HAPPY BABIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12760, 2 October 1919, Page 9

HAPPY BABIES.

Happy Babies Make Happy MothersNow, the reverse ia equally true — Happy Mothers make Happy Babies. This is especially and particularly true of the baby who is nursed by its own mother in" the "natural" way. One sometimes meets with babies fed in this way—the way so highly commended by the entire medical faculty—and yet the. result is'not satisfactory. The baby does not thrive well. It ia not a happy baby: it screams a great deal, not from temper, but from the baby's bane —colic Why is this? Why does the '' natural" feeding now and then have this untoward result? THE RESULT OF SELF-NEGLECT. Simply because the mother is not a happy one so far as her own care of herself is concerned. She thinks too much of the baby, the house, the housekeeping—of everything in short, except herself. She is too unselfish sometimes, and the very' reverse happens to what she aims at., for baby has to pay for his mother's neglect of herself. A mother who does not take common-sense care of her own health while nursing will not be the mother of a happy baby. There is no exception to this rule. Take., for instance, the overworked mother—and by "overworked " I do not mean simply the mother who has to do her own housework or who has to help to swell the family exchequer by worn of some sort or other outside her home life. I mean, also, the woman whoso social life—visiting, party-going and giving, and so on—leaves her too little leisure for the rest she needs because it makes too great a call upon her nervous energy. TRYING TO DO TOO MUCH. Such a woman cannot —or very seldom can—rear a healthy baby in " the natural way." She is trying to do too much. "Pleasures'' if she is a devotee of it, is often a stern taskmaster. So b "society." CalLs have to be made and returned, engagements kept —whether she feels up to going out or not. Late hours and overheated rooms are unavoidable—a.iid so is fatigue. I have heard a young mother iell another that she always camo home perff<*fc „ "fogged" from visiting. Then, sh e said, " I rush upstairs to see my baby—and," she added, "I don t see half enough of my babysociety leaves one no time fod the nursery. She tned to nurse her-baby 11. K i"**""™* B '.*!»»* "society" left Ho^tuldltTeT 115 Wt -» ra «*»*