The foreskin of the male child is often long, tight, and adherent, and is often the direct cause of irritability, nervousness, crying, and too frequent urination. It should be closely examined by both physician and nurse and when the foreskin does not readily slip back over the acorn-like head of the organ, circumcision is advised early in the second week. This simple operation will start the child out on his career with at least one moral handicap removed and one desirable possibility established--that of being able to keep himself clean. POST-OPERATIVE CARE OF CIRCUMCISION The dressings that are loosely applied at the time of the operation should remain untouched (especially those next to the skin), unless otherwise directed by the physician, until the seventh or eighth day when the babe is placed in a warm soap bath, at which time the dressings all come off together. Clean sterile gauze is so placed as entirely to protect the inflamed skin from the diaper at all times before this bath, and these same dressings should be continued for at least another week. Sterile vaseline (from a tube) should be applied twice a day after the original dressings are removed in the bath at the end of the first week. There should be little or no bleeding following the operation, neither should the penis swell markedly; if either complication should occur, the physician should be promptly notified. CARE OF THE FEMALE GENITALS The girl baby is often neglected in respect to the proper care of the genitals. The lips of the vulva should be separated and thorough but careful cleaning should be the daily routine. The foreskin or covering of the clitoris should not be adherent; while the presence of mucus, pus, or blood in the vulva should be at once reported to the physician; in his absence, the application of twenty per cent argyrol should be made daily. [Illustration: Fig. 6. How to Hold the Baby] HANDLING THE BABY Let us thoroughly come to understand the very first day the little one's life, that it was not sent to us because the family needed something to play with; it is not a ball to toss up, neither is it a variety show. It is a tiny individual, and your responsibilities as parents and caretakers are very great. The child was sent to be fed, clothed, kept warm, dry, and otherwise cared for by you, until such a time as it will become able to care for itself. Remember, what we sow, that shall we also reap. If we sow indulgence we shall reap anger, selfishness, irritability, "unbecomingness"--the spoiled child. At two or three days the baby learns that when it opens its mouth and emits a holler, someone immediately comes. If we do it on the second and third day, why should we object to run, bow, and indulge on the one hundredth and second day?