The Care and Feeding of Children 989 



ultimate characteristics as any education that may come later. This is 

 the period for establishing regular physical habits which will not only be 

 the basis for future health but which will give the first foundation for an 

 idea of obedience to law. If the child learns during the first year of its 

 life to adjust itself to regular hours of sleep, to regular meal times, to a 

 regularity of various body habits, its training is made easier for all future 

 time. Irregularity of meals is the cause of many unnecessary deaths 

 among children and where it does not actually destroy life it often leads 

 to permanently impaired digestive functions. Irregular sleeping hours 

 wreck many nervous systems. Vicious habits in later years may often 

 be traced to a lack of systematic training in infancy. Parents should 

 have a realizing sense of the necessity for beginning the child's training 

 immediately and of the danger of even one day's delay. 



Sleep. — There should be long hours of quiet sleep for the baby, inter- 

 rupted only by giving food at regular intervals, by the daily bath or by a 

 change of clothing. Its chief functions now are to eat and sleep and not 

 to furnish a center of interest for an admiring group of relatives. The 

 baby is not a plaything; it is an individual in the process of making and 

 its chances should not be wrecked. If sleep is interfered with at this 

 age the nervous system does not develop normally. About twenty hours 

 out of twenty-four should be spent asleep. During sleep the baby should 

 be turned occasionally to avoid cramped and uncomfortable positions 

 and strained muscles. If the mouth opens while the child sleeps it should 

 be gently closed. 



As the child grows older the waking periods will be longer. At two 

 years, thirteen or fourteen hours of sleep may be enough; at three years, 

 eleven or twelve hours. There will be considerable variation in this with 

 different children, some requiring more, others less sleep. In any case 

 there should be a systematic regularity of bed hours. 



From birth to the end of the first year the child should be undreessd 

 and settled for the night by six o'clock or seven o'clock. After the night 

 feeding at ten or eleven o'clock it should sleep undisturbed until five. 

 During the day it should sleep at first most of the time and gradually 

 less until only a morning and an afternoon nap are needed. Until the 

 end of the second year the child should have a morning nap and should 

 be undressed for it when possible. It may have a short afternoon nap 

 also if this seems needed and does not lead to disturbed sleep at night. 

 Its bed hour at this age should be about seven. 



All during the years of childhood the bed hour should be regularly early, 

 up to the eighth year not later than seven o'clock or eight o'clock, and 

 not later than nine o'clock until after the fifteenth year. It is sometimes 

 necessary to infringe upon this rule but the occasion should be exceptional. 



