Establishing the Health of the Child by Maria L. Edwards, M.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 6, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 39.

Establishing the Health of the Child

By Maria L. Edwards, M.D.

By Maria L. Edwards, M.D.

Heredity

NO ONE has ever yet been born with an overstock of vitality with which to run his human machine during life’s period; but many and many a one, by no fault of his own, has started out in life with deficient physical strength, that has handicapped his usefulness and pleasure, and given him an unequal struggle all through life.

Since health is the greatest temporal blessing that can attend us here below, what more important obligation could parents have resting upon them, than to make sure that their children have strong constitutions, well-developed bodies and minds, and, with all, moral power to resist temptation. The world is in crying need of children of this type to join the forces for good and to assist in the overthrow of vice and injustice.

When shall the work of establishing the health of the child be begun? Oliver Wendell Holmes said that the child is born in the lives of its ancestors two hundred years before it enters the world. If that is true, the law of heredity plays no uncertain part in the life of every human being, and is well worth taking into consideration.

Galton has estimated that one fourth of our inheritance is from each of our parents, one fourth from our four grandparents, and one fourth from our more remote ancestors. The Scriptures bear us out in attaching importance to the law of heredity, when they say that the iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation; and every physician knows that in order to get a clear understanding of his patient and be able rightly to judge of the probable outcome of the case, he must know the history of the parents, and, many times, of the grandparents as well.

The careful instruction given to the parents of men who were chosen of God to do a great work, as Moses, Samuel, Samson, John the Baptist, etc., also adds weight to the thought.

Good Common Sense Needed

If, in the matter of ancestry, men and women would manifest the good sense that is used by stock-growers, and remember that strong, well-developed children do not come from sickly, puny, exhausted parents, and learn to plan as generously for the human offspring as they do for the colts, calves, and pigs, there would at once be seen an improvement in the human stock.

The year that the mother horse bears a colt, she is not expected to carry on the regular heavy work of other years. I wonder what would happen if the human mother should be given as much rest from regular household duties and taxing cares, and have time to live out-of-doors, and to build herself up physically and mentally. Instead of this, many a mother has only the imperative three weeks, or possibly less, from work, and thereafter is expected to take not only her previous duties, but the added work of caring for the little newcomer.

Strange economy, isn’t it, when a few dollars, expended in hiring help during this year, would reap so abundant a harvest in the vitality and subsequent health of the little treasure that has come into the home? Not only is rest from hard labor and from taxing care beneficial, but it is also highly essential that the laws of hygiene be rigidly observed by the parents.

Out-of-doors as much as possible — day and night is none too much; undisturbed rest from 9:30 P.M. to 6:00 A.M.; exercise that is variable and mild, but not taxing; food that is nutritious, simply prepared, small variety at each meal, and taken regularly; six to eight glasses of water daily; clothing that is evenly distributed, supported from the shoulders, and which does not restrict the body — all are simple rules of hygiene that have long been advocated, and should be observed, especially at such times.

While it is impossible for any of us to improve our own ancestry, it does lie within the power of parents to make every possible provision for the strength and vigor of their posterity.