OUR BABIES.
By
Hygeia
Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). “ It is wiser to put up a fence , to P a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”
PLUNKET NURSES, ETC.. DUNEDIN
branch
NURSES' SERVICES FREE.
Nurses O’Shea (telephone 23-348). Isbister (telephone 10-866), Thomson, Scott, and Ewart (telephone 10-216) and Mathieson (telephone 23-020). Society's Rooms: Jamieson's Buildings, 6 Lower Stuart street (telephone 10-216) Office hours: Daily from 2 to 4 p.m. (except Saturday and Sunday) and 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays. Thursdays, and Fridays; 315 King Edward street. South Dunedin. 2 to 4 p.m daily (except Saturday and Sunday) and 10 a.m to noon on Fridays; also 125 Highgate. Roslyn— Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m.: Gospel Hall, Mailer street. Mornington— Monday and Wednesday 2 to 4 p.m.. Kelsey Yaralla Kindergarten — Monday and Friday from 2 to 4 p.m.; Baptist Sunday School. Sunshine—Monday . and Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m.; 211 Mam North road. North-East Valley—Tuesdays, 2 to 4 p.m.; Kindergarten Caversham—Thursdays. 2 to 4 p.m
Out-stations: Baptist Church. Gordon road. Mosgiel—Tuesday afternoons from 3 to 4 o’clock; Presbyterian Church Hall. Outram—alternate Fridays. 2 to 4 p.m.: Municipal Buildings Port ChalmersWednesday afternoons from 2 to 4 o’clock; also Hall. Macandrew’s Bay—Fridays. 2 to 4 p.m
Administrative Secretary, Miss G. Hoddinott, Jamieson’s Buildings, Stuart street (telephone 10-216). Karitane-Harris Baby Hospital, Anderson’s Bay (telephone 22-985) Matron. Miss Hilditch Demonstrations given on request every Wednesday afternoon from 2.30 by Plunket Nurses and Karitane Baby Nurses Visiting hours: 2to 4 p.m.. Wednesday. Friday and Sunday. THE CONTROL OF FEAR IN LITTLE CHILDREN. Parents of highly strung, “nervous” children, wishing to help them attain that self-reliance “ morale ” spoken of in last week’s quotation from Dr Arnold Gesell s article on mental hygiene, will be interested in his advice on the question of, fear in young children. Dr Gesell holds that there is a “hygiene of fear,” of which he writes as follows:— “ One of the most common disorders of morale in young children is the excessive fear or the morbid terror. Fear itself can scarcely be regarded as a fault or a defect. Fear is instinctive; it is a natural function; it is protective. Within limits, it even promotes the development of personality. To omit fear altogether from the child's life, were that possible, would be like omitting vitamins and salt from his diet. In vaccination doses, he needs fear to build up fortitude. Fear is anticipatory pain or fore-glimpsed evil. Only when the child has normal experience in the anticipation of pain and evil, can he gradually develop a normal immunity against pain and evil. If fear and fortitude are developed hand-in-hand, be becomes resistant and sympathetic. Wholesome fear generates its own mental antidotes, thus he acquires fortitude through fear. Fear also lies at the basis of caution, whether highway caution or ethical caution. “It is therefore quite wrong to regard fear as a microbe or as an unmixed evil. ■Rather, it is a natural function which has its own mental hygiene. It is only the excessive or corroding fears which warp and inhibit the growth of personality that are unhealthy.
Prevention is always better than cure, so let us consider how excessive or unreasonable fears may be avoided. A few rules may be set down categorically:—
. “ 1. Do not plant the seeds of unwholesome fear by false alarms, by undue worries, by expressions of anxiety, by exaggerated threats, or by imaginary bogeys. Be sensible with children at all ages. Untruthful threats about the policeman are fair to neither the policeman nor the child. Bogeys belong to the primitive peoples, not to present-day children.
“2. Keep the child, whenever possible, away from unnecessary artificial fears. Do not let him go to kinemas which are absurdly terrifying or false to life. In the same spirit, guide liis reading. Some juvenile literature is more grotesquely fearful than it should be—even fairy tales need a little moderation at times—but, on the whole, good literature, like a good kinema, is safe and provides fear experiences which enlarge the child’s imagination and deepen his insight into life. Literature, like life, will introduce him to pain and evil, and help him in the task of surmounting both. "3. Keep the child’s body fit. It makes for mental as well as physical resistance. Physical stamina reduces exaggerated or abnormal fearfulness. Fatigue, faulty nutrition, and physical handicaps undermine the native stability of the nervous system. A warm bath and a glass of milk will sometimes prevent an acute fear from developing or even banish a vague anxiety. Certain nightmares are pharyngeal, gastric, or intestinal in origin. If a child is weakened by a severe illness or is undergoing a Ion" convalescence, it is particularly important that he should be safeguarded from undue fears, but it is equally important that he should not be over-indulged, for ultimately fear must always be combated through fortitude, and he must learn some fortitude even on a sick-bed.
“4. Nourish the child’s trustfulness in life. This trust will come chiefly by mental contagion and by subtle suggestion. Do not let him entertain suspicions, doubtings, and unsatisfied curiosity. These readily become the starting points for insidious fears. If he is not seriously deceived, and if he has abundant experiences of success in his work and play, he will acquire a confidence in himself which will fortify him against abnormal fear. Normal’everyday living is probably the most decisive factor in the prevention of morbid fear. Inherited predisposition is of secondary importance, for even a ‘sensitive’ child can be trained to fear aright. “ Notwithstanding, even in the best regulated homes, excessive fears of some kind may take root and flourish. How can such fears be managed ? Every fear has its own peculiar history and its own treatment. However, a few general directions which apply to nearly all cases may be suggested. “ First of all, respect the child’s fear, whatever it may be, even if it seems to you altogether ‘ imaginary.’ It has a basic cause and is a reality to the child.
“Do not try to laugh it out of court by derision or shame. A sense of humour sometimes helps to turn the trick; but the best humour always has a quality of sympathy. “ Do not try to scare him out of his fear by scolding or by false threat. This would simply be displacing one fear for another.
“Do not, on the other hand, try to cajole it out by an equally false bribe or absurd reward. Remember that the problem is one of character formation, and not one of ‘ discipline,’ and that the problem will be solved only if the child acquires counteracting fortitude or familiarising experience. “ Get at the basis of the fear through questioning and conversation with the child rather than through argument with him.
“Do not attempt to destroy the fear altogether. (This is a common mistake.) Rationalise the fear, moderate it, temper it. Grant the child the privilege of fearing, but direct the fear and temper its intensity. “And, once again, do not shame him for cowardice, but praise him for every bit of bravery or fortitude he shows Commendation will build up self-confi-dence, whereas condemnation can undermine it. And self-reliance is the very defence you wish to build up.”
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 3995, 7 October 1930, Page 61
Word Count
1,225OUR BABIES. Otago Witness, Issue 3995, 7 October 1930, Page 61
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