Better babies and their careRichardson, Anna Steese
Science
Better babies and their care
Richardson, Anna Steese
Infants -- Care; Infants -- Health and hygiene
Any mother who has followed the reports of pure milk commissions, and
heard the talks and lectures given by specialists in infant feeding,
must realize the tremendous chance she takes in weaning her baby.
Therefore, she will not take the step unless convinced that her milk
positively disagrees with her child.
The most important test is the child’s development or lack of
development, gain or loss in weight. This cannot be determined during
the first week, for the average normal child loses from four to eight
ounces during the first six or seven days of its life. Thereafter it
should gain at the rate of from four to eight ounces a week, until it
is six months old. After that the gain per week runs from two to four
ounces, until the child is a year old, when the first danger-period of
feeding is past.
During this time—and, in fact, throughout its childhood—an accurate
record of its weight and measurements should be kept by the mother.
For this purpose, the well-equipped nursery should contain a good pair
of scales and a measuring board. The scales should record at least
forty pounds. They are of the platform, not the spring, variety, with a
basket for holding the baby while it is small and helpless. Later, when
the child is able to sit up, the basket is replaced by a pad.
The measuring board used at the Better Babies Contests is a great
convenience and can be made by any carpenter. It consists of a smoothly
planed board forty inches long and eleven inches wide, with a firm,
upright headpiece, and a sliding footboard which runs on grooves on
the outer edges of the board. On one of these edges is tacked a steel
tape, in the inch-scale. The baby, up to eighteen months of age, is
laid on the board with the back of the body touching the board all
along, from head to foot. The nurse makes sure that the little head is
placed firmly against the headpiece. Then, while the mother or some
other assistant holds the baby’s knees firmly in place, the nurse
adjusts the sliding board until it touches the flat soles of the baby’s
feet. The child is then lifted up, without moving the footboard, and
the measurement is read from the tape where the footboard stops.
After the child is eighteen months old it is measured standing. For
this purpose the board is reversed. The firm headpiece is placed on the
floor for the child to stand on, and the sliding footboard is brought
down to touch the top of the child’s head.
After its third year, the child may be measured according to good old
nursery tradition, by a pencil mark against the woodwork.
Measuring a baby with a tape-line is not accurate. While the height is
not so important a factor as the weight in determining the development
and especially the nutrition of the baby, it should be watched; and
this measuring board, which represents an investment of only a dollar
or so, will be found very useful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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