Make Baby Beautiful

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 4, Issue 10, 1 April 1926, Page 36

Make Baby Beautiful

*By "A MOTHER OF THREE "

CJoilet CJips for the purser

A healthy baby ought to be like a flower, sweet to look at and sweet to smell. So many bonny little people, it seems to me, are not made the best of by their mothers. You can hardly travel in a train or bus without seeing some lusty youngster who with a little care might be quite beautiful,

but who in his present state is rather “untempting” to all but the born lover of babies. For once let us consider the question of baby’s beauty culture, rather than his health culture! One of the greatest charms of a well-kept baby is the exquisite softness of his skin; yet rough, “scurfy” little checks are to be seen on many an otherwise pretty child. Indigestion, in a few cases, may be responsible, but more often, especially at this season of the year, it is merely a matter of carelessness. A very little good cold cream, rubbed gently on at bed-time, and before going out into the cold wind, will prevent this unbecoming (and, somehow, so unsuitable) roughness of baby’s skin. At the teething, dribbling stages, we must be particularly careful about baby’s little chin, and the folds of skin just beneath it; poor wee mites often suffer misery from chapping hereabouts, and, when bonnet strings

are being tied, will lift up their voices with every reason in the world. OOFT, downy hair, however little there may be of it, and however small an inclination it may show to curl, is another point in the good looks of a baby; hair that one can

enjoy kissing, too! But if baby’s head is allowed to become overheated with too hot prams and too thick woollen caps, the hair soon develops a lifeless look. It should be washed every day for the first eight or nine months; later, every other day will do, and, after the first year or so, I really think twice a week is often enough. But when I speak of washing baby’s hair everyday, I don’t mean continually washing it with soap. A very, very little soap is enough at any time, and, four days out of the seven, a gentle sponging with warm water is enough. If mothers used less bathsoap (which at its best isn’t meant for hair) on baby’s head, I believe there would be fewer cases of scurf in the scalps of young children. A brown scurf is very liable to appear on any baby’s head, particularly towards the front and over the ears. If is often due to “sweating”

of the scalp, or to insufficient rinsing where soap is used; and sometimes it appears where every care has been taken, to the best of one’s knowledge, which makes one wonder if it isn’t then associated with digestive trouble. DON’T attempt to remove this scurf until it has been well soaked with vaseline or olive oil for twenty-four hours; that is to say, when you bath baby, rub the vaseline or olive oil well into the hair, and leave it until you bath him next day. He will look a queer little object, but never mind. Wash and dry the hair, then gently raise from the scalp as many of the scurfy patches as will come off easily; use a special baby-comb for doing this. If any of the scales seem at all obstinate, repeat the greasing process and try again next day. Once baby has suffered from scurf, always keep a careful watch

for any further symptoms, and, hozvcver slight the tendency may be, rub in a very little vaseline immediately to prevent its getting worse. Scurfincss gives a baby’s head such a dirty, neglected look, and so very soon spoils the growth of the hair that it is well worth guarding against with all your might. As I have suggested, many a baby’s head suffers from insufficient ventilation; it is kept too warm, too moist, and the scalp gets into an unhealthy condition. The daily brushing and combing of such a very small amount of hair may seem to some of us . hardly worth while — a smooth-down, we think, and that’s all it needs. But the brushing and combing help to ventilate the hair, just as the sieving of flour helps to aerate the pastry; you can do I without it, but the result is not so good. TXT'E all want our babies to have * V pretty mouths and noses, and these they will never have if we allow them to lie sucking “comforters” by the hour, or if we give

them such “easy” teats to their bottles that they have no need to exert themselves to get their food. It is the exercise of all the fine little muscles around the lips and jaws that help to give firmness and fitness of contour to the mouth and nose. You will find the prettiest mouths among babies who have had to “work for their living” so far as sucking goes 1 And not only the prettiest, but the healthiest mouths; the mouths that later on have good, strong, well-placed teeth. Healthy throats, too, are engendered by vigorous sucking— with a far better-than-average resistance to the modern plague of adenoid growths and enlarged tonsils. WHAT could be prettier than a * * little baby’s hands and feet? “sea-shell pink,” Swinburne called them. Yet they will not be what they might if we neglect the wee

nails. In a tiny baby, these are often allowed to grow so long that they inflict long scratches on the poor little owner’s face; and how ugly they look. At first, the nails are so soft that they may be carefully “peeled” to the right length, but later they should be regularly cut. The same applies to the toe-nails, which should be cut across squarely, not rounded off more than is necessary to prevent scratches. It is a good plan to begin these small attentions quite early in baby’s life, so that he takes them as a matter of course; I have known babies scream with fright (or indignation) at having their nails cut, but probably this is because their mothers didn’t begin soon enough, or because of some past carelessness with the scissors, so that actual pain was inflicted. A normal happy baby rather enjoys these little details of his toilet, if only mother carries them out in a spirit of sympathy and fun; and, as I write, there comes back to me an engaging picture of my firstborn, aged two, trotting up to me with a radiant face and saying, “Mumma, my toes wants nailing!”