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The diseases of weaning were formerly alluded to as diseases of a special nature, in relation with the change in the alimentation of children. These affections possess no peculiarities, and present at this period the same characteristics as in the other periods of early childhood. Most of them appear as simple phenomena of coincidence without any relation of cause to effect. There is one, however, which appears to be in special relation with weaning, this is inflammation of the Mahon alimentary canal. Its characters are not in any way modified; and its development may be prevented by the employment of the means capable of softening the transition between lactation and independent

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CHAPTER IV.

ON THE HABITS, EXERCISE, SLEEP, AND REST OF CHILDREN.

Nothing is more dangerous than to allow children to acquire bad habits. Their cries then possess such a ready and absolute means of command, that those who surround them become their slaves, and submit to their most trivial wishes, in the dread of exciting their anger and of doing them injury.

It was formerly the custom to send children to sleep by rocking them in the arms, or in the cradle; but proper remarks have caused these means to be abandoned, so that we rarely have occasion to forbid it now. However, the necessity is still pretty generally believed in, of sending the children to sleep, either by caresses when they are in their bed, or by holding them on the knees until sleep has weighed down their eyelids. It then happens that if other occupations should distract the nurse from this attention, the child cries until some one sends it to sleep; and when it awakes in the night, they are obliged to fly to its bed and recommence the same caresses. This is a bad habit to allow children to acquire, who would always wish to have some one near them during their sleep, or would sleep on the knees of their nurse. They can be brought up differently, and their sleep is not, on that account, the less beneficial to them. They have only to be placed quite awake in their cradle, and they quickly get into the habit of falling asleep there. It costs but little to follow this line of conduct from the very commencement of lactation; it is very advantageous in this sense-that the children become very docile, and allow the nurse all the time necessary for her rest.

When this bad habit is established, and when it becomes irksome to the parents, it may be destroyed with a little courage and determination. All that is required is to resist the cries of the children, which

is possible, when it is known that they are not suffering, and that they are not in want of anything. They are to be left in their cradle th!" to fall asleep alone: the first day their distress is great, but their cries soon abate when they see that it is resolved not to satisfy their whim. This lasts for two or three days; and then they give in and fall asleep as soon as they are placed in their bed.

Exercise is one of the most important constituents of the hygiene of children who live in towns. It is the only means of supplying the disadvantage which exists in their not being brought up in the country. Even young children should be accustomed in all kinds of weather to the influence of the external air, care being taken to clothe them appropriately, according to the temperature. Long walks, both in summer and winter, are very advantageous to them: it favours their The sun is development, and gives tone and colour to the skin.

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& Grasten. especially advantageous to them, and it is useless to endeavour, as is Heuty &

frequently the case, to shade them from its rays, from which they derive a salutary influence.

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There is no reason, except the presence of disease, which should prevent children from going out. It is much against their interest to. believe that walking and exercise in the house, in the open air, or in a garden, can be replaced by the opening of the windows of their room. They should be taken out of doors, and if possible, the greater part of the day should be passed with them there.

Children live so rapidly, their functions are so quickly performed, that they require frequent reparation. It is on this account that often repeated feeding and sleep are so necessary to them.

The night time is not sufficient for the repose of children; during

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the day they also sleep for some hours, and during the two first u years of their life, this sleep should be carefully attended to. The hours

of the siesta should be always so arranged as not to interrupt the daily during

promenade, especially in winter, when they can only go out at certain

times of the day. At a later period this habit must be destroyed; day

sleep in the day time is no longer necessary, and it prevents that in the night being so advantageous to them as it otherwise would be.

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Children should lie on soft beds on account of the delicacy of theirusit. limbs, and their cradle should be protected and padded on the sides, so L that their movements should not cause them any injury. The formation

of the bedding deserves a special attention. The bed and the pillow au 2 should be filled with oat-straw, perfectly dry and without odour, or with fern leaves, the odour of which is very agreeable. Feathers, down, and wool are more injurious than useful, on account of the heat which they develop, and the facility with which they become impregnated by the odour of urine. Care should be taken to place the child in such a position that the eyes be not exposed to too strong a light, and they

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The air of the room in

should be directly opposite the daylight.
which it is placed should be occasionally renewed.

Covering up children too much in their cradle is unfortunately a very common error; under the pretext of guarding them from the impressions of air, they are nearly suffocated beneath heavy coverings, they in are bathed in perspiration, their bodies become covered with red spots and miliary vescicles which are sometimes taken for a serious disease, Cline whilst they are really the results of the practice above referred to. They disappear as soon as the immoderate covering of the children

Heep is left off.

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CHAPTER V.

ON THE CLOTHING.

It is now understood that children should be clothed to protect them from the influence of external agents, and particularly of the cold, and not to fetter the liberty of their movements. The use of swaddling clothes, as they were formerly constructed, is abandoned. Children are no longer imprisoned in their clothes, with their legs stretched out and motionless, their arms firmly fixed by the side of the body, and the head drawn down to the front of the chest. They are left nearly free in the clothes which envelop them. This is the principle which should rule over the clothing of children.

