OUR BABIES

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 98, 7 December 1928, Page 2

OUR BABIES

BY HYGEIA. Published under the auspices tf the Royal 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.” FORMING A CHARACTER. Though written a good many years hgo now, the following quotation from Sir Trilby Xing’s book foa mothers, “Feeding and Car© of Baby,” needs no introduction or qualification. In one’s experience amongst mothers and ch'ildtreu ones so frequently sees instances of failure on the part of parents to grasp “the plain meaning of the word ‘spoiled’ ” Sn relation £0 their children thht one i s moved to bring forward again these wise v ■ rdupon the subject:— OBEDIENCE IN INFANCY. “Obedience in infancy is the foundation. of all later powers or sencontrol, ; yet it is tlie one tlung tna young mother nowaday s is most ruclmea to neglecx. instead of gently, wisely, and firmly regulating her bpby’s habits and conduct, slie tenets to allow him to have his own way and to rule her and the whole household. Not so the wiser soecalledl ‘lower animals-.’ The dog and the cat carefully train their progeny in necessary habits of regularity, cleanliness, etc.. Item the start, and, as has been pointed out by Long, Seton-Thoinpsbn, ymd )dth(|rs'.,[ they chide, cuif and punish them when necessary rather than allow the formation of had and irregular habits, which would/ exact far greuter penalties later on. All this is done! by instinct; and the human (mother, with the stronger love and the greater wisdom which' should bo hers, would have no difficulty in guiding her child aright by firmness * and! consistency alone, without resorting to punishment, if she would but start at the beginning. The establishment of perfect regularity of habits, initiated by ‘Feeding and Sleeping by the Clock’ (see pages 30, 36), is the ultimate foundation of all-roamdl obedience. Granted good organic foundations, truth and honour can be built into the edifice as it grows.

“ ‘Building the Teeth’ and ‘Forming a Character’ are parts of construction of the same edifice—(standing in the relationship of the underground foundations of a building to the superstructure.

“SIMPLY WON’T!”

“Our dentists tell us that nowj adays when they insist on the eating I of crusts and other hard food’, Rio j mother often says ‘Qur children sim- ■ ply wfcjn’t!’—(simply ‘won’t' comply with laws which have ia higher sanction and) greater antiquity than the authority of man himself! Such children merely_exemplify the ineptitude of their parents—parents too sentimental, weakly emotional, careless, or indiffierent to fulfil the primary law's of Mature. The 'can’t-he-so-cruel’ mother, whoso habv cries naif the night land frets all day on account of the mother’s failure to fulfil oRe of thel [first maternal duties, should not blame Providence Or heredity because her progeny has turned out ai “simply-won’t’ in inffalncy, and will become a selfish “simplycan’t’- in later childhood and adolescence. Power to chey the ‘Teat Command merits’ or Jto conform to the temporal law’s and fuSagjes of! society is not to he expected of ‘spoiled’ babies -when they reach adult life. The plain meaning of the word ‘spoiled’ is w’orth some reflection. Everyone grasps the full significance of spoiling a dress or spoiling a dinner, but the spoiling of a child is regarded more lightly! “Unselfishness and altruism are not the natural outcome of habitual self-indulgence. ])aniiiged - health and absence of discipline and control in early life are the natural foundations of failure later on—failure through the lack, of control, W’hich underlies all weakness of chirr act er, vice, and criminality. Dr. and Mrs Fitz, in a book dedicated ‘To those Parents who deem the Training of their Children their Supreme Privilege and Duty,’ says; “ ‘Even as the child’s constitution (however weak or strong through heredity) may be markedly changed by fresh air, suitable feeding, proper clothing, and an abundance of sleep and exercise, so the child’s charact-

er (whatever the inherited tendencies) may be transformed for good or for bad by training. “‘The child at birth his a, brain Which is the physiological foundation of the adult brain. . . . The child’s character, roughly fashioned! by heredity, begins to he moulded for good or ill on the day on which he is horn.

“ ‘There are few sights more patftetia tlirii that of the weak mother nofc'daiing to lay her child down because he will cry for the snuggling warmth of her arms, which in the few days of his apparently unintelligent existence ho hasjeamt can be hiad for the crying. Critically to watch a. baby ‘work’ bis mothdr is truly enlightening, fbeffcuuise his physical helplessness makes it seem so incredible. .... And when 'the mother has yielded during the first few weeks to the demands of her child’s cries, the chains of her 'slavery are curiously haz'd to break.’ ”