The Physical Training of Children

by Pye Henry Chavasse

But the mother’s toils are for her child.”

The sole cause of the difficulty is that the mother has never been instructed,—no pains has been taken to teach her, and she has neglected to inform herself, and now that she finds the life and welfare of her offspring dependent on her care and management, she applies to her friends for assistance and receives advice of so contradictory a nature that she is ready to give up in despair. It is to relieve mothers from this dilemma, which is one frequently observed by the physician, that the author gives the advice and instruction contained in this volume; and most admirably has he succeeded in his very difficult undertaking to write on a subject so little understood as physical education, and make it perfectly clear to the understanding of all.

J. F. P. Richter says of children: “I would create a world specially for myself and suspend it under the mildest sun; a little world where I would have nothing but little lovely children, and these little things I would never suffer to grow up, but only to play eternally. If a seraph were weary of heaven, or his golden pinions drooped, I would send him to dwell a month upon my happy infant world; and no angel, so long as he saw their innocence, could lose his own.”

The arrangement of the book is in the form of questions and answers. This is an excellent idea, the long experience of the author, as a physician, enabling him to suggest many important questions that would escape the inexperienced mother or nurse.

The first chapter treats of the management of the infant from the moment of its birth; and, although the care of the infant is not intrusted to the mother at this time, it is very important that she should know just how it should be managed, and she will then be able to instruct her nurse, and prevent her carrying into execution many of the hobbies of which old nurses are often very fond. The most of them are founded on error, and may be of the greatest injury to the infant at this tender period of its existence. For instance, the author tells us that the infant should be put to the mother’s breast soon after its birth, and should receive food of no other kind. Now there is the strongest desire on the part of many nurses to feed the child with some one of the many preparations used for this purpose as soon as it is dressed, or, at any rate, before the mother’s milk makes its appearance—forgetting that nature has made no mistake in her affairs here, and will not be interfered with without requiring the poor victim to pay the penalty;—and so we find that if the child’s stomach be filled with pap, gruel, or anything of the kind, the result will be acidity, griping, colic, and vomiting, and you will have made a bad beginning by interfering with nature, instead of a good one by leaving her alone. In very many cases the harm is done by trying to assist nature, and, on account of an ignorance of the natural laws, the intended assistance becomes a positive interference; and it is in view of this fact that the author tells us what not to do, as well as what to do; and whenever the mother is in doubt as to her course, she has only to turn to the chapter treating of the subject under consideration, and her mind is at once relieved.

Full instruction is given in regard to the clothing of infants. And nothing is more important; for one would suppose we should find deaths from pulmonary complaints, such as pneumonia and bronchitis, more frequent in adult life,—our occupations being of such a nature as to constantly expose us to the vicissitudes of the weather,—but the opposite is the fact, and the mortality from these diseases is far greater during childhood. The sources from which animal heat is derived, are smallest at birth, and increase till the child is full grown; but, instead of realizing this fact, and protecting the child with sufficient clothing, it is supposed to be comfortable when large portions of the body are entirely uncovered, while the parents find much more clothing requisite for both comfort and health—and the result is that many perish, and others are compelled to go on through life with impaired constitutions, for the condition of the pulmonary organs in after life depends, to a very great extent, on the treatment the person received during the tender period of infancy.

“’Tis the work

Of many a dark hour and of many a prayer

To bring the heart back from an infant gone.”—N. P. Willis.

After a few months the child requires other food than that derived from the mother, and it is of great importance that no mistake be made in the kind of food given the child; for, as we have already seen that the condition of the pulmonary organs of the adult depends to a very great extent upon the clothing of the infant, so will the condition of the digestive organs depend upon the selection of the food for the infant at this period of its existence, and if it be of the proper character all will be well, but if, as is too often the case, the food given be of an indigestible nature, the ground-work of dyspepsia is laid, and it will torment the unfortunate creature as long as he lives. In a great majority of cases children are given table-food far too early, and nothing is more common than to be told by the mother that her child grows “thinner and thinner,” though she is giving it all the meat it will eat. Now, our author shows us that the reason the child does not thrive is because its digestive organs are not far enough advanced to extract the nutriment from food of this kind, but that it irritates, and is a positive injury to the infant. And he then explains the important fact that the child does not thrive on that kind of food that contains the most nutriment itself, but on that which is best adapted to the condition of the digestive organs at the time it is given. And then he tells us what that is, and takes us on from step to step, making all the changes necessary in the diet throughout the entire period of infancy and childhood. He also calls our attention to those articles of food that are indigestible at all times, and gives many important directions in regard to the preparation of the food, time for giving it, and the amount that should be given.