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
A growing girl requires _plenty_ of _good_ nourishment--as much as her
appetite demands, and if she have it not, she will become either
chlorotic, or consumptive, or delicate. Besides, _the greatest
beautifier in the world is health_, therefore, by a mother studying
the health of her daughter, she will, at the same time, adorn her body
with, beauty! I am sorry to say that too many parents think more of
the beauty than of the health of their girls. Sad and lamentable
infatuation! Nathaniel Hawthorne--a distinguished American--gives a
graphic description of a delicate young lady. He says--"She is one of
those delicate nervous young creatures not uncommon in New England,
and whom I suppose to have become what we find them by the gradually
refining away of the physical system among young women. Some
philosophers choose to glorify this habit of body by terming it
spiritual, but in my opinion, it is rather the effect of unwholesome
food, bad air, lack of out-door exercise, and neglect of bathing, on
the part of these damsels and their female progenitors, all resulting
in a kind of hereditary dyspepsia."
Nathaniel Hawthorne was right. Such ladies, when he wrote, were not
uncommon, but within the last two or three years, to their great
credit be it spoken, "a change has come o'er the spirit of their
dreams," and they are wonderfully improved in health, for, with all
reverence be it spoken, "God helps them who help themselves," and they
have helped themselves by attending to the rales of health--"The women
of America are growing more and more handsome every year for just this
reason. They are growing rounder of chest, fuller of limb, gaining,
substance and development in every direction. Whatever may be urged to
the contrary we believe this to be a demonstrable fact. When the
rising generation of American girls once begin to wear thick shoes, to
take much exercise in the open air, to skate, to play at croquet, and
to affect the saddle, it not only begins to grow more wise but more
healthful, and which must follow as the night the day--more
beautiful"--_The Round Table_.
If a young girl had plenty-of wholesome meat, varied from day to day,
either plain roast or boiled, and neither stewed, nor hashed, nor
highly seasoned for the stomach, if she has had an abundance of fresh
air for her lungs, if she had plenty of active exercise, such as
skipping, dancing, running, riding, swimming, for her muscles, if her
clothing were warm and loose, and adapted to the season, if her mind
were more occupied with active _useful_ occupation, such as household
work, than at present, and if she were kept calm and untroubled from
the hurly-burly and excitement of fashionable life--chlorosis would
almost be an unknown disease. It is a complaint of rare occurrence
with country girls, but of great frequency with fine city ladies.
390. _What treatment should you advise_?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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