The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-05-04
Taking Care Of Babies.

yoMK WEIR NIPPLE coMMoN-sENsE ADVICE
CONCERNING THE TREATMENT OF INFANTS.
Some years & in describing the
Black Country, possibly the most uncul-
tured locality in England, Punch had a
picture, with its text. A brutal fellow
was beating his wife because she had
given the milk to the baby instead of the
bull dog pup. Grotesque as this story
may seem, and possibly exaggerated, the
fact remains very much the same, that a
great many people, not only in England,
but in he United States, bestow more
care on fancy chickens, OF on their dogs,
than their OWL children. 1t may not be
that they have more affection for the
brute creation than for their own Off
spring, but they assume too much on the
vitality of children, and think that care
spent on them is time wasted. Even tho
cultured people seem to be quite indif-
ferent as to the very necessary care
which children-young children-should
have, and have apparently an idea that
the same rules which govern the rearing
Of fancy animals ought to hold good in
regard to infants.
Putting aside all those maternal in
stincts which it is supposed all mothers
feel, q good deal of ignorance is displayed
oven by educated women in regard to
the rearing of their infants. 1t is not
love that is wanting, only common sense
is absent. There is that question of
dress. 1t is charming to have a 'curled
darling" and to see his little rosy limbs;
they are all the prettier because they
are unclad, but in the desire to show off
= nude child, or a partially .undressed
one, a real-human sacrifice is often made.
We, in this country, adopted some
time g an English style of dressing
children, which has not yet entirely
gone out of vogue. If mothers were
decoette, and their maturer harms could
better stand the stress of weather, babies
were dressed as little as possible.
When French people are called upon
to admire English babies, if they are
fine stalwart children, they sometimes
say Eyes it is a fine child. but you
English go through a certain amount of
s~tirpiculture. You put SO little clothing
on your children that about half of them
die. These specimens which l see-fine
ones, N % doubt-have been endowed
with an eItra-vigorous nature, that is all,
and have not been killed" With our
change of climate, we want all the differ
ence in clothing for a child, from the
slightest garments to the heaviest, in ac-
cordancs with the seasons. An infant
cannot complaint cannot say it is hot
or cold-and before one is aware of it
illness caused by exposure comes.
Many a congestion of the the lungs
and decline arises from a very stupid
ignorance of the commonest laws re-
garding the clothing of infants. Though
h French are very perfect as to the
food of the child, they do many absurd
things with those s%waddling clothes, in
which infants are bound up. Warmth
for young children is imperative; it is
almost as important as proper nutrition.
We battle children, both in this country
and in England, much more frequently
than in France or Germany, possibly be-
cause with US water is more plenty.
or course, all mothers know that a
bath removes the secretions from the
skin of the child, and helps it in all its
animal functions. Still, how many peo-
pie there are of foreign birth in the
United States, who eschew water for
their children as If it were poison.
i, Heads of children which are diseased
from want of that good cleaning which
water gives are often considered by
ignorant persons as indicative of the
strong health of the child. stop this
scurf,h they say "and the child will die"
The bed n child sleeps in should be most
carefully considered. The old-fashioned
cradle, treasured though its memory
may be, is simplyan abomination. What
is wanted for an infant is an airy couch,
something through which, at certain
times, both the sun and air a come.
Shut up places for children to sleep in
are nothing better than collins. 1t is a
very bad plan for a mother, if she have
curtains TO her bed, to lnclose the crib
draperY. There is not fresh or pure air
pnnnuh for nnq m1ph laac for tun Inst
the rules which were indicated some
time ago for the sleeping rooms for grown
persons hold good for infants. There
must be light and air. AT birth a child
does not want a glare Of light, and the
too violent rays of the sun may be kept
away, but good and fresh air, not the
confined atmosphere of of a sick ROOM,
is what will give an infant life.
1t is not wise to deck q mothers room
with flowers in honor of an suspicious
event, for the finest bouquet is Just as
bad, under such circumstances, rs would
be a smoking kerosene lamp. AS to the
covering an infant requires when sleep
ing, nothing requires more judgment.
1t is a stupid habit to pile things on a
baby, as if he were an Esguimaux with
in a mile of the North Pole. 1t is not
the thickness or quantity of material
which keeps the child warm, but its i'm
perviousness. OF course, a child does
not wan rubber clothing, but it is easy
to make a proper selection of such stuffs
as will keep it comfortable when it is
asleep.
Questions have been asked as to the
use of baby-carriages for infants. Their
use is justified in a thousand instances,
and it is unnecessary to state them, but
to send out a child even of 8 years of
age on a cold day in a baby-carriage is a
cruelty. The body may be warm, but
the head and the tender ears, no matter
how they are clad, must suffer. 1t is just
as bad, when it is freezing, to air a child
in a carriage as TO expose it without any
shade to the sur when the thermometer
is at 1902 Fahrenheit. The best nurse is
she who, having a child in a carriage,
after a half hours stroll, takes it out for
a while, moves its position, then puts
her charge back. The worst thing is to
believe that an infant is a torpid creature.
The era of the baby jumper, has, thank
goodness, passed away, and with it the
number Of spawned children have sem
sibly diminished.-En0lish Paper.