Better babies and their careRichardson, Anna Steese
Science
Better babies and their care
Richardson, Anna Steese
Infants -- Care; Infants -- Health and hygiene
From the beginning, the baby, city or country, should sleep in a
ventilated room, window open top and bottom, at a temperature of from
65° to 70° F. A thermometer is a better investment than cough-syrup.
A baby raised in a uniform temperature will not need cough-syrup. The
crib should not stand in a draught but be protected by a screen. If
the room is very small, opening on a larger room, let the ventilation
come from the larger room. Happy, also, that mother whose house can
boast an open fireplace. This room should be chosen as baby’s nursery.
Open-fireplace ventilation is ideal.
Whenever possible the baby should be tucked warmly into a carriage
and allowed to sleep outdoors in the daytime. Only extreme cold and
inclement weather should prevent this sensible plan. Nor should the
baby’s face be covered while sleeping outdoors. A sunny corner of the
porch is an ideal day sleeping-room, with the carriage screened from
the sun. In summer, a mosquito net should protect the baby from flies,
gnats, etc.
Never should a child be allowed to sleep in a room with gas or lamp
burning low. The fumes from such illumination are extremely bad for the
lungs. They exhaust the oxygen which the baby needs so sorely.
The busy farm mother who cannot take her baby for a daily airing has
no excuse for not letting it sleep outdoors. If she has no carriage
she can have casters put on the crib and roll it out on the porch,
or even a deep box or basket can be padded and baby can be made safe
and comfortable. When the baby begins to sit up and play, a similar
padded box or small fenced enclosure should be built on the porch for a
nursery. It is a positive injustice, nothing short of criminal, to keep
a delicate baby in the kitchen.
Many a mother worn out by a fretful baby will secure rest for herself
and good health for the baby by making it comfortable outdoors. The
sleep in fresh air is restful, and babies that will not sleep well
indoors acquire the habit if placed on the quiet porch or under a shady
tree.
The sturdy baby should have its regular daily airing, weather
permitting, from the age of two weeks. At six months the airing in his
carriage—exclusive of sleep, understand—should last an hour; and the
time should be gradually increased until, at five or six years, he
plays the greater part of the time outdoors by habit.
If the day is inclement, rainy, blustery, at least open the nursery
window and, dressing the baby, cap and all as for his daily ride, let
him breathe the air for a half-hour or more. In winter the daily ride
should be given during the sunniest time of the day. In summer, choose
the cooler hours, early morning and just before bedtime.
The healthy baby is a sleepy baby. When a baby does not want to sleep,
when it is restless and wakeful, one of two conditions exists: either
it has been spoiled and actually trained to be wakeful by a thoughtless
mother, or it is in need of medical care.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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