CHAPTER XXIII.
BODY-BUILDING.
Our Duty to Nourish, Strengthen and Build up Strong Bodies.—Eradicating Inherited Infirmities.—Children Inherit the Permanent States of Their Parents.—The Parents’ Duty to Those Who are not Well Born.—What has Been Accomplished Along These Lines.—The Relation of Babies’ Clothing and Food to Physical Growth.—Unwise Feeding.—The Laws of Nutrition.—The Relation of Food to National Greatness.—The Danger of Overdressing.—Value of Sunshine and Air.—A list of Good Foods.—The Relation of Exercise to Appetite.—Comparative Value of Meat and Vegetables.—Importance of Rest and Sleep.—Regular Sleeping Hours.—Schools and Nervousness in Children.—Many Children are not Properly Nourished.—Food Poorly Prepared and Poorly Served.—The Importance of Hygienic Cooking.—The Cause of Weak Eyes in Children.—Children and Bare Feet.—The Dosing of Children With Nostrums.—The Use of Brandy and Wine in Cooking.
I think it was Dr. J. G. Holland who said, “We derive our best lessons, not from what people say to us, but from what their words make us say to ourselves.” In the wide subject which the heading of this chapter opens, I can only hope to illustrate this truth. Perhaps by starting new lines of thought with some persons, and in others intensifying and making broader lines of thought already entered upon.
Said good George Müller, “My soul I commit to the care of God, following His laws; but my body He has given into my hands, to care for, nourish, and strengthen, that I may build it up into His image.” Could we remember oftener that it was meant to be after His likeness, and the temple for His indwelling, we should be less careless of the trust committed to us. And again, were we the only sufferers from the lack of care and neglect of our bodies, it would matter less, but we are sowing seed that will spring up and bear fruit, “some thirty, some sixty and some an hundredfold,” in the generations to come; and what also of the incalculable harm from our influence upon those about us?
Could we return to the old Spartan time when only the symmetrical, healthy and vigorous were allowed to marry and bear children, our task in body-building for the future would be less difficult; but we have the rubbish accumulated by the mistakes of the body-builders behind us, through the past ages, to clear away as best we can, before we can properly enter upon our present task. As it is, the problem resolves itself into this—to make the most of the material in hand, in rooting out the bad, and culturing the good.
To begin well, the parents must bear in mind, before the baby’s beginning, that the life of the little one will be in great measure determined by what they are, not by what they may hope to be, though even this has its influence. It is a well-known fact in heredity that transient states of body and mind, are not those which are most often entailed upon offspring, but the permanent states and conditions. What the mother eats, what she thinks, what she enjoys, what habits she allows to control her, will shape largely the little life, and make her after task in body-building a difficult, or a comparatively easy one. Given a good foundation, and the superstructure which rises upon it will be solid and enduring, and as beautiful as the architect desires.
Suppose the little one is not well-born, it becomes the duty of the parents to choose its food, its dress, its plays, its surroundings, that they may make good as fast as possible, the defects known to exist in it. To do this most effectively, they will need to counsel often with their medical adviser, and become themselves conversant with the laws of hygienic living.
That very much can be done along these lines is a well attested fact, and is beautifully illustrated in our Foundlings’ Homes, where little ones coming out of all sorts and conditions of society, and many of them with the worst possible heredity, are trained out of the evil ways toward which they incline physically, and into the upward way which makes the perfect man and woman. Therefore we have no reason to be discouraged, if we have not the most perfect model to begin with, but must instead do some molding and trimming off here and there before it stands forth the fair thing we desire.
The baby’s clothing has much to do with its proper development, as already indicated. The food for the best development of the physical nature has also been emphasized, but some further remarks will not be out of place. I pity the little one that is cheated out of its rightful heritage, its mother’s breast. This is a day of bottle-fed babies, to the sorrow of the babies, and the loss to the mother of many hours of sweet comfort comparable with nothing else she may ever have, while the wee thing is taking its life from her breasts, and she is thinking high thoughts of its future and what she shall be to it. The mother who nurses her baby is much to blame, if she does not drink in the sweet lessons which come to her, of moral as well as physical dependence, while the little one hangs upon and nestles in her bosom; and she does not dream of what she misses, if she puts it off without a thought or a care of this, the sweet lessons of cuddling, nursing motherhood.