This diet list will meet the needs of normal, healthy babies only. It is not intended as a guide to the mother of the extremely delicate baby, nor will it serve when the child has shown from birth a tendency to anemia, malnutrition, or chronic digestive disturbances, like constipation or diarrhea. Such cases are individual or abnormal, and require medical attention. No general diet will serve for such babies, who should be under the care of a child-specialist.
CHAPTER VIII
CLEANLINESS AND HEALTH
HOW TO GIVE THE BABY’S BATH—CARE OF THE VARIOUS ORGANS—THRUSH AND ITS TREATMENT—SPECIAL BATHS FOR DELICATE CHILDREN—HABITS OF CLEANLINESS
Cleanliness is one of the foundation-stones on which is reared the beautiful structure of baby’s good health and good temper. When it is neglected, all sorts of weaknesses, discomforts and irritations creep in.
Uncleanliness invites disease and furnishes a lodging-place for germs. Moreover, the baby that starts off life by being comfortable through cleanliness forms habits of neatness, which it never loses. Whenever a mother tells me that she cannot keep her three- or four-year-old baby clean, that it simply “attracts” dirt wherever it goes, whatever it does, I wonder how she started it off at birth. Moreover, I have noticed at Better Babies Contests that many minor defects and small ailments can be traced by the examining physicians directly to untidiness on the part of the mother.
Looking back on the babyhood of my own children I can recall no happier hours than those spent before the open fireplace in the adobe cabin of a Western ranch, where the babies were sponged and patted dry and cuddled off to sleep by the light of the dancing flames.
The mother who allows plenty of time for the morning bath is sowing seeds which are bound to blossom in habits of cleanliness in the child. So, in planning for the coming of a new baby, she should spend more on the equipment for the bath than on embroidery for the layette.
The little baby should not be bathed in the family tub. It should have a small metal or enameled tub of its own. This tub should be used for no other purpose. The skin of the new-born baby is very tender, and infection is always at hand. At the Better Babies Contests I have heard more than one physician trace an eruption on the baby’s skin to careless bathing or care of the tub. Doctors say that bad cases of boils can be traced to an infected tub. In fact, there are women who love their babies, yet who are so thoughtless as to leave diapers soaking in the bathtub, where, after a superficial rinsing off with warm water, baby is bathed. Diapers, all of baby’s clothing, in fact, should be soaked and washed in separate utensils, never in the bathtub.
The task of bathing the baby will be lightened if the tub is placed on a low table and the mother stands before it. When the tub is on the floor and the mother has to kneel or bend, it is not so easy to handle the baby. The top of the table may be protected with a pad, which can be dried after the bath, or with a piece of oilcloth and a square of muslin.
In addition to the tub there should be provided a large, but light, pitcher, preferably of enameled ware, for carrying the water from the bathroom or the kitchen to the nursery; a china or enameled bowl for the boracic acid solution; castile soap; squares cut from old, clean handkerchiefs, or old linen, for wash-cloths; a number of well-worn soft towels; a bath thermometer for testing the temperature of the water; medicine dropper for washing out baby’s eyes; shaker of talcum powder; absorbent cotton and aseptic gauze for cleansing the nose, ears, and mouth; soft hair-brush; and a needle and thread for sewing on the bands.