HEALTH NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1929, Page 28 (Supplement)

HEALTH NOTES

SLEEP REQUIREMENTS

WHAT CHILDREN NEED.

(Contributed by Department of Health.) Enough sound sleep is one of the three essentials for a child’s health; the other' two are right food and outdoor play in the sun. These three essentials depend on one another. If a child gets plenty of simple food and vigorous outdoor play in the sun, he is likely to sleep well. If his diet ie improper, and he sits around indoors all day, he may sleep poorly. If his sleep' is disturbed or too short he may be tired and unable to make the best use of his food, and as a result may be undersized or underweight, even though he is not underfed.

If your child is well grown, if he has firm muscles, rounded outlines, erect posture, a rosy skin, clear eys without circles under them, a happy disposition, and a good appetite he is probably getting the right kind and amount of sleep. A child grows most when asleep. When he i<s awake the food that he has eaten is used to supply him with energy for his play and other activities. When he is asleep his activities are cut down to almost nothing, and his food * can be used to renew the tissues that have been worn out by the day’s play and to build new tissues. The building of new tissue is called growing. If the child gets too little sleep his growth is hindered. , The faster a child is growing the more sleep he needs. (Adults need less sleep than children because they have stopped growing). A baby less than a year old grows very fast, and therefore sleeps most of the time. When he gets a little older he does not grow so fast and therefore does not need so much sleep. After about a dozen years, when the child enters the adolescent stage, growth speeds up again, and this older boy or girl needs even more sleep than the child a year or two younger, Many Sarents do not know this and permit liese older children to stay up later than the younger ones. As a result boys and girls 13 to 15 are often listless and inert. They may be sleepy and tired most of the lime, and un«ble to concentrate on their' lessons.

Steady lass of sleep, is bad for a child’s mental and physical development. A full allowance of unbroken hours of restful sleep helps normal bodily growth and alert mentality. Medical authorities and others agree that children four years old need at least twelve hours sleep; five to seven years old, eleven to twelve hours; twelve to fourteen years old, nine to ten hours.

Sleeping at regular hours is a habit that you must start for a new baby. If you accustom your child to a regular bedtime from infancy you not only help his chances for normal development. of body and mind but also simplify your own problems of child management for, as years pass, your child will continue to go quietly, unquestioningly to bed. Almost all children who go to bed unwillingly or sleep too little have not been trained properly in early infancy. The early bedtime habit —6 o’clock during infancy and not later than 7 o'clock . throughout early childhood — should be unbroken. If the rule is clung to without any exceptions, evening entertainments such as movies will never be in the child's programme and: they will not be expected. • Do not keep the child up to • entertain visitors, and do not allow him to stay up because he begs to) It is unwise to give in to a whining child, and permitting him to loose sleep in this way leads to a vicious circle. Loss of sleep makes him irritable and overactive, and overactivity makes him restless and wakeful, so that on following evenings it becomes harder . and harder to get him to go to bed.. On the other had a child who goes to bed tranquilly is likely to sleep well and to be easy to manage the next day. Clashes between parent and child are often due to the fact that the child is worn out from lack of sleep. Your child’s night rest depends largely upon how he has spent the day. An exciting day, without a nap, may leave a child literally too tired to sleep. Especially should the end of the day be free from excitement. The half hour before bedtime should be devoted to quiet pleasures, without romping, exciting games or stories, or any activities that are stimulating.