The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1870-04-01
Good Babies and Bad Babies.

We promise not to forget the request OF
young mother who writes to know
something about managing babies in the
best manner. The saying that "man is
bundle of habits.n is especially true OF
man in the cradle-of babies. These
inf,ntile specimens Of the race differ rs
widely US those Of larger growth some
arc nervous and irritable by nature, 9TH
ers good natured and lymphatic, some
restless and enterprising, Others timid and
quiet. These differences the mother may
modify by training, though they can new
or be removed. But there are certain
habits into which all children can be
trained If their mothers have perseverance,
and nerve TO do it. You may begin with
your baby at its birth and accuston 1t to
take its food regularly every two hours ut
first, and when it is three months old,
every three hours. BY a little persever-
ance you soon get tho stomach of the child
in the habit of digesting ailment Mt regu-
lar intervals, 50 that it no more requires
feeding between times than grown folks
need bread and butter between dinner and
supper. The sleep of baby may be reg
ulated also almost exactly with tho hands
on the dial-plate. For instance, If for
three or four nights in succession you keep
the baby awake from three in the alter
noon till six. then give 1t food, put on its
night robes and lay it away in the cradle
or crib for the night, it will very soon form
the habit Of going to sleep at that hour.
which Will give you all tho evenings for
reading and sewing, for visiting and re-
ceiving company. How many mothers
instead of creating such habits in baby
as will readily conduce most perfectly to
its proper physical and moral develop
ment, leave all these points to be arranged
as it happens, thus making themselves
perfect slaves to the whims and caprices
of AN i'll regulated baby. We have known
mothers who got up two or three times in
the night to give their children water or
food, simply because the child was in the
habit of receiving it, thus breaking their.
own sleep and uniting themselves for the
cares and labors ofthe ensuing day. I'm
less in case of sickness, all this is worse
than unnecessary it is positively injurious.
When baby is four months old, it should
be required to go without food from 10 ut
night till in the morning and when II
is six or eight months old, its sleep should
be un,roken from till 6, from sunset to
sunrise. For two or three days the stom-
ach will clamor and mptiny against this
regulation. but finally submit, and quiet
reign in the nursery during the night.
Just so with feeding. You may give your
baby playthings, and let 1t learn to amuse
itself, or you may accustom II to be in your
arms or somebody's else's from morning
until night, making Independent oSactins
and anything else than,-'a well spring OF
happiness" to the household. You may
let II fret itself quiet, or by judicious and
salutary restraint teach it to stop crying,
and bear with patience the ills of infancy
while passing through them. As soon as
a child is old enough to show temper 1t is
old enough to learn not to show i. All these
things depend upon the mother. and she
can, to u great extent, make the little heart
that caught its bcatings from her own. just
what she would have it be. If she has
courage, wisdom, and patience.