OUR BABIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 95, 22 March 1939, Page 12

OUR BABIES.

(By Hvgeia) Published under the auspices of the Rova! New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” AN IMPORTANT STAGE IN BABY’S LIFE. LEARNING TO WALK. The staggering steps of a tiny mite not much past his first birthday arc one of the prettiest sights in the world. IPs own pride, his chubby limbs, his erratic gait, the semi-hum-orous apprehension with which one waits for the almost inevitable bump, all surround the early walking days with a quality of charm and interest hard to surpass. Sometimes the first dramatic step alone is taken even as early as 10 months, and the more diminutive the staggerer the greater the fascination of watching him! Sometimes the final stage of stepping out without support is delayed until 18 months without there necessarily being any very special significance in the matter, for children vary in regard to the innate impulse to action with which they are born. If early walking cuts out the crawling stage altogether, it is a pity for all-round development; so crawling should be encouraged, particularly from S to 12 months. | Walking is, as it were, the topmost pinnacle to a whole series of activities which have preceded it. and on which the final achievement depends. Baby shouldn’t walk unless he had previously learnt to hold on and to pull himself up; unless he had discovered how to steer himself, had obtained co-ordini-nation between the eyes sufficient for directional purposes; unless he had already strengthened his hack and neck muscles so that he supported his torso quite effortlessly. He couldn’t walk unless his sense of balance had been developed as lie sat stretching out for toys, or unless the muscles of his legs had become firm and elastic through much kicking exercise. Watch your cradle baby and see if lie is getting into trim for his walking feats to follow. It is said if you hold a five-month-old baby in walking position lie will demonstrate alternate movements of the legs very cleverly in preparation for the walking action. The average baby develops his own mechanisms with the minimum of lie![j. All he asks is that hnapkin should not be pinned so tiglMdy to Ids vest that full stretching and a straight back are almost impossible; that clothing should not lie hampering; and that at stated intervals he should bo put in a play pen, where he can not only move more freely than in liis cradle, but which stimulates him to new activity. You see, the sides of a a pen are by far the best help to baby when ho is learning to walk that can he devised. To them can ho hang toys, so that baby is encouraged to move round and examine one and then another, ami by them he can pull himself up and learn to sidle along from rail to rail. While baby is learning to walk the mother needs plenty of patience. So many mothers, once liahy has mastered standing alone and walking holding on, become impatient if the final stage of stepping out alone is delayed. But we do not realise all the delicate adjustments that must be perfected before this is possible. As long as baby is active anti happy we can rest content. To push him might lead to a loss of confidence and induce strain, which would be very harmful to him. Again, wc must lie philosophical over the 'tumbles of liis early walking stage. They have to conic! Baby lias to learn not only to get his balance on the straight, hut to negotiate corners, climb elevations, descend gradients, keep a weather eye open for edges, avoid tripping over roughness, even to allow for tlic unexpected presence of a slippery patch, a moving rug, or a sauntering cat, and lie learns a great deal by doing the wrong things and finding flic result a little painful! Tt is be who is learning, let us remember. so let baby shoulder bis own responsibilities and face up to his own mistakes. , Be sympathetic, hut not sentimental. If he feels his environment hostile to him be will lie more fearful than if ho realises it is merely his own lack of practice which is at fault and that ho is speedily improving.