The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; A Study in HygieneGalbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Science
The Four Epochs of Woman's Life; A Study in Hygiene
Galbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Women -- Health and hygiene
It should be able to stand up by a chair by the tenth month, and be
able to walk alone at the end of the first year. It is important that
parents should know this, since not knowing what a normal baby ought
to be able to do, cases of birth palsy, or even an attack of paralysis
due to teething, are not infrequently overlooked, not only by the
mother, but even by the doctor, who attributes the inability of the
child to do what other children can do at this age simply to weakness,
which the child will outgrow; and thus the time passes in which the
most could be done to cure the child and to prevent the subsequent
deformity.
A baby should not be forced to stand or walk; a very stout baby, on
account of its weight, will stand up and walk much later than a slight
one, the two being equally healthy. Or if a baby has been sick, it
will feel no inclination to stand up. Naturally, a child creeps before
it walks, and this develops the muscles of the lower limbs, so that
they will support the weight of the child in standing. By prematurely
forcing a child to stand up and walk, there is danger of causing
bow-legs, as the bones of the legs are still weak; the child should be
discouraged from standing up too much rather than encouraged to stand
up more.
Sleep.-- A large proportion of the time of early infancy is spent in
sleep; for the first few weeks the infant only wakens up to be fed.
During sleep the eyelids should be tightly closed; a partial opening
of the lids, showing the whites of the eyes, is an indication of ill
health. Up to the age of six, children require twelve hours of sleep
at night, besides an hour or more in the middle of the day; the child
should be permitted to sleep as long in the morning as it will.
Respiration.-- The healthy infant breathes on an average forty-four
times a minute; the only time the respirations can be satisfactorily
counted is during sleep. When the child is awake, the respirations are
hurried by slight movements of the body, crying, and so forth. The
average pulse of a newborn baby is one hundred and forty; this is
hurried by the same causes that hastens respirations; the pulse is
most easily counted at the anterior fontanel. The average temperature
of the infant is 99∞ F. When the tip of the nose and the extremities
are cold, it indicates a lowered vitality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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