The Physical Training of ChildrenChavasse, Pye Henry
Science
The Physical Training of Children
Chavasse, Pye Henry
Child care; Children -- Health and hygiene
The monthly nurse, as long as she is in attendance; but afterward the
mother, unless she should happen to have an experienced, sensible,
thoughtful nurse, which, unfortunately, is seldom the case. [“The
Princess of Wales might have been seen on Thursday taking an airing, in
a brougham in Hyde Park, with her baby—the future King of England—on her
lap, without a nurse, and accompanied only by Mrs. Bruce. The Princess
seems a very pattern of mothers, and it is whispered among the ladies of
the Court that every evening the mother of this young gentleman may be
seen in a flannel dress, in order that she may properly wash and put on
baby’s night-clothes and see him safely in bed. It is a pretty subject
for a picture.”—_Pall Mall Gazette._]
11. _What is the best kind of apron for a mother, or for a nurse to
wear, while washing the infant?_
Flannel—a good, thick, soft flannel, usually called bath-coating—apron,
made long and full, and which of course ought to be well dried every
time before it is used.
12. _Perhaps you will kindly recapitulate, and give me further advice on
the subject of the ablution of my babe?_
Let him by all means, then, as soon as the navel-string has separated
from the body, be bathed either _in_ his tub, or _in_ his bath, or _in_
his large nursery-basin; for if he is to be strong and hearty, _in_ the
water every morning he must go. The water ought to be slightly warmer
than new milk. It is dangerous for him to remain for a long period in
his bath; this, of course, holds good in a tenfold degree if the child
has either a cold, or a pain in his bowels. Take care that, immediately
after he comes out of his tub, he is well dried with warm towels. It is
well to let him have his bath the first thing in the morning, and before
he has been put to the breast; let him be washed before he has his
breakfast; it will refresh him and give him an appetite. Besides, he
ought to have his morning ablution on an empty stomach, or it may
interfere with digestion, and might produce sickness and pain. In
putting him in his tub, let his head be the first part washed. We all
know, that in bathing in the sea, how much better we can bear the water
if we first wet our head; if we do not do so, we feel shivering and
starved and miserable. Let there be no dawdling in the washing; let it
be quickly over. When he is thoroughly dried with warm _dry_ towels, let
him be well rubbed with the warm hand of the mother or of the nurse. As
I previously recommended, while drying him and while rubbing him, let
him repose and kick and stretch either on the warm flannel apron, or
else on a small blanket placed on the lap. One bathing in the tub, and
that in the morning, is sufficient, and better than night and morning.
During the day, as I before observed, he may, after the action either of
his bowels or of his bladder, require several spongings of lukewarm
water, _for cleanliness is a grand incentive to health and comeliness_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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