NERVOUS CHILDREN.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 26

NERVOUS CHILDREN.

M T (By G. EDITH BURTON.) V

' There are few sights so distressing as k nervous or "nervy" child in surroundings which intensify his trouble. Very often a child has inherited his "nervy" condition from his father, while Ids mother may be a very stolid, unimaginative woman, who looks upon all nervousness as a kind of affectation, or at any rate a condition which may be easily overcome. Her treatment is Spartan in the extreme, and the result is acute brain "trouble, resulting in feeble-minded-ness, or death for the little patient. The "nervy" mother reacts on the nervous child, but usually the mother's own Bufferings enable her to have at least an intelligent knowledge of what the child endures, and she won't make the hideous blunders u.~ other mother does.

A nervous child dreads the dark. The unimaginative mother never knew what fear was—she never had a candle or a night light—so John must be a brave, stout fellow, and go to sleep in the dark. For a really nervous child this is the refinement of cruelty. Many little hearts have almost broken—have almost burst with violent pulsation—alone in the dark fancying things—seeing things. All through life courage and will power continue to be confounded, and often a child with a high, proud spirit will almost die rather than be called a coward or laughed at for timid fears. So though bedtime awaits him each night with hideous "dark" fancies, he girds his little loins with his growing will power t and goes to bed without a light for fear of ridicule, and he earns father's "Brave chap!" The following little tale will give just one exampe of what agony of mind a child in the dark {Dan suffer.

A visitor had brought a lovely little for rabbit for a child- of four, who had

gone off to bed with it in great delight. 1 An hour or more afterwards, the visitor < went up to her room, which was next j tho child's. Shading her candle with her 1 hand, she went quietly to peep at the 1 little one. Choking with relief, the i child called out, "Oh, do pick up my dear 1 bunny; he felled out long ago.". The visitor did as she was asked, tucking Iboth child and rabbit snugly up. "But why," she said, "didn't you hop out and ' get bunny yourself, and then you could ] have gone to sleep?" "Oh," answeredjl the child, with great, tragic eyes, "when ' mother takes away the light at night | 1 there's nothing' but dark everywhere—-j' no floor, no big black - dark." Now imagine how stout a.' heart, and courage, it would -take to lie • awake on a bed from Which the floor had disappeared—a bed whose legs appeared to have no resting-place, but < black, impenetrable, bottomless "dark." j After a few tactful tales to both par- ) ents, the visitor was allowed to present ' the heroic little child with a pretty little night-light in the form of a water- ' lily. The visitor was afterwards always 1 described by the child as the "bestest ' lady what I like." To try to laugh a ' child out of nervous fears is only a little better than trying to scare a ' child out of them; both are unutterably ' barbarous; utterly senseless, too, like 1 the plan of trying to frighten a grown : person out of a fear of ghosts by ' dressing up in a sheet, frightening the subject into hysterics, then hoping to 1 calm her by asking how she could be frightened of a sheet, when logically, if a sheet is taken for a. ghost by a nervous person, no ghost could be more effective. The best treatment for nervous children is a building up of body by nourishing, suitable foods; mostly milk and cooked fruits; a good tonic for a time, and an emulsion of oil in winter. Sleep in the- open, or with .widely-opened windows and doors; bask in the sunshine as much as possible. An hour or two recumbent rest each day is desirable,' early bedtime, and n(& bedtime stories) only, a quiet little sleepy song and very simple prayers, making sure that, the child knows what each word means. Jf a child is specially wakeful try warm baths the last thing before bed, and in cool weather put on bed socks till child is asleep, an dthen remove them. If mother is the nurse, let her try to preserve an even, placid tone. Lastly, don't, don't don't discuss the child's nerves in his presence. While wAching over him with utmost, care, oontrive that he shall ho the last, to tea*. &Zju] >~ '■' J ~-^—~~~':\i: