BABIES: BY A YOUNG MOTHER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 71, 23 March 1906, Page 2

BABIES: BY A YOUNG MOTHER.

J have not yet met the Perfect Baby, but I've heard a great deal about him. Up must either be big enough to look after himself now, or he does not yet exist. 1 can't find one in the,cot and comforter stage. Comforter, did I say? The Perfect Baby requires no such appliance. Perhaps as the question of comforter or no comforter is the most burning one in the nursery to-day, I had better confess at once that each of my babies has had a comforter, in defiance of much good advice.

Here is a list of people who condemn comforters. All grandmothers. They are furious because they had to manage without them in the dark ages when they were brought up. N.B.— They had to give up sugar-bags and other atrocities to keep up quiet, or teach us to suck our thumbs!

Some doctors. The number of these is rapidly- decreasing. My doctor says: "Keep the thing clean, and it can't do an. atom of harm. Adenoids? Rubbish! Adenoids are caused by breathing through the. mouth., and the comforter tends to stop that. But keep the thing clean. 1 '

j Spartan, mothers, 'who/ say- it does a child (someone else's child) no harm to cry. "" - - — Well-meanings ladiea who lecture "the poor." They had nurses and -undernurses to look after their children, so, of •course, the comforter : was not needed. I, who have had sometimes to cook the dinner, answer the door, and receive visitors, and take care of a couplo- of children as well as the baby, do not waste breath advising a poor .woman with half a dozen children, and all the household, work to do, to throw swa.y a blessing of modern civilisation. It is an improvement on soothing powders, anyway. Of course, 1 don't let my babies have it all the time, * but for going to sleep it is a blessing; and to pop in, sometimes when one has been delayed; out of door.«. and baby begins to think he is hungry: or if visitors come when baby is cross, and there is no one to take him. I always see that the handle is secure arid '"■comfy," and is washed whenever baby is washed, besides getting an extra scald now and then. It is pinned to baby's frock, so it can't get dirty; and when the young person goes on the floor and begins to crawl, it is time for the comforter to be removed. At eight or nine months, it is soon forgotten. A friend of mine announced her intention of having a Perfect Baby. "A little good management," she said, "is all that is required. Baby will soon lie I and coo and kick, and I shall never pick him up except to feed him. He will then make no difference in the house, as he will hardly know what it is to be nursed." [ suspected her of reading "Our Mother Column" jn the local newspaper, which was written weekly by the youngest, male clerk, and I Held my' peace. Tin? baby did not hold his. He was one of those boisterous young ruffians who scream for what they want, and if not promptly obeyed, they swallow wind i as they scream, and the sound increases in volume until the wholp household is busy fetching hot water, warming flannels, and running for dillwater or carbonate of soda. Xo more was heard of the lie-and-coo system. Ualiie* arc so different that they all need different treatment. I have always tried to stppr a fours? between npoiling and sternness, so that I hare most tiii.roughly enjoyed ray babies (without finding them too much strain. Jlf is silly to be nursing a baby all the time, but they often need picking up and comforting a bit. Babyhood is such a struggle for existence before' all the digesting machinery gets into good working order. L often rocked or nursed my 'babies, till they were sleepy, but never till they were sleepy, so thoy got into good ways of going down into the cot and '"loving the pillow." If a babyis put down in the evening too wakeful, it hatos its cot before it is sleepy, and then there is trouble. 1 have never, never walked up and down with a baby, so even when my children are ill they do not expect it. I put them over my shoulder a»d pat them, or rock them in my arras, and they soon settle down. The remit of this is that I have never been obliged I to get out of berT~in the night β-ith arjv > of them. T just sat up and attended 1j to their wants, but neve* oKf of bed, s so T have no record of cold fpet and . [chills aand sueh-like miseries. . j Xo. they are not perfect -, but they !|are happy and healthy, andjso is their JI mother!