Upbringing of Children.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 479, 11 June 1890, Page 5

Upbringing of Children.

An infant is not naturally peevish or irrit- | able. An infant, if well, ought to be full of joy and mirth and playfulness when well awake as a kitten or a baa-lamb. Whether ro3y-faced ornot,he shouldatleast be happy* faced. The desire to take notice of everything andeverybodyabouthimshould be expressed in his bright, clear eyes. Touch his cheek : r it does not give to your linger in soft suddenness. Take his hand; you do not feel as if had got hold of the bail of a dead lish. There is firmness in it, and a wholesome amount of warmth, while the fingers have a considerable degree of grasping power. He will hardly let go the forefinger you have presented him with. ‘ Wait a moment,’he seems to say; ‘I want to collect myself, and find out what it all means. You may be a very good sort of fellow, but I haven’t summed you up yet; and I can’t think so fast as you.’ When he has summed you up, perhaps lip gets your finger free with a broad grin or chuckle, which, could it only be interpreted, would very likely be found to mean something far from complimentary to your general appearance and character. Well, get hold now of this young fellow’s calf, and give it a shake ; you will find the knee-joints as firm as if leg and thigh were all one piece, and the flesh as hard and tough ' as vulcanite. Perhaps the skin is not even silky or over-smooth. All the better ; he will grow up the stronger. Perhaps it is ' brown instead of satin-white. Better again ; this means pure blood, with a good dash of iron in it, and plenty of oxygen all through. And as the leg, _so the heart will be. A child like this, 3 you will find, is a good hand with the ' spoon. Eating i 3 to him the serious business of his young life, and all' his observa- ’ tion is concentrated on the dish before him. ] Ho would be jealous e v en of the cat having , a morsel till he himself were done. Then, j with a right good John Bull heartiness, he

will push the dish towards her, and scream with delight to see her eat. Daddy and mammy may well be proud of such a ‘ birkie ’ as this. But hero is a child of another sort. I sketch from the life —such life as it is, alas ! The parents are both well to do, and dote upon the boy, who is just eighteen months old. He is in his mother’s arms now ; one arm clinging round' her neck, the other hanging listlessly down. A bonnie boy, in trutTi, with locks of soft amber hair, and eyes of himmel blue. But his face is flushed and somewhat hot, and the eyelids droop rather, and are thicker than they ought to be. There is a moistness in his skin that I do not half like, and his limbs are soft and flabby—unwholesome to the touch. * How does he eat ?’

‘ Not at all well, doctor. He used to thrive wonderfully well on a patent flour food, and took plenty of milk, bub now he refuses that, and will only take food with coaxing.’ ‘ Meat and broth, perhaps ?' ‘ And potatoes, yes. We feed him much as we do ourselves.’

‘ Ah, there you err,’ ‘ And he is so feverish and irritable all day long. I pity even the nurse.’ ‘Sodo I. How does he sleep ?’ ‘He does not or cannot sleep at all, all day. At night he will sleep in the nurse’s arms, but if she puts him down he wakes and screams. The sleep he gets does nob appear to refresh him. He starts often, and has bad dreams: tosses his arms about, and grinds his teeth ; and his eyes are often half - open. By day he refuses to be amused like other children, and is bitterly’ - cross at times without the slightest reason. Do you think he is dangerously ill ?’ ‘ I do not wish to alarm you needlessly,’ I reply, ‘ but this is a case which may end in brain congestion, or even inflammation. You must do precisely what I tell you, and the child will get well.’ The child does get well. One mistake has been the terrible destructive error of administering certain so-called remedies to produce so-called sleep. This is given up at once, and is the beginning of the happy denouement.

But this irritability of the brain I am talking of, this peevishness by day and sleeplessness by night, may—pray remember—be the precursor of some serious coming illness, so that if it lasts for any length of time, even for a week, you should consult the physician.—A Family Doctor.