous a beginning of the day—not occasionally, but every morning.
If in addition to the daily cold bath, the child has a warm soap bath once or twice a week, the skin will be kept in a healthy condition and can do its part of eliminating poisons; and further, the tendency to take frequent colds is almost entirely overcome. Isn’t it worth our while?
Rest for the Infant
If a child is normal and well, the first month or two is spent almost entirely in sleep; and that sleep should be undisturbed except for feeding, necessary care, and change of position.
The displaying of the “new little darling” to fond relatives and curious neighbors is not nearly so essential as that its sleep be undisturbed. In many households the baby is the toy with which the different members of the family in turn amuse and entertain themselves. They rock it or toss it about or tickle it to display its dimples, until the poor little thing hardly knows what real rest for body and nerves means. When the habit of so much rocking and carrying is once formed, like other bad habits it is easier learned than unlearned.
The Mother and the Child
On the other hand, if the babe is fed when it should be, kept clean, warm, and comfortable, and its position occasionally changed, and then it be allowed to lie undisturbed on the bed or in its crib, it is less nervous and far less troublesome. In fact it will not care to be rocked to sleep any more than you and I care to be tossed about when our sleepy time arrives.
The nap in the daytime should be insisted upon just as long as the child can be induced to take it, and after that a midday rest or relaxation with the little body in a perfectly horizontal position will do much to strengthen the developing nervous system.
The evening retiring hour is a matter of much importance, and never should be interfered with except upon the rarest occasions and under very unusual circumstances.
Perhaps under normal conditions this schedule of retiring hours might be adopted:
Children under 6 years, 6:30-7:00
“ “ 12 “ 7:30-8:00
“ “ 16 “ 8:30-9:00
If these hours are strictly adhered to, the little children will spend the evening in bed sweetly sleeping, and will never learn the sweets (!) of playing on the streets after dark with other neglected children; and the mother will have a free, restful time for reading.
It often requires a great deal of perseverance to interrupt the evening frolic and fun and insist on the observance of bedtime rules; but it is certainly worth the while for the child to get its ten or twelve hours of undisturbed sleep, and awake refreshed and ready to breakfast with the family, a complete circle at the morning meal; and also worth the while to form the lifelong habit of “early to bed and early to rise.”
If allowed to retire whenever fancy dictates and to arise when the late napping is over, some one, perhaps the tired mother, is put to the inconvenience of serving an extra breakfast; and thus is begun the habit of being waited upon. The earlier a child is taught not only to avoid making extra work, but to bear its little share of the family burdens, the more responsible and valuable man or woman it will make in after life.
[The fourth article on the Health of the Child—“Clothing”—will appear in two weeks, our issue of November 10.]
