Cradle Education

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 4, Issue 10, 1 April 1926, Page 62

Cradle Education

Persistent crying in a perfectly healthy haby is a sign of a faulty cradle education. (§ome of the most common causes are mentioned he low

“✓'“cradle education!” some people I will say. “W hy, how can you educate a baby? He has no mind worth mentioning. Besides, why not leave the poor mite in peace for a little longer before beginn’ng to educate him?” But it is time we got rid of the idea that education is a tedious, unpleasant process, intimately connected with school and school books, wholly divorced from the rest of life. Education, in its widest sense, concerns itself with teaching the individual to live efficiently and rightly, from the mental and moral and from the physical point of view.

What mother does not want this for her baby? Every mother knows, too, that Baby has a mind. It is not expressed at first, for the child's physical weakness, his inexperience, his lack of knowledge prevent this, but it is there all the same, and it develops surprisingly quickly during the first weeks and months of life. How soon the baby learns to recognise when he is about to be fed! Babies of four weeks old cease their cry of hunger when they are taken up in the nursing position. How soon the baby learns to recognise the faces around him! How soon he begins to hold out his arms mutely asking to be taken up; how soon he knows if a cry will get him what he wants! The truth is that education, whether we will or no, does begin at birth. It may be a good education, the baby being trained from the first, by patience and self-denial on the part of his mother, to regular habits of feeding and sleeping; or it may be a bad education. In this latter case the baby is frequently given what h e wants simply because he cries. Thus his mother sets a premium on his crying by giving him pleasure every time he cries. He

never learns to adapt himself to his environment because everything conforms to his whims and wishes. Such a child is subjected from the first to an ill-organised, badly planned, unsuitable life. This may go so far that a baby cries every time he sees his mother and needs expert treatment to cure this extremely annoying habit. Everybody knows the “badly educated’’ babyeven though it is not always recognised that it is the education and not the baby that is at fault! He is the baby who will not lie in his cradle, the baby who insists on being cuddled and amused

the whole time he is awake, the baby who will not wait for his feeds. the baby who will not sleep through the night, / r X It . M ,; Mn . n? „„.-,/,,* cT-/„l:+ L J O7 mm S Regular Ztdblts qpHE first point to consider is 1 regularity. The baby from the first must be taken up regularly to be fed, but if it is not Ids feeding time any cries for food must pass by unheeded. (One must always be sure, of course, that he is not in pa or needing other attention.) The normal, healthy baby does best 0 n four-hourly feeds— 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m.. 6 p.m., and 10 p.m., and there is no fear of his injuring himself if he is left to cry even for half an hour at a stretch. The crying will not continue for many daysunless, of course, the child is exceptionally delicate and really needs food more often—and after the initial battle, Baby usually resigns himself to his fate. He has learnt his first lesson— he is not a potentate and there is no magic in his cry; that his will is not law to the world,

anger of Over- Cfeeding "" ' *J a A NOTHER very important thing *■ ■*■ to remember is that the baby must not be overfed. Many young mothers, nursing their babies themselves, are in a constant state of anxiety lest their milk may be insufficient for the child's needs. But it is necessary to realise that overfeeding is far more common than under-feeding, and that it is possible to overfeed a baby not only from the bottle but also from the breast, The risk of over-feeding is as a rule less for breast-fed babies, because they usually need to suck more vigorously at the mother's nipple than at the teat of a bottle to obtain the same amount of nourishment. Very often an overfed baby gets rid of the surplus milk after each feed by vomiting. This may set up

a habit of vomiting which worries the mother and also has its effect on the child’s health in that he may retain too little food for his needs. The moral effect of over-feeding must not be forgotten either. Is it a mother’s part to form in her child habits of gross living? Let us remember that more people die of over-eating than of over-drinking. Cleanliness is another most important factor in cradle education. A baby’s toilet should be attended to immediately he needs it. Careful watching is necessary if the right moment is to be seized, but the trouble is certainly worth while, for it is possible to train a three months’ old baby to be clean and regular in his physical habits if you go about it in the right way. bNbeed for dhCoral CJraining ' ! 'HE first object of cradle edu- •*- cation, then, is 'to regulate the physical behaviour of the boby so that good habits become automatic and remain so throughout life. This is obviously important for health,

but the moral results are equally important. "On sound health, a good character leans confidently," and training in regular habits is also one of the best ways of training the will. There is a good deal more need for moral training during the first few months of life than is generally realised. Take the baby of three months. He was born without any knowledge at all. He did not even know his body belonged to him. But in twelve weeks he has gained enough knowledge of his own personality to try to get his way with others. He cries to be picked up or to be amused, and if his fond mother always reacts to his cries, she sets a premium on his crying. Then comes a delightful time for him when Baby uses his power without scruple. He has discovered the "Open Sesame" for all his desires

and -naturally enough he utilises it to the full. Interpreting Baby s (dries course, he starts out with an advantage over us. Crying is so worrying if one does not know the cause. The cry is the only language of the baby, and it is necessary for the mother to learn to interpret it. There is the cry of pain which ought to be relieved if possible. There is the cry of hunger which, if it occurs repeatedly soon after meals, should lead one to suspect that the child is underfed. There is the cry of temper which may be judiciously neglected. There is the cry of discomfort which may mean that the baby has grown tired of lying too long in one position and must be turned over, or that he wants changing. An experienced mother always knows by the sound of the cry what the baby is telling her, but the young mother needs to listen very carefully and must often

go to look at Baby before she can distinguish between the various cries, Babies suffer a good deal from our ignorance of their language. A physician tells the story of how he was called in to relieve a baby of three months who had been screaming for several hours. He undid the binder and "found—of all things—a fork!" By the way, a binder should never be used after the cord has . healed, and should be of a sensible pattern. The yards of flannel often wound round a baby are unhealthy and uncomfortable abominations. The right treatment of crying, then, is an important feature of cradle education. The child has a right to expect from his parents protection from pain and fear and physical discomfort. But he also has the right to expect them to help him wisely to subordinate his will by ignoring cries of temper or peevishness. There are other more constructive ways of training the will, These belong to the mental and psychological side of cradle education. Baby Serins to take Notice J ° t TT is important? for instance, to do A all in our power to help on the development of concentration, so that when the child is old enough to undertake certain tasks he may have concentration enough to do so. Very young babies will stare at an attractive object for several minutes at a time and it is most unwise to distract their gaze needlessly. By doing so we may hinder the development of the power of attention, The baby of three months or older begins to try to handle things, and

later on to investigate the feel of them. He has the will to learn, and it is our bounden buty to encourage him in this by giving him a variety of suitable material to experiment upon. Old cards, a string of spools, rattles, india-rubber animals and dolls provide ideal touch-experience for baby fingers, The baby of seven or eight months usually begins to pull himself up in his cot or his baby pen. After making suitable provision for his safety, this should not be discouraged unless the child is obviously over-straining himself. The baby beginning to pull himself up is finding out the great joy of achievement— of the greatest pleasures of life, zAfopays be Qonsistent y ; I *HEN, too, every baby must learn certain elementary rules of behaviour. How much more complicated we make his task of finding out what is the right thing to do and what is not, if we are not consistent in correcti "g or in praising him! It s essential to be consistent in training the baby to know the difference between right and wrong, It is no use to laugh at him when he does something in the privacy of the home and to punish him when he does the same thing in the presence of visitors and strangers, We must be consistent not only with the baby, but with ourselves, One cannot expect the baby to continue for very long in regular habits if his parents live in a haphazard and irregular fashion.— The Home Magazine.