The mother listened resentfully, especially when she saw that by the card her baby scored only 89. Nevertheless, she must have thought a great deal about what those doctors said, because when the real contest was held in her city six weeks later, she entered her baby and it carried off first prize, scoring 98 per cent. The chairman of the committee in charge of the work wrote me that this mother had lightened the quality of the baby’s food and the rash had disappeared. She had cleared the house of mosquitoes, and the baby’s skin was smooth as a rose petal! Which shows that a Better Babies Contest makes mothers think—and act. Also, that a child can be made healthier and happier with just a little thought and attention. Your child has a right to all the beauty with which you can endow it. If your baby has thin eyebrows and lashes, try to encourage their growth. It can be done. Feed the eyebrows with a little cocoa butter, or vaseline. If you are very careful you can even touch the lashes with a tiny camel’s-hair brush dipped in melted vaseline. I know a man and wife whose looks were marred by scanty lashes and colorless brows. When her babies came this woman determined to do something to improve this unfortunate inheritance. She rubbed vaseline into the brows, had the lashes cut twice before the babies were three months old, asking the family physician, an excellent surgeon, to do this for her, and then she touched the roots of the lashes with melted vaseline. Her children, now in their teens, have beautiful brows and lashes. It is absolutely criminal to let a child distort its mouth by sucking thumb or fingers. Let no mother deceive herself by saying that the habit is the child’s great comfort, a natural soother and pacifier. In later years that child, especially if it be a girl, will call her mother to task for permitting the indulgence. I have seen mothers actually start babies in this fatal habit of finger-sucking by giving them what is known as a “pacifier,” or rubber nipple on a ring. It is natural for a baby to suck at something. He is born hungry. When he is very young he will continue making sucking motions with his mouth after the breast or bottle has been taken from him. If he happens to whimper the mother thinks the little sucking motion must be satisfied; she gives him the pacifier, or actually sticks his thumb into his mouth, and the mischief is begun. The tendency to suck the thumb is easily checked. From the very start remove the thumb or finger and lay the little hand firmly down at the baby’s side as he drops asleep. If he persists, then immediately—not after the habit is almost iron-clad—have him sleep with his hand in a mitten. It is never too soon to correct this habit. Better a crying baby to-day than a deformed daughter ten years from now. Thumb-sucking thrusts the teeth out, and in some cases gives the entire lower part of the face the shape of a rabbit’s.