The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-20
THE NEW BABY.

Kept Safe From Grandma, Fed on
 Peptonizations, and Reared to scorn
 the Cold.
 We hear a great deal about the
 new woman; but the "new baby
 has hardly got even into fiction. There
 are, of course, some respects in which the older ways of bringing up children
 are yet followed. But infants in we'll
 to-do families are now reared ac-
 cording to principles which would
 have filled former generation with
 fear and trembling.
 Among the important changes is
 the degradation of the grandmother from her ancient position of authority
 in the home. Formerly, at the time of
 the baby's advent, the grandmother
 was the adviser and assistant of the
 doctor and of the nurse; she superin-
 tended the weighing of the newcomer, announced its sex to the anxiously
 waiting father, made great deal of
 trouble by what relatives -in-law call ed her 'oficiousness," and was pro tempore the head of the household. If
 the child was taken i'll, she was at hand to diagnose it's disease. She was supposed to know how to clothe and feed it. Today, all that has been changed. The grandmother is. regarded by the doctor with suspicion, by the trained nurse with hostility. She must not presume to suppose that the birth of a child is a family matter at all. ,
 Of great moment to the new baby is the question of diet. The resources of chemistry have been taxed to the uttermost There are approximations" and other notifications of milk which require on the nurses part expert knowledge. Milk is whirled about by electricity or diluted with mysterious drugs before it is forced through the neck of a bottle down the babys throat. Strange preparations resem- bling flour paste or wet sawdust, are cooked with care on a special stove Then the cradle and the lullaby are things of the past. Great harm has already been done by the practice of singing to the infant Tennyson's sleep and rest on mothers breast" with the threat, Father will come to thee soon." It is not known what mis- creant first conceived the idea that a baby should be held in it's mothers arms and rocked to sleep. Possibly it had its orgin in the same mind which imagined that the father, by walking miles about the bedroom, could allay the bangs of teething. But the new baby is never held or rocked. It is put down on lonely and i'm movable bed, and allowed to scream if it will, until from exhaustion or de- spair, or from both it falls asleep. A cold impassive demeanor is at all times required of the parent.
 The new baby is not expected to catch cold. It should not be dressed too warmly. The worsted jackets, blankets, and socks which kind rela- tives and friends have been knitting during many ante-natal weeks are of no use. The baby should be left bare footed and thinly clad. It should be inured to cold. When at length it Is jolted in baby carriage over the curbs to the park, its trained atten- lant must see that in wintry weather 1nly a thin embroidered silk cover be thrown over it. If the cold is very se- were, 1t is always possible to turn the ,hild's face toward the sun, even if It causes @ great deal of winking and of the eyes. The baby has been trained not to cry. This open lir hygiene has great advantages The child is seldom in the house, and it's presence annoys neither parents nor visitors. In some families open-air nurseries have been constructed on he tops of the houses, enclosed by wire cages, so that the baby, even af- CT 1t can creep, will not fall over.
 These are only few of the reforms hat have been accomplished, but hey illustrate the wisdom which now suides those who are responsible for he nurture of the young. Already igns of such improved methods may ,e seen in the physique of the children They pass a joyful and fearless in ancy, until the day comes when they Ire sent to the kindergarten or school md subjected to the benign influences if the new pedagogy.-New York | Evening Post.