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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    to another, it is jumped about and romped with, and if old enough is rolled over and over on the floor and made to laugh uproariously, and all this as a preparation for its supper and bed. Clever and forward children are especially apt to suffer in this way. Let us remember that the world is new to the baby, that everything is strange, that the infant’s brain is unstable, that excitement is poison and inimical to steady progress. The principle of diverting the attention of the infant in order to get it to cease crying is of value for this purpose, even before the infant can understand anything that is said to it, or before it has learnt to control its actions. It is a first stage in teaching self- control. Every nursery could provide daily many instances of finding counter attractions for an infant to draw away its attention from its angry self, and so cause inhibition or cessation of the tempers or weeping. I will copy a few instances as illustrations from Mrs. Moore’s careful record of her baby.1 ‘ Third day.—He frequently started at loud noises and ceased crying. ‘ Twenty-fourth day.—The striking of a clock caused him to stop crying. * Thirty-eighth day.—The voice of his father caused him to stop crying. * Forty-first day.—Interesting sights diverted the child’s mind from personal discomforts great enough to cause crying. * Fifty-fifth day.—The child, who had been held more than usual during the second month, cried, on 1 The Mental Development of a Child, p. 32.
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