Health in the nursery / by Henry Ashby.

  • Henry Ashby
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health in the nursery / by Henry Ashby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hang on the walls to afford a graphic record of gains and losses. The question is frequently asked, ‘ How much ought my child to weigh ? ’ or, ‘ How tall should he be ?5 Immediately there is resource to a table showing heights and weights at the various ages, and the mother is perhaps made proud or uneasy, as the case may be, at the result of the comparison. Now, while such tables are useful guides, it must be re¬ membered that the figures are only averages made up of the heights and weights of the ‘ bigs/ the ‘ littles/ and the ‘ middlings’ among a host of children. A child may be under-sized and yet perfectly healthy, while another may be tall and above the average weight and yet be anything but strong ; in any case tables of averages should be read with ‘ brains/ The really important questions are, Does the weight bear a normal proportion to the height ? Is the child gain¬ ing steadily, or is he losing weight ? It is only likely there will be ups and downs and variations in the weights both of infants and children, due to indigestion or slight indispositions of one sort or another, but often the cause of the loss is by no means apparent at first. In any case, when the increase in weight is not satisfactory, it is well to be on the look out for signs of ill health or of too great mental strain. Heredity plays an important part in determining the rate of growth and development, just as it does in the formation of character, and in a hundred other ways it is a factor to be reckoned with in early life ; but there can be no doubt, also, that growth and development are influenced by the child’s surround-
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