The Portland daily press., 1883-02-19

10 constitutional, more probably insufficient
exercise is taken, or taken at wrong times,
or the nursery is stuffy, or the bedroom bad
ly ventilated, or the parents have forgotten
that sunshine and fresh. air are as necessary
to the healthy life of a child as wholesome
food itself is.
The want of cleanliness, or frequent use
of the bath, is many times the cause of in
different appetite in children. Without
cleanliness of clothes and cleanliness of per-
son you cannot have healthy children.
Without this the young blood seems pois-
ohed, the child has neither buoyancy nor
heart, appetite is deprayed or absent, and
he grows up as pale and poor as siekly
plant.
Injudicious clothing is another cause of
dyspepsia. 1t Is bad enough to encase the
body which has attained its full develop
ment in tight dress, but it is ruinous for
child to be clothed in tightly fitting garments.
Every organ of a child's body requires room
to grow and expand; if 1t be in any way
compressed, the circulation through it be-
comes lessened, and it is therefore sickied
and rendered weak.
Tghtness, therefore, of any portion of
childs clothing ruins not only the organ d.
rectly underneath the construction, but in
directly those at a distance from it, for no
damming up of the circulation can be toler-
ated by nature, Tightness round the waist
in children and young people is the cause of
many cases of dyspepsia, and in lesser de-
gree SO is tlghtness of the neckerchief, by
retaining the blood in the brain. Have your
children's clothing loose, then, if you would
see them healthy and happy. See, too, that
at night they sleep not on feather beds, and
that though warmly they are not heavily
clothed.
Children should be fed with great regular
ity day by day, The parents, having cho-
sen the hours for dinner, breakfast and tea.
ought to see that the times are strictly ad
hered to.
Irregularity in meal-hours, and times of
getting up in the morning and retiring 10
bed at night, is not only prejudicial to the
present health of child, but it teaches him
habits which are greatly against his chances
of success in after-life.
need hardly speak here about the quality
| of the food that is placed b. fore child;
| indigestible or too rich food, against sauces
and spices of all kinds, including curries;
against heavy foods of the pancake, dough
and dumpling kind, against u1ripe fruits,
against too hot soup, against strong tea, and
coffee, or beer, or against over-much butch
ers' meat.
Fray, mothers, do not forget that an inter-
val of rest should ensue between the meals
you give your children, and do not ruin
their young digestions by examining them
with cakes, or buns, or sweets of any kind.
| To do so is worse than cruel, it is sin, and
| sin which you are but little likely to COM
nit If you truly love them, and really wish
to see them generate into strong and healthy
men and women. Tarts and sweets and
confectionery would be bad enough in all
| conscience for children, even if they were
| always pure and unadulterated But they
are too often positively poisonous. Feed on
| plain and wholesome food regularly from
day to day, permitting no stuffing between
meals, and not forgetting the benefits that
accrue from frequent changes of Diet more
| especially as regards dinner; Do this, and
your children will live to bless you; do
otherwise, and expect to see them sickly,
with veins and arteries possessing no resil-
| iency, with mucous membranes pale and
| fabby, pipes of lungs that the accident of a
| slight cold is Efficient to close, muscles of
limbs SO weak that exercise is a penance
instead of a pleasure, and flesh so unwhole,
some that pins prick may cause tester,
and all this because the blood is impover-
ished through errors in diet.