THE "HOTEL DOT"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 18

THE "HOTEL DOT"

INSTITUTION FOR BABIES

FREEDOM FOR MOTHERS

The first hotel in the world for babies has been established at Zurich and it is appropriately called the "Hotel Dot," states an overseas writer. Suppose a mother has determined to take a weekend off, or even one night of dinner, dancing, and escape from the eternal wondering if all is well with baby, and of getting up to see. Will she get someone. tq- stay with the child and attend to its wants? Will she leave him with friends or relatives? ■•'■ :

Perhaps the hired guardian will not take her duties sufficiently seriously; will fail to realise the great gravity of her trust; will forget to scald the bottle; she might even smoke cigarettes and set the nursery on fire. As for friends and relatives, one does not like to presume too mucji on their good nature, and another person's child is apt to seem an almost completely disguised blessing. .. The Swiss are always expert in the establishing and conducting of hotels. It is not surprising, therefore, that they should spring to the aid of the hqliday-seeking mother by founding, in Zurich, the first hotel for babies —the "Hotel Dot." It takes its name from the system by which, each baby, on being "booked in," is given a distinguishing colour, which appears as a dot on the cot the child is to occupy and on the plates and cups assigned to him by the-length of his stay. x The matter of booking in is a more complicated one than the signing of a visitors' book and receiving a key, as in any ordinary hotel. The colour assigned might be taken as the equivalent of the key, but then the child has its clothes removed and is placed on the scales, being literally "weighed in." Then it is given a bath. Each baby is weighed again on leaving the hotel, presumably to convince the fond parents that they are receiving back at least as much baby as they deposited.

The tariff at this establishment is four Swiss francs (about six shillings) a day. So far there is-accommodation for only 18 babies in three bedrooms, each of which contains six cots. White is the prevailing colour note, since cleanliness is most important in the policy of the management of this hotel. Then come light, air, and sunshine. All the rooms are many-win-dowed; the house is charmingly situated . among trees in a suburb where there is plenty of fresh, unpolluted air. The playroom is equipped with a collection of toys and books, carefully graded, so as to meet the tastes of children of various ages.

Make "banana candlesicks" from half a banana stuck into a pineapple ring with a strip of angelica for a wick.