The Care and Feeding of Children 991 



and will be all the better for the treatment. This applies to the frail 

 child as well as to the healthy one. Out-of-door sleeping for children as 

 well as for adults, is now recognized as an excellent curative for the feeble 

 ones and an excellent preventive for the robust ones. The sleeping 

 rooms; of growing children should be thoroughly ventilated. In winter- 

 time this can be accomplished best by opening the window and tacking a 

 piece of muslin over the opening. The air sifts through and drafts are 

 prevented. If the child does not react to cold, strenuous treatment must 

 be avoided. 



The schoolroom should be better ventilated. Serious as well as minor 

 illnesses are often traceable to dirty, badly ventilated schoolrooms. 



Bathing. — After the healthy baby is a week old it should be given a 

 daily bath. The bath acts as a tonic to the healthy baby. It is com- 

 forted and filled with well-being in the present and braced and hardened 

 for the future. The baby's body becomes warm and often moist in its 

 many wrappings, and the bath cools and cleanses and relieves. Irri- 

 tability and fretfulness are sometimes a direct result of a clogged skin, 

 and the child can be quieted by a good bath. If the baby is feeble or 

 does not react well the frequency of bathing will have to be regulated 

 according to its endurance, but the body may still be cleansed daily with 

 a dampened sponge. The best time for the bath is during the morning, 

 midway between two feedings, that is, about ten o'clock. It should not 

 last longer than five minutes. The temperature of the water should be 

 about blood heat, 99° F. during the first weeks. This is gradually low- 

 ered until at the end of the first year, a temperature of 80° F. is reached. 

 Only good unscented soap should be used in very small quantities, and 

 it should be thoroughly rinsed from the body. If left to dry on the body 

 it soon irritates the delicate skin. Comers of the eyes and nostrik should 

 always be washed. During the first year or year and a half the mouth 

 should be wiped out with a swab or soft cloth and the teeth should be 

 cleansed with this. Great care should be given the teeth all during child- 

 hood. Teeth decayed through lack of care or disease are a source of 

 danger to the child's health. They should be cleaned regularly at least 

 twice a day. After the child is two years old this is best done with a 

 small, soft toothbrush. 



Often uncomfortable chafing and irritation result from a neglect of 

 the genitals. These parts should be carefully cleansed each day, as irrita- 

 tion due to neglect may result in future bad habits and consequent ill 

 health. 



Clothing. — Nothing which concerns the baby has been more radically 

 changed in recent years than its clothing. The long, heavily betrimmed 

 dresses, with irritatingly stiff ruffles and yards of uselessness have gone; 



