OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 14

OUR BABIES

(By

"Hygeia,.")

Published under the auspices of u e S oyal ew Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.’* PARENTHOOD GOOD AND BAD.

I have just turned from the letters of two real Plunket mothers about real Plunket babies with real Plunket fathers. We often forget how important it is to interest the fathers, and thus disaster frequently overtakes the family. If it were explained to them that real selfishness lay in “giving in” to the baby, they would desist; but, as it is, whenever baby cries for an object he gets it. “Dad cannot bear to hear his little boy cry,” says the mother—so, in order to pacify him dad gives him cakes or biscuits or sweets, with no regard at all for his digestion!

We hear of people complaining about having to “put up” with 55 children while on holiday at an hotel or boardinghouse; but it is nothing comoared to that with which the child has to “put up” from the bad habits of his elders, .especially his own the loving aunt who gushlingly kisses him all over, and leaves him to battle with germs from colds, decayed teeth, or enlarged tonsils ; the grandmother who has no use for what she terms “those new-fangled Plunket rules”-clock-like regularity, etc. “The idea of waking a. sleeping infant for a feed in the daytime, and starving him all night!” is her attitude.

A FEW INSTANCES. A mother wrote the other day that her baby of six weeks old absolutely refused to take the warm water ordered —just spat it out! So she gave him sugar and water, and she says that she “does not know how it happened, but baby has been more upset than ever.” Of course he would be! Th? extra sugar had upset the balance of his food; but, worse than that, the mother’s lack of persistence has hurt him morally. The beginning is all important, and the youngest infant quickly learns how to tyrannise over those whom he should obev, both for the good of his own upbuilding and the harmony of the home. Another mother writes that her baby of 14 months is geting quite thinkeeps her parents awake at night and refuses the mixed diet prepared ar suggested by the Plunket nurse, and so has been put back on to the bottle IVliy will parents not put themselves out to be firm, sacrificing a little of their time occasionally. At first if only in order to save themselves much trouble later on.

A “PLUNKET” LETTER FROM ZULULAND. Contrast this letter with one from one of my Plunket mothers:—“. . I feel you really ought to hear B as you read this letter, as I am hearing her. vociferating happily in her cot just round the corner on tho verandain a nursery R (her father) has built. It is a great point of our regime to leave her to play by herself in her

cot. At first we had a great tussle with visitors, etc., who thought we were cruel. But it has turned out splendidly . • . she is healthier in the open air, with hands free and mind undisturbed. . . . she looks so attractive in her little cage of wire mosquito netting, playing quietly unconscious of onlookers and deeply engaged in her own concerns, or standing up and calling and laughing to us over the edge. [Note by “Hygeia”: What a difference to the child whose mother or father picks him up each time he murmurs.] My husband and I know ‘Feeding and Care of Baby’ by heart. R is the greatest support and spur; in fact, he keeps me up to the mark .... how she thrives, not

a scrap of indigestion nor constipation, a lovely bright, clear colour, and has been so much admired that our heads might well be turned. I can’t tell you how I seethe with horror and impotent regret when I see how other babies are brought up. It is reallv terrible to think that hopeless ignorance, slackness, peace at any price for the moment, lack of use of reasoning powers are so almost universal.”

The address of the Plunket Society’* Rooms in Wellington is 18 Kent Terrace. Hours of attendance, 10 a.m. to 5 a.m. week days; 10 a.m. to noon, Saturdays. Nurses’ services free to all. Communications to the secretary (Miss Ward); telephone 21—931. “It is only through watching littls *nes at work or at play that one can realise what effect the Montessori trailing may produce in after-life a» a result of self-discipline. For most of the time the children seem scarcely conscious that a teacher is in the room. When they leave the schoolroom they will not, therefore, be like sheep lost, without a shepherd. On the contrary, they should be able independently io direct their own lives-” So a. Home paper praises the value of the training, and continues: “Concentration, imposed from within, and not artificially, bv formal discipline, from without, is wfiait the method claims to achieve. It is no unusual thing to find very young children, even babies of two and a half years old, quite lost in what they are doing—oblivious of the world 1” The Montessori System makes the child interested, and keeps 11 im interested all the time, so out of his very interest and activity he forgets to be naughty, and has no need of artificially-imposed discipline from without. The child’s interest is first attracted by the apparatus placed at his disposal. Over this apparatus Dr. Montessori spent much thought and much time; it is the product of .experiment and also of rejection. It is sufficient to prepare little children for acquaintance with numbers, reading, writing, and other studies later on. Above all things, it is calculated to make the child independent. Absorbed with this or that problem, he is quite happy and quite good. .And there is no joy like that of achievement—the satisfaction of feeling “I have done this myself!” It is an . achievement which cells forth the 'admiration of all his companions, and one calculated t» inspire many achievements. When you require your hair marcel waved, curled, or dressed in simple, elaborate or period fashion, ’phone usWe have white court, comedy, Shakespeare, and fancy wigs for hire, and can copy any illustration. Powders, cremes, liquid powder, water black, rouge, masks, etc., always in. stock. Jet, pearline, iyory, and tortoiseshell combs from London and Paris. Stamford and Co., 123 Cuba Street. ’Phone 21—220.—Advt.