If the child is thin and pale and does not grow, it is not assimilating its food and the cause should be looked into at once. It may be that a change is desirable. In bottle-fed babies, there is not so much of variety in its food as in a nursing baby, because the mother’s change of food from day to day, varies the milk somewhat. Changing from one prepared food to another will often tide them over an indisposition, as nothing else will. Chafing usually means that the little one has not been dried well when changing the napkin, or allowed to go too long after the napkin is wet. Indigestion, and a consequent acidity of the discharges may cause excoriation of the skin, and this will need a change in the food or the proper medicine to correct. A baby does not cry without cause. It may be spoiled into crying to be tended, but this is easily distinguished from a sick cry, or a fretted cry from discomfort. A baby should have plenty of water and fresh air; two of the “freest” things and yet we stint the little one in them. It should be given water every day several times, and it often cries for want of it. It should be taken out into the fresh air every day when pleasant, and many times allowed to take its nap in the open air. One of the healthiest, most robust babies I ever knew, though beginning life as a little puny thing, was put into its little carriage and wrapped up warmly, and wheeled out on the front porch for its nap twice daily. A light cover was thrown over the head of the carriage to protect the child from draughts. If the baby is bottle-fed and constipated, a small pinch of salt put into its food at each feeding will often effect a cure. Dress your little one warmly enough but not too warm, keep it dry and comfortable, feed it properly, do not toss it about, or disturb its sleep, and you will be rewarded with a healthy and comfortable child that will daily be a greater and greater delight and blessing. CHAPTER XXI. GUARDING AGAINST SECRET VICE. The Mother’s Preparation as Guide and Protector of Her Children.—Safeguards for Tiny Babyhood.—Cleanliness, Regularity, Chafing, Pin Worms, Servants, Nurse Girls, etc., etc.—How to Teach and Guard Them During Childhood.—Safeguarding the Children with Knowledge.—Inborn Curiosity Concerning Physical Mysteries.—How to Meet these Questions.—Sleeping Alone.—How to Correct Vice where it Exists.—The Duty of Physicians to the Public.—Symptoms which call for Parental Watchfulness.—Results of Secret Vice.—Rewards of Parental Vigilance. How shall the mother prepare herself that she may be the guide and protector of her children past this dangerous shoal, is a question that exercises every true woman’s heart. In view of the myriads of temptations, we are led to exclaim here, as in the contemplation of many other difficulties in child training, “Who is sufficient for these things?”