Читать книгу The Care of Children - Sebastian Kneipp Kneipp - Страница 14

Asleep and Awake.

Mothers, I am sure, will desire to ask me if it is better for the child to sleep much or to be wakeful. Here is my reply: Plants and trees growing in calm places and not too much exposed to storms thrive best. Trees exposed to violent storms will soon languish but in order that they should prosper, gentle air currents and winds are necessary because they provide fresh air.

The growing child is similarly situated and we may call sleep a calm wind for the child. If it has a suitable bed to rest in and plenty of good fresh air it prospers best, but if the child is much disturbed in its sleep and cannot rest, it shares the fate of plants and trees which are visited too roughly by the wind. Children, who cannot sleep, are either ill or not properly cared for.

When one considers how weak and helpless children are when they come into the world, it does not seem strange to us that only those who enjoy sleep and have great care can possibly thrive and prosper, and even then we must nourish them well if every member of the body is to develop fully.

Thus I exhort Mothers to see that their children lie properly in bed, have room to stretch themselves their full length so that each member of the body is in its proper position, and to see that their sleep is not disturbed and that they breathe while sleeping only the freshest purest air.

If this last be prevented by damp or strong smelling articles in the room, you must remember that your children during their sleep breathe in matter injurious to health which, becoming mixed with the blood, may prove very serious to the childrens' wellbeing. This will be seen by the sickly appearance of those who constantly breathe in the impure air; the unwholesome matter remains in the blood and operates prejudicially on the happy development of the whole system. It is also of importance that children should not be roused by people passing and repassing their room, for sudden awakening causes them fright or nervous excitement and may lay the foundation of convulsions later on.

Thus it is the responsible duty of all Mothers and Nurses to see that the children — and I repeat it emphatically are able to assume a proper position ill bed, breathe a really wholesome air during sleep and are undisturbed in their slumber. And further, sleepy children should not be kept back from sleep nor, on any condition, should children be awakened because, according to the Mothers' ideas, they have slept too long.

Let the little ones sleep, do not disturb them when they laugh in their slumber and dream sweetly. A beautiful legend declares that a child who laughs in its sleep is playing with the Angels.

Again I say do not wake your babies but let them sleep; then they cannot fail to thrive and become sources of joy to you all.

1 have still a word to say about the going to sleep. What a herculean task you Mothers and Nurses have in this getting the babies off to sleep! But allow me to say it is a plague you have imposed on yourselves.

A Gentleman told me that he and his wife had never had half an hours' broken sleep in the night with their five children, and that they had never had to carry a child about or coax it to sleep.

He said the whole art consisted in not accustoming the child to being carried about, or rocked, or sung to and in accustoming it to a certain order. ''Our children" he continued "had nourishment regularly during the day that is to say every two hours; in the night however only once which was at the end of four hours, nothing after."

If some one of the treasures began crying when it was not time for a meal they simply looked to see if some misfortune had happened in the little crib. When everything was once more all right they let the baby simply cry on. It always left off when it had made music for some minutes. "One would scarcely believe" said the gentleman "how easily children may be accustomed to regularity. Ours sleep regularly for an hour and a half, then they wake up, have their beds fresh made, are played with and fondled, then fed and again they go to sleep.

"Our being so little disturbed" he continued "is due also to our never admitting into the house the chief disturbers of peace the sucking things such as bottles, rings, teats and india rubber stoppers, all of which make trouble and are quite unnecessary. If such a stopper or india rubber tube falls out of the mouth of a child accustomed to it, it wakes up each time." The baby's bottle is an unwholesome and often a very unappetizing thing. The india-rubber cork is quite unnecessary and the constant sucking of it occasions too much saliva and a great deal of wind in the stomach.

If a child is really ill and unable to sleep, make a bandage of a towel and lay it round the body, or dip the child for a moment in cold water.

Many Mothers cannot bear to hear their children cry, but I must remind them that crying is the sole work and pleasure of little children. They do not always cry because they are in pain, but the power to cry is given them to strengthen their lungs, to keep their blood in circulation, to assist digestion, and to make them rather tired so that they may rest better.

When children cry from pain, the Mothers themselves are often in fault, either they are not regular in feeding them, or they overfeed them, or they feed them with indigestible food.

What can I say to those Mothers who give their children poppy tea, (a decoction of poppy seed) or who dip the cork in brandy so that their children may sleep a long time?

It can only be the result of unlimited stupidity or execrable indifference, to think any other would be to conclude that such Mothers deliberately wish to murder their children.

Poppies and brandy and such like soporifics are simply strong poison to the children. Who would give their children poison? One might well desire for the little ones with such unnatural Mothers that the poison might soon do its work.

But these unhappy children are often merely rendered silly by this treatment and so live on in a miserable pitiable manner. Oh! how much will these Mothers have to answer for! It seems scarcely credible that people so stupid, so thoughtless, so without conscience, can exist. If one remonstrates with these women, (they do not deserve the sweet name of Mother) they become angry and say "stop your talk, others do just the same."

Of course one can say no more except "Go your own way, after all it is you who will by and by have to answer to your children."