Evening star., 1942-02-18
GOodHabits
Are Easily
Learned
Baby Will Respond
To Even Schedule
If introduced
By Lettice Lee Street,

By Leffice Lee STREET.
Please excuse the racket" apolo-
gized young Mrs. Jones. as she ush-
cred in her guests, but the baby
just hates to be put to bed" She
sent an anxious sideways glance to-
ward her husbands expression of
helpless annoyance. The visitors
made sympathetic remarks, but be-
cause the din issuing from two angry
and animated small lungs was not
conducive to quiet conversation, to
say the least, they soon took their
leave.
Poor little Mrs. Jones, torn be-
| tween the decision as to who needed
pacifying the most, her husband or
her baby, decided to humor the
latter, and sped upstairs to pick up
her red-faced tiny imp.
Well fed and healthy young Mr..
Baby Jones would be just amenable
to q regular routine as any other
carefully tended infant If only his
mother would give him a chance TO
get used to it.
Given well, normal baby, 1t is
every bit as easy to train him In
the two fundamental good health
habits-eating and sleeping at reg
ular hours-as to allow him to be-
come accustomed to an uneven
schedule whereby he learns to stay
awake and to demand food at odd
hours.
The development of good habit
merely necessitates performing the
task or act correctly over and over
again at the same time until it Is
natural and expected occurrence to
the young baby.
If an infant is praised and en-
couraged by a cheerful and af1ec-
tionate mother during his feeding,
bathing and so on, he will more
quickly assume the good habit OF
peacefully acouiescing than If she
is impatient or scolds him.
If an infant is always, every sin
gle night, put into his crib at the
same time and a smiling mother
pats him or holds him for few brief
minutes of "mothering," he will very
soon form the habit of quietly drop
ping off to sleep.
But If his hour for bed varies al
most each day, if he is picked up to
be rocked or pacified, or to be shown
to a doting family or admiring
friends, if he Is taken out with his
parents or for any other reason Is
kept from his regular time to go to
sleep. he will soon demand this eX-
element and attention and raise
his voice in strident protest If he is
denied.
The happiest method of correcting
a bad habit is to replace 1t with one
that is harmless or desirable. For
example, if a baby starts to chew
his fingers give him bright-colored,
hard teething ring the moment you
notice what he is up to. Or, II he
makes a scene Just in order to gain
attention, which babies will often
try, ignore him. But when he Is a
good boy make great fuss over him.
A baby thus handled will not be
long in learning what does and does
|
approval and affection are more and
more important to him with the
passing of each month of his short
life he will be agreeable more often
than he is unco-operative just in
order to win his mothers smile.
Even a little baby is conscious OF
her tone of voice, sympathy of man
ner and gentleness of touch.
To smack, punish or scold a child
under a year old will invariably do
three things: 1t upsets the baby con-
siderably, it make the scolder angry,
too, and it focuses attention on the
baby's act without making him real
ize that he was wrong. He is very
unlikely to associate the smacking
with what he has done and he Is
only hurt and bewildered by his
mothers startling and unexplain-
able sharpness.