Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-25

mental muscles upon which so much
depend.
8A8Y's NEEDS
Babys first need is for pure, fresh
air. If his lungs and heart cannot
respond and take care of the air,
baby's earthly career will be very
short. He needs good air in abun-
dance, not just as little as he can
exist upon. When fresh air is so
freely provided for all, it seems a
great pity that anyone should suffer
for want of it. There is no time in
the twenty-four hours that baby does
not need pure air. Yet how COM
parativeIy few little babies are allowed
good pure air to breathe, night and
day. May l enter a protest against
covering up the babies heads with
blanket?
The second requirement is heat. He
needs to gradually become accustomed
to the great change in temperature he
has made. He should be carefully
and judiciously wrapped up. His little
hands and feet are a very good ther-
mometer to tell whether or not he is
covered up sufficiently. 1t is unwise
to load the baby down with heavy
blankets, and / do not know but it
is as bad to have too few coverings for
this most sensitive little creature. Too
many blankets are exhausting for a
child; but not to be warm enough is
certainly devitalizing.
The third requirement is food Baby
needs good food; the kind that nature
intended for him is the very best he
can possibly have. Here again it is
often ignorance or lack of education
which defrauds him of his rights. This
is hard for baby and hard, too, for the
III. 4,
best thing to do is to get the advice of
the family physician. Hundreds of
books have been written upon this
subject of foods by professors and
doctors who are making infant food
speciality. Yet as no two babies are
exactly alike, so no two babies can be
fed alike with equal benefit to both.
The fourth need is sleep. More peo-
pie die for lack of sufficient sleep than
starve for food.
Without the use of medicine no
child will sleep too much. The more
sleep the baby gets the happier and
healthier he will be- Pure water is
an important need of the child. Most
people fail to realize the baby's need
of water to drink He should have his
first drink of pure warm water when
an hour or so old.
Baby's bath should be of daily oc-
currence. 1t saves many child from
the worst things of life If only his
little body is kept absolutely clean.
Plenty of soap and water daily used
on baby will be most beneficial, but
the soap takes out the natural oil of
the skin, so that after a good warm
bath be sure to give him a warm
oil rub every day, except the three or
four warmest months of the year,
when it is too heating. In no other
way can a child receive so much
health and strength, with so little ex-
penditure of the vital forces, as from
absorption, hence the value of the oil
rub. 1t is found also beneficial as a
preventive measure when there is a
tendency to throat and lung disease.
The last important factor that we
shall discuss is exercise for children
a subject very old and very new.
F'roebel has a little song to be sung
to baby while the mother Is assisting
his physical development by moving
his legs in and out, up and down.
Baby should never be forced to walk
or stand, he is not lazy. There is a
force within him that will compel him
to attempt to stand or walk just as
soon as he is sufficiently developed. In
fact, as a rule they are more apt to
be over-ambitious than lazy
N.$