OUR BABIES.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 406, 13 April 1937, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

(By “Hygeia.”) Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society fur the Health of Women and Children. (Plunket Society). '“lt is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” FORMING A CHARACTER, Though written a good many years ago now, the following quotations from Sir Truby King’s book, “Feeding and Care of Elaby,” needs no introduction or qualification. In one’s experience amongst mothers and children one so frequently sees instances of failure on the part of parents to “grasp the plain meaning of the word ‘spoiled’ ” in relation to their children that one is moved to bring forward ’'again these wise words upon the subject: Obedience in Infancy. Obedience in infancy is the foundation of all later powers of selfcontrol; yet it is the one thing the young mother nowadays is most inclined to neglect. Instead of gently, wisely, and, firmly regulating her baby’s habits and conduct, she tends to allow him to have his own way and to rule her and the whole household. Not so the wiser so-called ‘lower animals.” The dog and cat carefully train the progeny in necessary habitc of regularity, cleanliness, etc., from the start, and, as has been pointed out by Long Seton-Thompson and others, they chide, cuff, and pun ish them ivlien necessary rather than allow the formation of bad and irregular habits, which would exact far greater penalties later on. All this is done by instinct, and the human mother with the stronger love ' and the greater wisdom which should be hers would have no difficulty in j guiding her child aright by firmness -ind consistency alone, without resorting to punishment, if she -Would but start at the beginning. The establishment of perfect regularity of habits, initiated by “Feeding and Sleeping by the Clock” (see pages 37, 38, and 39) is the ultimate foundation of all-round obedience. Granted good organic foundations, truth and hbnour can be built into the edifice

as it grows. “Building and Teeth” and “Forming the Character” are parts of the structure of the same edifice, standing in the relationship of the underground foundations of a. building to the superstructure. “Simply won’t!” Our dentists tell us that nowadays when they insist upon the eating of erusts and other hard food the mother often £ays, “Our childreti dimply won’t”—simply won’t comply with laws 'Which have a higher sanction and greater antiquity than the authority of man himself! Such children merely exemplify the ineptitude □f their parents—parents too sentimental, weakly emotional, careless, or indifferent to fulfil the primary laws of Nature. The “can’t-be-so-cruel” mother, whose baby cries half the night and frets all day on account of the mother’s failure to fulfil one of the first of maternal duties, should not blame Providence or heredity because her progeny has.' turned out a “simply won’t” in infancy, and will become a selfish “simply can’it” in later childhood and adolescence. Power to obey (the Ten Commandments or to confirm to the temporal lav.'c.' and usages of society is not to be expected of “spoiled” babies when they reach adult life. The plain meaning ‘of the word “spoiled” is worth some reflection. Everyone grasps the full significance of spoiling a dress or spoiling a dinner, but

Ihe spoiling of a child is regarded more lightly. Unselfishness and ultruism are not the natural outcome of habitual selfindulgence. . Damaged health and absence of discipline and control in early life are the natural foundation of. failure later on—failure through the lack of control, -which underlies all Weakness of character, vice and criminality. Dr and Mrs Fitz, in a book dedicated “To those parents who deem. the. training of their children their supreme privilege and- duty,” say: “Even as the child's constitution, (however weak or strong through heredity) may be markedly changed by fresh air, suitable feeding proper clothing, and an abundance of sleep and exercise, so the child's character (o’,'hatever the inherited tendencies) may be 'transformed for good or for bad by training. "The child at birth has a brain which is the physiological foundation of the adult brain. The child’s character, roughly fashioned by heredity, begins to be moulded for good or ill on the day on which he is born. There are few sights more pathetic than that of a weak mother not daring to lay heT'child down because he will cry for the snuggling warmth of her arms, which in a fen days of his apparently unintelligent existence he has learnt, can be had for the crying. Critically, to watch a baby “work" hie mother is truly enlightening, because his physical helplessness makes- it so incredible. And when the mother has yielded during the first few weeks to the demands- of her child’s cries, the chains Of her slavery are curiously hard to break.”