Child hygiene / by S. Josephine Baker.

  • Sara Josephine Baker
Date:
[1925]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Child hygiene / by S. Josephine Baker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and indeed for more generations in the past than we can rightly estimate, marriage has not been founded upon these principles. The selective process which leads up to it does not rest upon anything so impersonal as the improvement of the race, nor is it at all probable that we shall so alter our manners and customs as to place marriage upon such a foundation within any future that we can visualize. Indeed, one may doubt whether such a strictly utilitarian basis would, on the whole, be productive of more genuine benefit to the race than our present methods. Our relation to the child, therefore, is largely one of shaping his environment. The home, with all that it implies, holds within itself the environmental conditions which tend to influence most strongly the general physical and mental status of the child and all that concerns him. It may be summed up in a word—individuality. It may be inferred that child hygiene does not necessarily include character development, and, indeed, the relation of the home to the child from the point of view of character development might well include a consideration that must be as varied and lengthy as any we might give to the question of health in childhood. But any consideration that we may give to child health and the relation of the home to its development and maintenance must necessarily include a reference to character development. In health development as well as in character formation, the first seven years of life, including the prenatal period, are the most important. From the moment the child is conceived until he is born, his environment is his mother, and the relation between the two is physical. At this time the provision of proper nour¬ ishment for the embryonic child is the most important thing that we can plan for his future well-being. From the moment of birth his world is extended and his environment includes everything that affects life as a whole, but it is important to remember that environment affects us in inverse proportion to our age. The education, the ‘training, and the character development of the child begins at the moment
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