[Sidenote:  The Grasping Instinct]

It is some time before a child’s will can so overcome his newly-acquired tendency to grasp every possible object that he can keep his hand off of anything that invites him.  The many battles between mothers and children it the subject of not touching forbidden things are at this stage a genuine wrong and injustice to the child.  So young a child is scarcely more responsible for touching whatever he can reach that is a piece of steel for being drawn toward a powerful magnet.  Preyer says that it is years before voluntary inhibitions of grasping become possible.  The child has not the necessary brain machinery.  Commands and sparring of the hands create bewilderment and tend to build up a barrier between mother and child.  Instead of doing such thing, simply put high out of reach and sight whatever the child must not touch.

Another way in which young children are often made to suffer because of the ignorance of parents is the leaving of undesired food on the child’s plate.  Every child, when he does not want his food, pushes the plate away from him, and many mothers push it back and scold.  The real truth is that the motor suggestion of the food upon the plate is so strong that the child feels as if he were being forced to eat it every time he looks at the plate; to escape from eating it he is obliged to push it out of sight.

[Sidenote:  The Three Months’ Baby]

But this difficulty comes later.  Now we are concerned with a three-months-old baby.  At this stage the child is usually able to balance his head, to sit up against pillows, to seize and grasp objects, and to hold out his arm, when he wishes to be taken.  Although he may have made number of efforts to sit erect, and may have succeeded for a few minutes at a time, he still is far from being able to sit alone, unsupported.  This he does not accomplish until the fifth or the month.

[Sidenote:  Danger of Forcing]

There is nothing to be gained by trying to make him sit alone sooner; indeed, there is danger in it—­danger in forcing young bones and muscles to do work beyond their strength, and danger also to the nerves.  It is safe to say that a normal child always exercises all its faculties to the utmost without need of urging, and any exercise beyond the point of natural fatigue, if persisted in, is sure to bring about abnormal results.

[Sidenote:  Creeping]

The first efforts toward creeping often appear in the bath when the child turns over and raise, himself upon his hands and knees.  This is sign that he might creep sooner, if he were not impeded by clothing.  He should be allowed to spread himself upon a blanket every day for an hour or two, and to get on his knees as frequently as he pleases.  Often he needs a little help to make him creep forward, for most babies creep backward at first, their arms being stronger than their legs.  Here the mother may safely interfere, pushing the legs as they ought to go and showing the child how to manage himself; for very often he becomes much excited over his inability to creep forward.