Besides, in very cold weather, or in a very young infant, the warmth of the nurse's body, while he is being carried, helps to keep him warm, he himself being naturally cold. In point of fact, the child, while being borne in the nurse's arms, reposes on the nurse, warm and supported, as though he were in a nest! While, on the other hand, if he be in a perambulator, he is cold and unsupported, looking the very picture of misery, seeking everywhere for test and comfort, and finding none!
A nurse's arm, then, is the only proper carriage for a young child to take exercise on. She ought to change about, first carrying frim on the one arm, and then on the other. Nursing him on one arm only might give his body a twist on one side, and thus might cause deformity.
When he is old enough to walk, and is able properly to support the weight of his own neck and back, then there will be no objection, provided it be not in a crowded thoroughfare, to his riding occasionally in a perambulator; but when he is older still, and can sit either a donkey or a pony, such exercise will be far more beneficial, and will afford him much greater pleasure.
175. Supposing it to be wet under foot, but dry above, do you then approve of sending a child out?
If the wind be neither in the east nor the north-east, and if the air be not damp, let him be well wrapped up and be sent out. If he be labouring under an inflammation of the lungs, however slight, or if he be just recovering from one, it would, of coarse, be highly improper. In the management of a child, we must take care neither to coddle nor to expose him unnecessarily, as both are dangerous.
Never send a child out to walk in a fog; he will, if you do, be almost sure to catch cold. It would be much safer to send him out in rain than in fog, though neither the one nor the other would be desirable.
176. How many times a day in fine weather ought a child to be sent out?
Let him be sent out as often as it be possible. If a child lived more in the open air than he is wont to do, he would neither be so susceptible of disease, nor would he suffer so much from teething, nor from catching cold.
177. Supposing the day to be wet, what exercise would you then recommend?
The child ought to run either about a large room, or about the hall; and if it does not rain violently, you should put on his hat and throw up the window, taking care while the window is open that he does not stand still. A wet day is the day for him to hold his high court of revelry, and "to make him as happy as the day is long."