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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    of birth. The formation of habits and tendencies cornes long before the child has any consciousness of them. Throughout infancy and early childhood the home repre¬ sents the world to the growing child. His standards will be affected by the standards of his home life. His health will be determined largely by the health care and the health education he receives during this period. That often-re¬ peated quotation credited to Cardinal Newman: “Give me a child until he is seven and I care not who has him after¬ ward,” is so true that it seems incredible that we have not acted more definitely on it. Neither wealth nor poverty is required to make the ideal home. One is tempted to say that a child may develop into a most desirable type of individual in spite of either. His¬ tory is full of the accounts of men and women of great genius who have risen from humble surroundings. We have become familiar enough with the idea that great wealth may breed ineffectiveness in the next generation, and one cannot generalize upon such a large subject. The truth would seem to be that it is neither wealth nor poverty, but rather the intelligent direction of either, that gives us our ideal surroundings in the home. From the health point of view, proper sanitation, decent living conditions, and the essential hygiene that makes for physical well-being should be a part of the child’s earliest surroundings and influence the formation of his health habits. We know that over one-third of all of the infant deaths that occur during the first year of life take place during the first month and that these are dependent upon conditions affecting the health of the mother during the prenatal period. In other words, these babies die because their mothers have not been able to give them health and vitality enough to win out in the struggle for existence. Of the babies who live, many are handicapped by insuffi¬ cient nourishment during the prenatal period. In China, age is computed not from the date of birth, but from the day of conception. The first birthday comes when the child
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