Rutland County Herald

From the [?] Magazine

INFANT TRAINING

An infant should always be so loosely
dressed that it can toy with free
dom any of its muscles. Before he is
able to sit alone he should be held but
a short time in the same position. By
putting a child into a chair before he can
sit unsupported, and continuing him
there for hours together, is to say the
least of it an act of questionable
humanity to the child. Almost every one
has heard the fact that holding a child always
on the same arm produces deformity
of the head and at first sight it seems
quite as reasonable to me to suppose that those de
formities of the spine which are getting
to be so common, so distressing
and so uniformly fatal, may be traced
to the censurable practice of tying infants
for too long a time in chairs.

Deformity of limbs often result from
permitting a child to bear his weight
before the bones are sufficiently con
solidated. This fact should teach us
not to urge a child forward any faster
than his strength will fully justify.
He should be allowed to move freely
but in those movements he should be well
supported, particularly in the spine
until he is abundantly able to creep.
He should be allowed to do as much as
he wishes. Some mothers get the idea
that it is very ungainly for a child
to creep and some become so boasted
and others had adopted the notion
that as they suppose he has suffi
cient strength they begin to teach him
to walk. Others are afraid that the
child will or wear out his clothes
due to the crawling. However a
child with the most refined in
stincts will
if natural and every or not it
not only for a child to creep
cannot in this particular one more than
any other he mistreated with lunpy
mity. Creeping has a tendency to cor
rect whatever evil may have resulted
(from previous improper management.
In our cradling the head of the child
is allowed to drop, the shoulders to fall
forward the breast to become hollow
ed and the spine unnaturally curved.
This cradling has a tendency to
do the utmost evil
in h, st.
or Tthi out the
much, s ot sh. J.n 3
the ow the head and shoulders P
ward and the breast outward, and in
this age we give a vigor and form to
the body which is invaluable and can
be seen in no other way. Instead
therefore of prohibiting a child from
creeping I would encourage him to
and as long as he may
be disposed It
of doubtful utility
even to teach him
to walk.
He will
walk of his own ac
cord when the inten
tions of nature has
been accomplish
ed in his creeping.
Notions of pro priety,
of economy of
fitness even, when
they come in con flict
with the require
ments of nature and
laws of growth
and health must
be subordinate
since a trifling sa crifice
now is seen to
secure a labundant
unmolestation here
after.