Читать книгу The Care of Children - Sebastian Kneipp Kneipp - Страница 10

Second Part. The Care of Children in Health.

First Period. From the day of Birth to Teething.

Care of the New Born.

Those who have watched by the dying and seen the last duties accomplished must have noticed the difficulty of drawing each breath as the last moment drew near.

It is a severe battle of Nature which no one can regard without emotion.

Just as it is a struggle while the breath gets ever slower and more difficult, until at last it quite ceases, so is it also a similar tight when the new born child enters the world and begins to draw breath independently.

At the first drawing in of breath there is always danger that the little creature may suffocate and death put a rapid end to the life that has only just begun.

The small being begins to breathe in the fresh air with very feeble power, the air penetrates into the innermost places and encounters many obstacles, for the organs are still very weak.

If the new little citizen of the world could think and speak, he would call for help, and I should go to it quickly, and promptly immerse the tiny child in cold water, but naturally take it out again at once.

The cold water causes a strong concussion and at once braces the child's whole system; the breathing is rendered easier and many a child, who could not otherwise breathe, is by this immersion kept alive.

This sort of sensible water applications is used by country people when the newborn calves and foals are unable to draw a breath. This being so, they immediately pour over their heads on the straw a goodly portion of cold water. This douche at once electrifies the young animals, they shake their heads and begin rapidly to breathe.

Thus thousands of creatures are saved which otherwise through weakness or mischief would come to grief.

Just as water may be and is a helpful remedy for men and animals on entering the world, so is air of great importance, especially that which a child breathes at the beginning of its life. It is certainly not all one whether the child breathes a fresh and pure, or a bad, foul, even stinking air which, instead of refreshing and bracing the new born creature, rather produces desolation in its tender body.

At the beginning of life Oxygen is most necessary and this is only sparingly found in bad air. If however a really pure air containing much Oxygen presses into the body, a good beginning of life is made and at the same time the foundation-stone of prosperity is laid.

Both air and water therefore taken together require the greatest attention from the Parents, if they desire to protect their new born child from harm; for just as it is harmful to bathe the child with warm, debilitating water, so is it equally prejudicial to have impure air in the room, which acts like poison on the young tender body.

Most nurses bathe little children in water much too hot and thus deprive them of health and sometimes of life.

Many nurses try the warmth of the water by putting their elbows into it, thinking that if they can endure the heat the water is of the right temperature. That however is quite wrong. This water is much too warm and it may even be much too hot. An old elbow accustoms itself very soon to hot water and no longer feels the exact degree of heat. I emphatically advise the purchase of a shilling thermometer by which the bath-water may be regulated.

Those who dare not bathe the little child in cold water from 0 to 10° R. may take at first water from 20° to 22° making it however a degree cooler every day. Water of 20—15° is tepid; 15—10° is cool; under 10° it is cold. Over 30° the water may be called hot. One thus accustoms the child at least by degrees to tepid water, then to cool, and then to cold under 10°.

This I only advise to those who, on account of various whims and effeminacies, cannot persuade themselves to give their children the best thing at once. The freshest water is always the best. Do not, however, leave the child long in cold water, but dip it in rapidly, count one, two, three and take it out at once. Do not dry it but wrap it quickly in a dry unwarmed cloth and put it to bed.

One would not believe how soon children accustom themselves to cold water; they will often ask for it.

Water is not only important for the child at the commencement of its life but for all later years. It is the chief mean of effecting bodily health and prosperity.

Children who are stout are not necessarily strong; their bodies are often only spongy.

Water however draws all the spongy organs more together and gives strength to the system. If the children are weak and scarcely able to live, water is again a strengthening remedy, which forces the little machine to work more readily.

Even the weakest children can gradually he made stronger by this simple means. Unfortunately it has become an established custom to put babies daily in warm or even hot water.

If warm baths weaken even naturally strong peasant lads, if taken frequently, how much more seriously must they act on such tender creatures as tiny babies! Even if they be naturally healthy and strong, yet the warm water acts debilitatingly on their bodies and organs and the effect upon children, already weak, is extremely pernicious.

