OUR BABIES

Opunake Times, 24 February 1933, Page 3

OUR BABIES

A GREAT DEAL OF SLEEP. FOll BABY’S HEALTH. (By Hygeia). The baby doubles his weight in the first six mouths of life. Therefore he needs a great deal of sleep, for during sleeping hours Nature repairs the wornout parts and attends to the growth of the whole organism. The brain grows mote during the first two years than in all the rest of life. For the first month an infant should sleep all the time not occupied in feeding, bathing, etc. As lie grows older he needs to be awake part of the day, so it is best to train him to sleep in the morning and to be awake in the afternoon. The consecutive hours of sleep during the evening and night are of the utmost importance, hence the wrong of beginning the habit of night feeds and disturbed nights. Baby should sleep between feedings during the evening hours —say between (j p.m. and 10 p.m., and from then on should be trained to have eight hours’ unbroken sleep. From the earliest days the infant should be put to bed in a well-ventilated room alone. This ensures better rest for baby, and for parents also. The habit of keeping a baby in the living room is a very bad one. It leads to wakeful evenings, and usually renders the child nervous and irritable.

If baby should waken during the night see that he is comfortable, tuck him in firmly, md leave him. Don’t talk to him during this procedure, as that becomes an entertainment for him and he looks for it to be repeated. You may have to persevere with this for some nights to break him of a habit, but you can be quite sure it is worth it in the finish.

Sleeplessness mav be due to many things— bathing irregularly or too frequent feedings, overfeeding or hunger, wet and cold, or oppiessiou or overheating due to excess of bedclothing or lack of ventilation in the sleeping room, or baby mav be suffering from thirst or irritation of the skin or from wind. Always endeavour to make baby bring up his “wind” before putting him down to sleep. Regularity.

Establish regularity in all things from the earliest days. Eegular hours for feeding, with intervals of four hours (or at least three hours) from the beginning of the next. No night feed should be given. . Wake baby if he is asleep when meal time comes round. Give no food between meals. . . Warm boiled water may be given. Establish regularity in sleeping time, exercise, and bathing. Early education of the bowels and bladder is most essential. Hold him out at regular times every day.

By strict adherence to routine baby is automatically taught obedience, and learns to respond to a regular rhythm and to find that l}y the exercising of his lung power he cannot bring himself extra attention or other delights. “The establishment of perfect, regularity of habits, initiated by ‘feeding and sleeping by the clock,’ is the ultimate foundation of all-round obedience. Granted good organic foundations, truth and honour can be built with the edifice as it grows.”—“Feeding and Care of Baby,” by Sir Truby King.