Bakers' bread is certainly the lightest; and if we could depend upon its being unadulterated, would, from its lightness, be the most wholesome; but as we cannot always depend upon bakers' bread, as a general rule, home-made bread should be preferred. If it be at all heavy, children should not be allowed to eat it; a bakers' loaf should then be sent for, till light homemade bread can be procured. Heavy bread is most indigestible. Children should not be allowed to eat bread until it be two or three days old. If it be a week old, in cold weather, it will be the more whole some. 130. Do you approve of carraway-seeds or currants in bread or cakes; the former to disperse wind, the latter to open the bowels? There is nothing better than plain bread: the carraway-seeds generally pass through the bowels undigested; and thus may irritate, and produce, instead of disperse, wind. Some mothers put currants in cakes, with a view of opening the bowels; but they only open them by disordering them. 131. Is there any objection to butter for children? I myself can see no objection to it; on the contrary, if the child be healthy, I consider bread and butter more nourishing than dry bread, provided the butter be used in moderation. Of course, if too much be given, it will disorder the child's stomach and produce sickness. Hot buttered toast should never be allowed: nor should melted butter. THE NURSERY. 132. Have you any remarks to make on the selection, the ventilation, the warming, and the temperature of a nursery? The nursery should be the largest and most airy room in the house. In the town, if it be at the top of the house (provided the room be large and airy) so much the better, as the air will then be purer. In building of houses, the architect should be particularly directed to pay attention to the size, the loftiness, the ventilation, the light, the warming, and the convenience of a nursery. A bath-room attached to it, will be of great importance and benefit to the health of children. It will also be advantageous to have a water-closet near at hand. If this be not practicable, the evacuations should be removed as soon as passed. It is a filthy and idle habit of a nurse-maid to allow a motion to remain in the room for any length of time. The windows should be thrown up whenever the child is out of the nursery; indeed, when he is in, if the weather be fine, the upper-sash may be lowered a little. A child should be encouraged to change the room frequently: in order that it may be freely ventilated; for good air is as necessary to a child's health as wholesome food, and air cannot be good, if it be not frequently changed. I have to enter my protest against the use of stoves, gas-stoves especially, in nurseries. I consider a gas-stove without a chimney, to be an abomination, most destructive to human-life. There is nothing like the old fashioned open fireplace, with a good sized chimney; so that it may not only carry off the smoke but also the impure air of the room. Be sure that there be a chimney-guard around the grate; and be strict in not allowing a child to touch or to play with fire: frightful accidents have occurred from mothers and nurses being lax on this point. Nurseries are usually kept too hot: in the wintertime the temperature should not exceed 60 degrees, Fahrenheit. A good thermometer should be considered an indispensable requisite to a nursery. A child in a hot close nursery is bathed in perspiration; if he leave the room to go to one of lower temperature, the pores of the skin are suddenly closed, and a severe cold, or inflammation-of-the-lungs, or bronchitis are likely to ensue. Moreover, the child is weakened and enervated by the heat, and thus readily falls a prey to disease. 133. Have you any observation to make on the LIGHT of a nursery? A room cannot be too light. The windows of a nursery are generally too small. A child requires as much light as a plant. Gardeners are well aware of the great importance of light in the construction of their greenhouses; and yet children, who require it as much, and are of much greater importance, are cooped in dark rooms. up 134. Have you any more hints to offer conducive to the well-doing of my child? You cannot be too particular in the choice of those who are in constant attendance upon him. You should be particularly careful in the selection of his nurse. She should be steady, lively, truthful, and good-tempered, and should be free from any natural defect, such as squinting, stammering, etc.; for children are such imitative creatures, that they are likely to acquire that, which in the nurse, is natural. She should not be very young, or she may be thoughtless and giggling. She should be strong and active, in order that the child may have plenty of good nursing. She should never be permitted to tell her little charge frightful stories of ghosts and hobgoblins.. If she be allowed, the child's disposition may become timid and wavering, which may continue for the remainder of his life. Addison* strongly reprobates the custom of telling stories of ghosts to children. "Were I a father," says he, "I should take a particular care to preserve my children from these little horrors of the imagination, which they are apt to contract when they are young, and are not able to shake off when they are in years. I have known a soldier who has entered a breach affrighted at his own shadow, and look pale upon a little scratching at his door, who, the day before, had marched up against a battery of cannon. There are instances of persons who have been terrified even to distraction at the figure of a tree or the shaking of a bulrush. The truth of it is, I look upon a sound imagination as the greatest blessing of life, next to a clear judgment and a good conscience." If a child were not terrified by such stories, darkness would not frighten him more than light. Moreover, the mind thus filled with fear, acts *Spectator,' No. 12. A child upon the body, and injures the health. should never be placed in a dark cellar, nor frightened by tales of rats, &c. Instances are related of fear, thus induced, impairing the intellect for life; and there are numerous examples of sudden fright causing a dangerous, and even fatal illness. A nurse-maid should never, on any account whatever, be allowed to whip a child. "Does ever any man or woman remember the feeling of being 'whipped '-as a child -the fierce anger, the insupportable ignominy, the longing for revenge, which blotted out all thought of contrition for the fault or rebellion against the punishment? With this recollection on their own parts, I can hardly suppose any parents venturing to inflict it certainly not allowing its infliction by another, under any circumstances whatever. nurse-maid or domestic of any sort, once discovered to have lifted up her hand against a child, ought to meet instant severe rebuke, and, on a repetition of the offence, instant dismissal.”* A 135. If a child be peevish and apparently in good health, have you any plan to offer to allay his irritability? A child's troubles are soon over if not prolonged by improper management ; "The tear, down childhood's cheek that flows, Is like the dew-drop on the rose; When next the summer breeze comes by, And waves the bush, the flower is dry."+ * A Woman's Thoughts about Women.' |