Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene; Infants -- Health and hygiene
Sleeping-rooms, are, generally, the smallest in the house, whereas,
for health's sake, they ought to be the largest If it be impossible to
have a _large_ bedroom, I should advise a parent to have a dozen or
twenty holes (each about the size of a florin) bored with a centre-bit
in the upper part of the chamber door, and the same number of holes in
the lower part of the door, so as constantly to admit a free current
of air from the passages. If this cannot readily be done, then let the
bedroom door be left ajar all night, a door chain being on the door to
prevent intrusion; and, in the summer time, during the night, let the
window-sash, to the extent of about two or three inches, be left open.
If there be a dressing-room next to the bedroom, it will be well to
have the dressing-room window, instead of the bedroom window, open at
night. The dressing-room door will regulate the quantity of air to be
admitted into the bedroom, opening it either little or much, as the
weather might be cold or otherwise.
_Fresh air during deep is indispensable to health._--If a bedroom be
close, the sleep, instead of being calm and refreshing, is broken and
disturbed; and the boy, when he awakes in the morning, feels more
fatigued than when he retired to rest.
If sleep is to be refreshing, the air, then, must be pure, and free
from carbonic acid gas, which, is constantly being evolved from the
lungs. If sleep is to be health-giving, the lungs ought to have their
proper food--oxygen, and not to be cheated by giving them instead a
poison--carbonic acid gas.
It would be well for each boy to have a separate room to himself, and
each girl a separate room to herself. If two boys are obliged, from
the smallness of the house, to sleep in one room, and if two girls,
from the same cause, are compelled to occupy the same chamber, by all
means let each one have a _separate_ bed to himself and to herself, as
it is so much more healthy and expedient for both boy and girl to
sleep alone.
The roof of the bed should be left open--that is to say, the top of
the bedstead ought not to be covered with bed furniture, but should be
open to the ceiling, in order to encourage a free ventilation of
air. A bed-curtain may be allowed on the side of the bed where there
are windy currents of air; otherwise bed-curtains and valances ought
on no account to be allowed. They prevent a free circulation of the
air. A youth should sleep on a horse-hair mattress. Such mattresses
greatly improve the figure and strengthen the frame. During the day
time, provided it does not rain, the windows must be thrown wide open,
and, directly after he has risen from bed, the clothes ought to be
thrown entirely back, in order that they may become, before the bed be
made, well ventilated and purified by the air--
"Do yon wish to be healthy?--
Then keep the home sweet,
As soon as you're up
Shake each blanket and sheet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account