TALKS ON HEALTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 20 June 1932, Page 10

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR THE BANNS FORBIDDEN Young men, you must not marry anaemic girls. I forbid the banns! You must wait until the chosen one is stronger. It is a mistaken kindness to marry an anaemic girl. It is cruelty in many eases. Thu poor tiling can hardly support herself; how can you expect her to support the burdens of married life? Young men, when you have finished looking at the moon, du use your sense. How can a bloodless mother produce healthy offspring? All your bits of overtime will go in doctor’s bills. There is no substitute for mother’ milk for a baby. You must believe that—all substitutes are makeshifts. And how can a bloodless mother produce enough nourishment for a growing infant? A sickly wife made more sickly by the troubles of married life and a sickly infant do not make a very charming outlook. No, you must wait six months or a year. You must get the best advice, and you must give up smoking cheap cigarettes and spend the money on milk for her. Milk is an excellent corrective for anaemia. WHY NOT MORE CLOTHES? The idea —the mistaken idea—is that a warm garment protects the chest and keeps away illness. Grandma believes in protecting the chest well, and she has eleven children and buried nine, so she ought to know something about the bringing-lip of children. So as we are going to Grand uni, let us have a third undergarment on. The thicker it is the more the old lady will he pleased But why slop at three, when the health is at stake? Four will give greater safety than ever. Now we are getting on—four undergarments and a thick velvet suit on top of it, all tightly buttoned. Now turn the sun on at Its most powerful summer heat; put the child in a tramcar with a dozen people standing up and lio ventilation, and clasp him tightly to his mother’s overheated body, and I suppose you have succeeded in making as miserable a child as possible. What would not the poor little chap give to he on the seashore with nothing oil!

LACKING SELF-CONTROL

The seeds sown in a child’s brain come to maturity in later years. There are men and women who appear to possess little or no self-control; they arc nervous and ill at ease in the most harmless of situations. They can hardly say “How do you do?” without blushing and looking confused. They jump when the doors slams; they lie awake imagining all sorts of disasters. They feel that if once they could make their brains placid they would fall into a blissful slumber. When called upon to meet an emergency they generally fail or collapse, or do anything but'meet it with a brave face. Now one reason for all this is that when they were children their growing minds were subjected to some unnecessary shock.

A STUPID PRACTICE

I am writing this for no other purpose than to condemn the stupid parents, nurses, or daily helps who try to frighten children into obedience. It is very wicked to tell a little elid'd that a black bogey-man. will come and carry him oH if lie does not go to sleep, ami then leave the child alone in the dark. Perhaps some of us can remember relief when someone came in to us. Wliat seems only a joke to a grown-up is a thoughtless piece of cruelty to a little child. The dark is always terrifying; the creaking is alarming; even elderly people may experience an eerie feeling when they are in strange and lonely houses, when they lie in the dark and try to convince themselves that the noise they bear outside in the passage is not really Lady Mary coming along carrying her head under her arm. THE BED-TIME ROMP

Going to lied is a most solemn proceeding, and it should always be carried out in the same way. First of all comes a romp with Daddy. This is most important, in fact, more important than something out of a bottle. If Daddy is away all day, lie should take the opportunity of seeing as much of the children as possible in the evening. The romp is so good for the children; it makes them happy. Forgive me, also for mentioning that it is good for Daddy—it keeps him young. I have no objection to Daddy pretending to be a a lion, it is easy to see that he is not a lion; you have only to look at his face; besides, the lion is a noble beast. A romp is the best preventive of cold feet in the winter.

THE BATH

The best fun about a good-night romp is that it can he performed in the scantiest of clothing. Remove that cloying collection of garments, including stays and several other things, and behold the child’s joy! Wo children do like to ho free. Please, if you must smother us in layers of materials ol every description during the day, be merciful and let us have a romp, at night with very little on. Then comes the hath, because it is pleasant to feel and smell clean, and habits begun in childhood are continued in later years. After the bath comes a little bit of supper—a sweet biscuit or two, and some warm milk. After supper the tooth-brush. ' Kindly note that the reverse process must lie avoided. If you clean the teeth first and then take food, the bits of food stick about the mouth and the acids formed corrode the teeth.

THE GOOD-NIGIIT TALK

Then to bed and a nice talk with Mummy. If there Inis been a rumpus, please make it up; do not.let the child be unhappy at night. You have been so good, mother, in attending to the child’s body; please, now give a little attention to your baby’s mind and soul. Never bclieio that a tiny child has no mind worth speaking of—you might as well say she has no skeleton or no brain within that litttle cranium. Do soothe the child and let her sleep well. 1 must insist on this. I am always meeting children who are nervous and overstrung; their minds are jarred; every morning they begin another day with a f, ense of fear. It ever thev get to understand, they f ill feel r.o verv loving sentiments towards those' who destroyed the happiness of their childhood. Whatever the future may have in store for the children, give them peaceful nights in their childhood; (ill their little minds with gentle thoughts; make them believe that it is a very idee world and that they are very safe so long as their parents are near, ilanish the frightening method, the pulling in dark cupboards, and all the rest, of such ignorant conduct, and let us only remember them as we remember the thumbscrew and the rack of a former age.