Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-03
KEEP BABY WARM,
Notes on a Number of Ever Interestinc
Nursery Topics.


Keep babies warm in the first place.
| doing away with aches and cramps, and
perpetual need of handkerchief; keep
them well fed. and strike off all dys-
peptic troubles; dress them loosely and
lightly, covering wrists well, and if
they cry, nervously, soothe them by
outdoor airing, or a warm bath, or
warm wet cloth laid over the skull, or
by stroking them from the shoulder
down with both hands as they lie on
the bed. The mesmeric influence of
this treatment is wonderful. Not a
few babies are born insane with nerv-
BUSINESS, and cry violently at slight
discomforts, which are not slight to
them. I'm afraid of these crying
babies" said wise doctor to me one
day. 81 have several of them in my
practice who cry for hours, apparently
without cause. l am always afraid of
mischief with the brain in such cases."
The treatment for such highhyers is
not spanking, but warm bath when
ever the fits of crying come on, drying
with soft, warm towels and a long,
leisurely rubbing or stroking as it lies
in its one gown on the blanket.
Let the baby lie undressed on pill
low in a perfectly warm room, and
sprawl like frog to relieve his mus
Giles and make them grow. 1t is good
for the development of children to let
them run about a warm nursery naked.
half an hour at a time, after they can
walk. You remember the lovely figures
of children in Alma Tadema's classic
interior, playing naked about the gyna-
cpum and the bath. They were nobly
built, because naked, or nearly so, the
first year of their lives; and their
houses, with their heating flues in the
walls and under the floors, were better
than any thing we shall have in this
generation, The constraint that bands
and tapes and the weight of cloth are to
a baby's pulpy form and butterfly
strength can hardly be understood by
us ''grown ups" but they are quite
enough to deform in frequent cases.
Carrying child too much on one arm
will make it misshapen. Babies ought
to be held with their breasts against
the mother S, and an arm at their back,
supporting the back of the head by
hand carefully. as it rests against the
shoulder. They should lie on their
stomachs a good deal, on a pillow or
across the knees, for change of position
and the ease given by warmth and
pressure of the little abdomen.
Babies limbs are made symmetrical
and vigorous by leisurely, tender strok-
ing. and if they will get bow-legged
by dancing on their eager feet too soon,
there is no need to torture them with
appliances and steel boots.
The surgery for such cases is daily,
hourly stroking the legs with both
hands, and gently moulding them into
Clever doctors discour-
age the use of appliances for straight
ening young children, prefering the
gradual traction of the mothers hands,
which will be found all-efflcient You can
do any thing with baby, except keep
him still, when awake. And there is one
rule which ought to be the Draconian
code of nurseries: Never wake a child |
for any thing less than a fire or an In
dian attack.
The babies who have the best chance.
really believe, are those brought up |
in homely ways, in the warm and neat |
living-rooms. along with kittens and |
house plants and singing of kettles, in
the sunshine of the mothers constant
presence, comforting voice and ready
Most of our great men and
greatest beauties have been reared so.
The child is apt to get more of the con-
ditions for healthy development in this
way than in formal, secluded
nurseries.-Sirley Dare.