The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-12-10

after years that can be safely traced
back to the injudicious way IL
which nurses and mothers allow
children to be bathed. In many
nurseries, especially If they are
large ones, there is one hard and
fast rule laid down for how and
when children should be bathed.
Very often the method followed is
the one that their mothers or grand
mothers Were bathed by many
years ago, and this with no thought
at all on the subject. Perhaps the
child is a delicate one and the
mother was as strong as a little
bear, but that makes no difference
In the treatment, and so the child is
plunged regularly into a cold bath,
while It's little teeth chatter and its
lips grow blue and it shivers for an
hour after, while, on the other hand,
If the mother has been delicate, the
child Is treated to warm baths land
hot bathrooms, till, If it is strong
and healthy, 1t suffers In every way
from such an i'll conditioned course
Of treatment. ....-s' ..o...
People should bear In mind that
what hurts one person will benefit
another, and vice versa. Every one
mas not the same dead levil cOnsti-
tuition, and the golden rule of the
nursery should be that each child
should be considered as a separate
being, with constitution all its
town. and not dressed and washed
and fed by the same set rules as
though they were box Of wooden
soldiers.
"a child should never be bathed in
cold water, and as persons grow
older they should not plunge into
cold water II the heart is at all weak
orth6 circulation feeble. Sufferers
from indigestion must also avoid
cold water baths.
When persons are strong, they
may take cold morning tub daily.
They should jump into it the mo-
ment they wake and before the
natural warmth of the bed has left
the body. The temperature of the
water should not be less than 80
degrees f. or over go degrees.
After coming. out Of the bath, into
which you should make a plunge
and come out again within the min
ute, you should dry yourself on a
rough bath towel and rub the skin
till 1t is red and glowing. A loOfah
Is a good thing to use as well.
The way to tell If the cold water
bath agrees with you is to notice
how you feel when you come out of
1t. If you feel all your blood ting
ling in your veins and you feel
warmer than before you went into
the water, 1t shows it agrees with
you.
II, however, instead of the warm
glow you feel chilly and shivery; If
your lips turn blue and your teeth
chatter; il you can't get warm for
hours afterward, then you may be
sure that you are doing the worst
thing in the world and that you
should give up the cold bath at
once and never try it again. AS to
those insane people who pride
themselves on sea or river bathing
all the year round, who break the
ice with delight and pride and
plunge into the water, whatever the
temperature Is, they may gain the
wished for popularity of paragra phs
in the paper about their foolhardi
ness and pluck, but they also are
laying the seeds of serious internal
diseases, which will show them
selves in later life when they least
expect them.
When a person is not strong or
has heart trouble, or a tendency to
1t; when they are an@mic, or suffer
from weak circulation or indi-
gestion, or lung trouble, the morn
ing tub should always be a tepid
one-not hot, but one with tenn
perature from go degrees to 80 de-
grees. You can remain in this for
some few minutes, and when you
come out should vigorously rub the
body with rough towel.