Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children

by Pye Henry Chavasse

SLEEP.

185. Do you approve of a child sleeping on a FEATHER bed?

A feather bed enervates his body, and, if he be so predisposed, causes rickets, and makes him crooked. A horse-hair mattress is the best for a child to lie on. The pillow, too, should be made of horse-hair. A feather pillow often causes the bead to be bathed in perspiration, thus enervating the child, and making him liable to catch cold. If he be at all rickety, if he be weak in the neck, if he be inclined to stoop, or if he be at all crooked, let him, by all means, lie without a pillow.

186. Do you recommend a child, in the middle of the day, to be put to sleep?

Let him be put on his mattress awake, that he may sleep for a couple of hours before dinner, then he will rise both refreshed and strengthened for the remainder of the day. I said, let him be put down awake. He might, for the first few times, cry, but, by perseverance, he will without any difficulty fall to sleep. The practice of sleeping before dinner ought to be continued until he be three years old, and, if he can be prevailed upon, even longer. For if he do not have sleep in the middle of the day, he will all the afternoon and the evening be cross; and when he does go to bed, he will probably be too tired to sleep, or his nerves having been exhausted by the long wakefulness, he will fall into a troubled, broken slumber, and not into that sweet, soft, gentle repose, so characteristic of healthy, happy childhood!

187. At what hour ought a child to be put to bed in the evening?

At six in the winter, and at seven o'clock in the summer. Regularity ought to be observed, as regularity is very conducive to health. It is a reprehensible practice to keep a child up until nine or ten o'clock at night. If this be done, he will, before his time, become old, and the seeds of disease will be sown,

As soon as he can run, let him be encouraged, for half an hour before he goes to bed, to race either about the hall, or the landing, or a large room, which will be the best means of warming his feet, of preventing chilblains, and of making him sleep soundly.

188. Have you any directions to give me at to the placing of my child in his bed?

If a child lie alone, place him fairly on his aide in the middle of the bed; if it be winter time, see that his arms and hands be covered with the bed-clothes; if it be summer, his hands might be allowed to be outside the clothes. In putting him down to sleep, you should ascertain that his face be not covered with the bedclothes; if it be, he will he poisoned with his own breath—the breath constantly giving off carbonic acid gas; which gas must, if his face be smothered in the clothes; be breathed—carbonic acid gas being highly poisonous.

You can readily prove the existence of carbonic and gas in the breathing, by simply breathing into a little lime-water; after breathing for a few seconds into it, a white film will form on the top; the carbonic acid gas from the breath unites with the lime of the lime-water and the product of the white film is carbonate of lime.

189. Do you advise a bedroom to be darkened at night?

Certainly: a child sleeps sounder and sweeter in a dark than in a light room. There is nothing better for the purpose of darkening a bedroom, than Venetian blinds. Remember, then, a well-ventilated, but a darkened, chamber at night. The cot or the crib ought not to face the window, "as the light is best behind." [Footnote: Sir Charles Locock in a Letter to the Author. ]

190. Which is the beat position for a child when sleeping—on his back, or on his side?

His side: he ought to be accustomed to change about on the right side one night, on the left another; and occasionally, for a change, he should lie on his back. By adopting this plan, you will not only improve his figure, but likewise his health. Lying, night after night, in one position, would be likely to make him crooked.

191. Do you advise, in the winter time, that there should be a fire in the night nursery?

Certainly not, unless the weather be intensely cold. I dislike fires in bedrooms, especially for children; they are very enervating, and make a child liable to catch cold. Cold weather is very bracing, particularly at night "Generally speaking," says the Siecle, "during winter, apartments are too much heated. The temperature in them ought not to exceed 16 deg. Centigrade (59 deg. Fahrenheit); and even in periods of great cold scientific men declare that 12 deg. or 14 deg. had better not be exceeded. In the wards of hospitals, and in the chambers of the sick, care is taken not to have greater heat than 15 deg.. Clerks in offices, and other persons of sedentary occupations, when rooms in which they sit are too much heated, are liable to cerebral [brain] congestion and to pulmonary [lung] complaints. In bedrooms, and particularly those of children, the temperature ought to be maintained rather low; it is even prudent only rarely to make fires in them, especially during the night"

If "a cold stable make a healthy horse," I am quite sure that a moderately cold and well-ventilated bedroom helps to make a healthy child. But, still, in the winter time, if the weather be biting cold, a little fire in the bedroom grate is desirable. In bringing up children, we must never run into extremes—the coddling system and the hardening system are both to be deprecated; the coddling system will make the strong child weakly, while the hardening system will probably kill a delicate one.

A child's bed ought, of course, to be comfortably clothed with blankets—I say blankets, as they are much superior to coverlids; the perspiration will more readily pass through a blanket than a coverlid. A thick coverlid ought never to be used; there is nothing better, for a child's bed, than the old-fashioned patchwork coverlid, as the perspiration will easily escape through it.

192. Should a child be washed and dressed AS SOON AS HE AWAKE in the morning?

He ought, if he awake in anything like reasonable time; for if he doze after he be once awake, such slumber does him more harm than good. He should be up every morning as soon as it is light If, as a child, he be taught to rise early, it will make him an early riser for life, and will tend greatly to prolong both his existence and his happiness.

Never awake a child from his sleep to dress him, to give him medicine, or for any other purpose; let him always sleep as long as he can; but the moment he awakes let him be held out, and then let him be washed and dressed, and do not wait, as many a silly nurse does, until he have wet his bed, until his blood be chilled, and until he be cross, miserable, and uncomfortable! How many babes are made ill by such foolish practices!

The moment he leaves his bed, turn back to the fullest extent the clothes, in order that they may be thoroughly ventilated and sweetened. They ought to be exposed to the air for at least an hour before the bed be made. As soon as he leaves his room, be it winter or summer, throw open the windows.

193. Ought a child to lie alone?

He should, after he is weaned. He will rest more comfortably, and his sleep will be more refreshing.

194. Supposing a child should not sleep well, what ought to be done? Would you give him a dose of composing medicine?

Certainly not. Try the effects of exercise. Exercise in the open air is the best composing medicine in the world. Let the little fellow be well tired out, and there will be little fear of his not sleeping.

195. Have you any further observations to make on the subject of sleep?

Send a child joyful to bed. Do not, if you can possibly help it, let him go to bed crying. Let the last impressions he has at night be of his happy home, and of his loving father and mother and let his last thoughts be those of joy and gladness. He will sleep all the sounder if he be sent to bed in such a frame of mind, and he will be more refreshed and nourished in the morning by his sleep.

196. What are the usual causes of a child walking in his sleep, and what measures during such times, ought to be adopted to prevent his injuring himself?

A disordered stomach, in a child of nervous temperament, or worms, are usually the causes. The means to be adopted to prevent his throwing himself out of the window, are to have bars to his chamber present, and if that be not practicable, to have either nails or screws driven into the window sash to allow the window to open only for a sufficient space for ventilation, and to have a screw window fastening, in order that he cannot, without difficulty, open the window, to have a trusty person to sleep in his room, who should have directions given not to rouse him from his sleep, but to gently lead him back to his bed, which may frequently be done without awaking him, and to consult a medical man, who will adopt means to destroy the worms, to put his stomach into order, to brace his nerves, and to strengthen his general system. A trip to the coast and sea bathing, in such a case, is often of great service.