Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

Overdoing the Hardening

'By A Physician

In the bitter weather which we are now experiencing one may see children sometimes led about by overcoated fathers, enduring the icy blasts with bare legs and chilblained hands. They are being hardened. They do not seem to be enjoying the process in the least; they sneeze and snuffle; they are laying up for themselves a crop of adenoids which will obstruct their breathing, give them high palates, protruding teeth, and "rabbit" faces, and will also provide them with the seeds of rheumatism for their mature years, to say nothing of the chances of consumption in their 'teens. Or, again, the remorseless parent will have his children up at 6 a.m., and make them begin the day with an icy cold bath. After that performance they sit in a cold room packing their heads with lessons before breakfast. He intends to make them Spartans. These excellent people forget to take into account the sensitiveness of the young organism. A cold bath in the morning may so depress the nervous system that the child may feel the deficiency of vitality all day long, and, indeed, all his life.

Knee-Tads For Girls f~\U~R. young women show greater heroism, for, in devotion to fashion, or by way of renderinghomage to the goddess of vanity, they will submit to veritable torture. Recently I met one who had all her toes frostbitten rather than renounce her silk stockings in winter. As to good woollen hose, which would be warmer, my suggestion to that effect almost proved—stoical though she was—too much for her. The fashion of Russian boots is sensible enough, but these should be carried higher than usually worn. The bare knee, though pleasing to the eye, is a tender part, so much so that in other countries where comfort rather than appearance is consulted, "gcnouilleres," or pads for the knees, are worn as commonly as mittens. In saying all this do I advise that children should be nursed, muffled, coddled? No. On the contrary, I believe in the hardening process, but it should be done gradually and methodically, by a sort of progressive training rather than by sudden and violent jerks trying to the organism and hurtful to the morale of the child.

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.
Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/LADMI19260701.2.54

Bibliographic details

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 5, Issue 1, 1 July 1926, Page 40

Word Count
375

Overdoing the Hardening Ladies' Mirror, Volume 5, Issue 1, 1 July 1926, Page 40

Overdoing the Hardening Ladies' Mirror, Volume 5, Issue 1, 1 July 1926, Page 40