The baby linen now used is made up of the following pieces. A linen chemisette and a woollen bodice, opening behind and fastened with pins, covering the breast and arms. A napkin, also of linen, and a skirt of cotton or of wool, according to the season, destined to envelop the lower part of the trunk and the thighs. These portions of dress are fixed to the middle of the body which they should enclose. The napkin envelops the limbs, and serves to isolate them and to prevent any friction of these parts; the skirt, placed over it, covers the united limbs, and as it considerably exceeds the length of the child, it is turned in, and by folding it envelops afresh the inferior portion of the body. All these portions of the dress should be quite loose, and should be kept n position by means of strings or pins. When pins are made use of, they should be carefully introduced, so as not to injure the skin. Sometimes the point is not completely brought out, and enters the flesh on every motion of the child. The unfortunate babes cry incessantly until they are undressed. I have seen one who had the skin of the back completely transfixed, as well as the chemisette and bodice. This little being uttered dreadful cries. It continued three hours in this dreadful state, until it had a severe convulsion, and it was not until it was undressed that the cause of the symptoms was discovered. This case should serve as a

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lesson, and it imposes on all mothers the obligation of undressing children who cry obstinately, in order to discover if perchance some misplaced pin is not the cause of this manifestation of pain. Children should be early accustomed to keep the head uncovered, for this part is less easily impressed with cold than other parts of the body. Young children should have it but slightly covered. A woollen cap - placed under a linen one is made use of for this purpose, both of them at hind sufficiently large so as not to impede the development of the head and ad Should compress the brain. It is important to attend to this recommendation, Curly le

so as to avoid the accidents which may result from compression of the head during infancy. In fact, an attempt has been made, but,id. without much reason, to refer to this cause the development of many diseases of the brain, and especially mental alienation.

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I shall not bring the subject of children's dress to a conclusion without referring to flannel, and without condemning the use of it, if it become too frequent for the requirements of infancy. This soft woollen tissue, which is immediately applied to the skin, is only proper for children born before their time, for those who are very feeble, and, lastly, for launch those who may be considered weak chested, in consequence of the original vitiation of the parents. In these cases it is truly serviceable to Should those who use it, and who derive benefit from the genial warmth in which they live.

On the contrary, children who are tolerably well developed, and who inspire no fear on account of their constitution, should not be clothed in flannel. It is the means of enervating them, and rendering them too susceptible of the influence of cold. It is much better to adopt an entirely opposite method of rearing them, by washing them every day with cold water at 68° Fah. Flannel is an injurious clothing for them, one which keeps the skin at too high a degreee of heat, especially when the external temperature is high, and thence abundant perspirations result, and sudatorial eruptions, sometimes accompanied by intolerable itching.

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CHAPTER VI.

ON THE TOILETTE AND CLEANLINESS OF CHILDREN.

The state of the body of children in relation to cleanliness cannot be too attentively cared for. The care employed with this object forms one of the fundamental conditions of a good physical education, and it also possesses the advantage of strengthening the individuals, and of putting them in a condition to resist more easily the unfavourable influences which may attack them during their existence. These precautions

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RECEIPTS FOR THE FOREGOING DIET TABLE.

Cocoa Cocoa nibs, half-ounce; water, one pint; boil to half-pint; add half-pint of milk, half-ounce of sugar.

Gruel.-Grits, 1 ounce; water, two-thirdspint; milk, one-third-pint; sugar, half-ounce. Milk and water.-Milk, two-thirds-pint; water, one-third-pint; sugar, quarter-ounce.

Arrow-root.-Arrow-root, half-ounce; water, three-quarters-pint; milk, quarter-pint; sugar, half-ounce. Thin arrow-root for drink, made with quarter-ounce of arrow-root.

Rice pudding.-Carolina rice, half-ounce ; sugar, half-ounce; milk, half-pint.

Bread pudding.-Either boiled or baked.Half-breakfast cup or 2 ounces of bread crumbs, 1 egg, half-pint of milk, half-ounce of sugar.

Mutton broth.-Half-pound meat, 1 ounce carrot, 1 ounce turnip, half-ounce barley, 14 pint of water, to make 14 pint of broth. Served with the meat in it.

ON WEANING.

Suet pudding.-Half-pound flour, half-pound suet, half-pound bread crumbs, with a little salt and a little powdered ginger, if liked, mixed with water, and boiled for two hours.

Mashed potatoes.- Mashed without butter, with milk only. The meat for mutton broth, neck of mutton. For meat diet, mutton lega | and shoulders only.

Acidulated rice drink.-1 ounce ground rice, 2 quarts water; boil and strain; sweeten with barleysugar, 1 ounce; acidulate with 1 ounce lemon juice.

Acidulated barley water.- Barley water, 3 pints; 2 lemons sliced; boil to a quart; sweeten with 2 ounces loaf sugar.

White decoction.-1 ounce bread crumbs, half-ounce hartshorn shavings, 3 pints water, boil to two; flavour with lemon peel; sweeten with 1 ounce sugar.

P.H.B.]

The term weaning is applied to the changes introduced into the alimentation of children, when it is desired to deprive them of the breast of their nurse, so as to give them an independent existence by accustomtalen ing them to the food they should use in the course of their life.

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This is often a critical time for children, either because the transition has not been properly managed, and has been too violent and premature, or because it has not been made at a favourable opportunity.

Except in the case of special circumstances, such as a serious disease of the mother or of the nurse, lactation should not be interrupted before the age of twelve or eighteen months. It would be inflicting a serious injury on the child to wean it too early; first, because its development experiences a momentary retardation; again, because the organs are not sufficiently accustomed to the stimulus of the food which may be given it, without more or less serious accidents resulting from it; lastly, because at the moment of the dental evolution, the breast is a great consolation to children, who ardently attach themselves to i and thence derive great alleviation to their suffering. It should b delayed until the process of dentition is much advanced, or nearly finished; consequently, the period of weaning should be fixed at the age of twelve or eighteen months. For my part, in directing the weaning of children, I always select one of those moments of repos which is observed in the eruption of their teeth, and I never put a stop to lactation until after the appearance of the canine teeth.) In this manner the child is in possession of the first fifteen or sixteen caducoc teeth, the evolution of which is the most difficult; and there only remai the last four molars to be cut, which usually appear with great facility It is equally wrong to prolong lactation too much; for gre difficulties are often experienced in interrupting it, and the chil may suffer from not having food sufficiently substantial for its age.

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