Do be Airified

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 5, Issue 3, 1 September 1926, Page 63

Do be Airified

In spite of my rather flippant title, this article is going to deal with a very solemn subjectthat of ventilation. Certainly the present-day trend is towards fresh air, and plenty of it. At one time people spoke of some one “having to sleep in the open air.” the theory being that there must be something very wrong with the poor creature’s health to need such drastic treatment. But now it is quite usual to be led to a sheltered spot in a garden where a very healthy friend will tell you she often sleeps out of doors, regardless of spiders and other creepy-crawlies. Yet another very great improvement in the present, compared with the past, is that our present-day clothes l am thinking of women’s clothes all make for freedom and air, and wise folk arc careful to wear warm as well as light “undies.” But though most people enjoy the sensations induced by fresh air, they often do not recognise the very real danger of bad and even of slightly impure air. Most of us can think of some friend’s house where the visitor is met at the door by a heavy smell of incense. The owner fondly imagines that the burning of income

many people even now are accustomed to spend seven to ten hours in a bedroom lacking proper ventilation because of their morbid fear of the night air. Except when there is a bad fog, the windows of the bedrooms of both children and grownups should always be kept open through the night. During the day we get constant change from one room to another, and spend some hours out of doors daily. A cold night should never induce the closing of a bedroom window, but warmer (not necessarily more) bedclothes and, for those who like it, a hot water-bottle. 1 t is usual with some parents to have their one and only, or perhaps their latest, baby treasure in with them at night, and that though it is certainly much better for the little one to become accustomed from the very beginning, to sleep alone. But if you do have a child in your room be sure to sec that it is not sharing an inadequate supply of fresh air with two grown-up people. Many babies spend night as well as day nut of doors, and even in the coldest winter a healthy infant should spend much of its time in the open

purifies the air, but this is a delusion. The only way of airing a room, or a hall, is to have an inlet, through which the fresh air can come in from outside, and — this is the most important principle connected with ventilation—an outlet for the had air as well. Tl /Tany otherwise careful house■k’ 7 -*- wives omit to make sure that the windows of their dining-room are thrown wide open after each meal. Yet not only will the doing of this effectively get rid of the smell of food, but it will change the air which a number of human beings have been breathing over and over again for about an hour or more. Why is it that so many people fear the night air? This prejudice is the more strange when we reflect that the air at night must he much purer than in the day. It is strange that

air. It may surprise some of my readers to learn that part of the modern baby’s education is how to learn to keep itself warm. But here let me add a word of important • warning as to the indiscriminate so- ; called hardening of children. While it is certain that the over-coddled child quickly falls a prey to colds and kindred troubles, the intelligent mother will not go to the other ex 1 treme and allow her baby or older 1 child to feel cold. Let her do all in ; her power to attract every ray of ; sunshine, for, as most intelligent men : and women now know, we have come r to realise that the sun is a great ‘ healer. No longer is sunlight shut out of a sick room : everywhere it is ■ welcome as the most ruthless dcs- ‘ trover of harmful germs. But even t the sun, in really hot weather, must r be kept from the head and back of t the neck of its wise worshipper.