The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 2 (of 4): A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better BabiesHague, W. Grant (William Grant)
Science
The Eugenic Marriage, Volume 2 (of 4): A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies
Hague, W. Grant (William Grant)
Eugenics; Hygiene; Marriage
BABY NEEDS WATER TO DRINK.--Boil a quantity of water each morning, put
in a clean bottle, and keep in a cool place. Give the baby some, three
or four times daily between feedings. One teaspoonful is enough to begin
with, and as it grows older it will take more. It may not always take
the water but it will take what it wants, and it needs some every day;
it is therefore your duty, inasmuch as baby cannot ask for it, to offer
it regularly each day as part of your daily routine.
KISSING
A child should never be kissed on the mouth by anyone, not even its own
parents.
Kissing should not be allowed among children. If any kissing is done it
should be on the brow, never on the mouth, hands, or fingers.
Many diseases are carried by this pernicious habit, and you cannot
afford to have baby's health jeopardized by this promiscuous and
unnecessary liberty.
ESTABLISHING TOILET HABITS
When baby reaches the age of three months, a regular systemized effort
should be made to educate it to "habits of cleanliness." Nothing can be
done in this direction previous to this age, as a child at that period
of its life is scarcely conscious of the natural functions of its body.
Each time a baby, after the third month, is making an effort to move its
bowels, the nurse or mother should go to it as it lies in its crib, and
talk to it by making a certain sound or say a certain word--whichever
word or words you want to educate your child to say, when it wants to
move its bowels. By constant attention and effort in this direction, a
child with quick perception and initiative will soon associate the sound
and the function, and it will begin to make the sound when the function
is about to be performed. As soon as it begins to make this sound, if
prior to the act of moving the bowels, the child should be immediately
taken up and held on a chamber, into which some hot water has been put,
and encouraged to relieve itself, the nurse or mother still repeating
the sound, or word, or words.
Having successfully accomplished this programme a number of times, the
child should be encouraged and petted every time it gives a satisfactory
warning, and discouraged and reproved every time it wets or soils its
napkin. A little later, say about six months, the child should be held
on the chamber at a certain time each morning and evening, thus
encouraging it to move its bowels regularly twice daily. The careful
carrying out of a scheme such as the above will establish regular,
cleanly habits, and will to a very large extent guard against
constipation in the future.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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