If now and again one wishes to cleanse a child with a warm bath I have nothing against it. When however the child has been washed for a couple of minutes in a warm bath, cool it in the water by pouring cold water on it, or by dipping the child rapidly in cold water, when it is taken from the warm; this will act bracingly on the body.

A Mother asked me whether she might treat her three weeks old infant with cold water and I advised her "Dip the child in cold water, wash it rapidly and put it to bed without drying it." After a few weeks I saw this Mother again and asked after the health of the child.

She answered: "It is much quieter now, has more appetite, sleeps much better, and is thriving well, and does not make the least fuss when it is put into cold water."

Therefore mothers should not give their children daily warm baths, but bathe them without fear in cold water, keeping them there not longer than two or at most three seconds.

As I have already said a warm bath may be given once or twice a week but it should be of the shortest duration and the child, on being taken out, must each time be dipped in a tub of cold water.

In a short time this method of bathing will grow to be such an agreeable custom, to the children that they will not like to do without it; and certainly they will feel themselves far more comfortable than those of their own age who are weakened by a warm bath.

He is a happy person who possesses a healthy, strong and elastic skin, for in it he finds protection against many diseases; and he is unhappy who is so weak that he can scarcely show resistance to the accidents of change of weather.

A weak child is naturally far more liable to all childish diseases, and is more easily subject to colds and convulsive attacks; such evils however need not be feared if the skin is braced and rendered resistant. This is why I look upon it as a distinct duty that cold fresh water should be zealously applied to children.

Almost of equal importance is pure fresh air. It supports and strengthens the weak so that they, in time, lose all signs of their weakness and delicacy.

Fresh air provides children with healthy, good nourishment such as the little ones need if they are to thrive. If, however. the air they breathe contains corrupt, bad ingredients these germinate all sorts of diseases in the youthful childish system.

I can assure many thousands of mothers that they themselves are to blame for the frequent fading away and early deaths of their children, and those mothers may feel glad if they have not withheld from the little ones the two most important necessities of life, cold water and pure wholesome air.

It always seems to me strange that so long a period often passes after the child is born before it is taken into the fresh air, especially if it be born in autumn or winter.

In this case many do not get into the fresh air for months, but are kept shut up in bad air under whose influence many lose their young lives.

What a responsibility for Mothers who, by their nonsensical dread of fresh air, have the deaths of their darlings on their consciences!

In many districts it is a favorite idea that children born in May prosper best; if this is correct I have no doubt it is due to the fresh air which is faced sooner in the spring.

How foolishly does that Mother act whose one idea is to keep the tender limbs of her darling from being touched by the fresh air!

The air of the nursery is often unreasonably heated. Instead of 14 or 15° it is often 18, 20 or 22° and when at length Baby is taken out doors it is wrapped in yards of material, a little woolen cap on its head with flaps to keep the ears warm, a fur round the throat, and to finish up, woolen gloves on the hands.

Thus is the child spoilt, weakened, debilitated. Then conies night, the Mother or Nurse sleeps, perhaps, and does not notice that the babe in its little bed has kicked off its covering and is taking cold. Stomach-ache or a cough or other mischief commences at once, for of course a child weakened as this has been cannot endure the least current of cold air.

When the child is a little bigger, in an unguarded moment, it creeps or runs into the passage without a fur or woolen overcoat and catches cold at once.

If there are any Motliers who desire to get rid of their babies without danger or poison, they have only to weaken and debilitate them with persistent care, and they will surely come to an early grave.

On the contrary the Mothers, who love their children and desire to keep them long and make them healthy and happy, will properly brace them by giving them plenty of fresh air and cold water and allowing the babies to kick about in a moderately warm room without covering.

I impose on all Mothers this sacred duty, that they are not to deprive the little ones, given them by God, of fresh air and water and that they must allow them to have these frequently and of the purest kind.