CONCERNING BABIES by Susan F. Howe

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 22, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 43.

CONCERNING BABIES.

By Susan F. Howe

The advice has recently been given, “Do not take your baby in your arms when you are nervous.” If this is true when baby is well, it must be insisted upon when baby is sick. You have doubtless heard a loving, devoted mother say of a child that has died, “I did not let her go out of my arms from the time she was taken sick.” The mother's instinct makes her feel that her child is safest in her arms. It takes courage for a mother to leave a sick child in its bed, but there are times when a child must not be lifted out of its bed for days, and then only taken into the arms on its mattress.

Some mothers treat their babies as little girls do their pet kittens—tend them to death. Above all things, do not pat a sick child. Would you like some one to sit by and hit you on the back for hours at a time when you are weak and suffering? Yet gentle, loving mothers inflict this cruelty upon their helpless darlings. Every one can not always have good judgment, and in times of great emotional strain it seems cruel and hard to speak of cold reason, yet it is possible for the most impulsive of us to cultivate a habit of good sense in matters where life and health are at stake, and so acquire “sweet reasonableness.”—Susan F. Howe.