All of this takes time; but it is also a time-saver, because the dry, clean, comfortable baby makes very little trouble in the household and interrupts the mother in her duties only for the regular routine of bathing, feeding, and undressing. Many mothers who spend hours embroidering tiny frocks or sewing on yards of lace will hurry through the process of bathing, or be careless in the handling of diapers and other clothing which will chafe the baby’s delicate skin. Love which expresses itself in the overdressing of the child is far less practical than that which expresses itself in cleanliness and sweetness for all that surrounds the child.
The careless, untidy mother has no right to expect Nature to keep her child fine and healthy. He may be well proportioned and strong at birth, but he will soon lose strength and health if he is not kept clean. A child has the right to cleanliness; and the child who grows up careless, untidy about his person, generally owes his displeasing habits to the thoughtlessness or indifference of the mother, however well she may love him.
CHAPTER IX
FRESH AIR AND SLEEP AS HEALTH PRODUCERS
HEATING AND VENTILATING THE NURSERY—OUTDOOR NAPS—SLEEPING HOURS FOR THE NORMAL BABY—WHY SOME BABIES DO NOT SLEEP.
What the bath is to the baby’s skin, fresh air is to the baby’s lungs and entire organism; while sleep bears the same relation to the baby’s nerves that food does to its body. The lungs and, incidentally, the blood are purified by fresh air, and the baby should have it in plenty practically from the day of its birth.
Many of us can look back to the day when the new-born baby was wrapped up in a shawl like a wee mummy; not so much as the tip of its nose, let alone its rosebud mouth, was exposed to the air. When at last its timorous guardians uncovered the small face the baby was permitted to breathe, not pure air, but the atmosphere of a room with every window closed, and heated by an air-tight stove besides. If the baby was taken out for the so-called airing its face was covered with a blanket or a thick veil. The result was generation after generation of children afflicted with catarrh; now between the gospel of fresh air and operations for adenoids, catarrh is rapidly disappearing.
While this is a fresh air age, the mother should not go to extremes in supplying the air her baby needs, nor in “hardening” its body as some faddists maintain. The baby should not be chilled nor exposed to a direct draught. The air in the room should be cool and pure, not hot and fetid. In this one respect, strangely enough, the city baby has the best of the country baby. The average city house is uniformly heated by steam or furnace, and easily ventilated. The country or farm house is still heated largely by stoves. One room is very hot, others very cold. The warm rooms are places of refuge for the entire family and they are kept too hot; often every window is closed tightly and the air is sadly vitiated.
This statement is proved by the fact that at Better Babies Contests, held in connection with State Fairs, where championship prizes were offered, one for city babies and one for rural babies, the city children scored higher than the country children and showed a better chest development. The country baby should have the best air to breathe, but it rarely does have it, because its home is seldom well ventilated, and because its busy farm mother has so little time to take it out into the fresh air. The city mother is constantly reminded of dangers from impure air, by newspaper writers, by talks at clubs and social centers and at clinics. Even her older children come home from school preaching the gospel of fresh air for the family baby. She is shamed into ventilating her house properly and taking her baby out for a daily airing.
The country mother keeps her house closed in winter to shut out the cold, and in summer to ward off heat, dust, and flies. Her baby has small chance to breathe fresh air.
From the beginning, the baby, city or country, should sleep in a ventilated room, window open top and bottom, at a temperature of from 65° to 70° F. A thermometer is a better investment than cough-syrup. A baby raised in a uniform temperature will not need cough-syrup. The crib should not stand in a draught but be protected by a screen. If the room is very small, opening on a larger room, let the ventilation come from the larger room. Happy, also, that mother whose house can boast an open fireplace. This room should be chosen as baby’s nursery. Open-fireplace ventilation is ideal.