Rocking baby.—­Rocking and shaking cause an increased flow of blood to the brain, and this should be avoided, for it of itself will cause sleeplessness.  The brain during sleep is comparatively empty of blood; warm feet and cool head tend to produce sleep.  Rocking, etc., is unnatural, and baby is made to receive and enjoy the natural.  If the baby is sick the mother may take it in her arms and sing to it and coddle it carefully, but it is then sick.  If it is trained properly from the beginning, rocking to sleep will be unnecessary; walking with the baby is of the same nature.  See that your baby has warm feet and legs and body and a cool head, with comfortable clothes and good careful feeding, and it will sleep.  Singing lullabies are soothing, but they do no good at first as the baby is deaf.  Such lullabies are good when baby is sick and nervous, and then the mother is allowed and expected to hold and quiet baby.  Sleep perhaps as much or more than any other item of nursery regime, depends on habit and mild but decided purpose.  A lack of firmness in the early months of the baby’s life may not only render its early years a burden to itself, but an annoyance, if not a nuisance to the entire household.  Baby’s habits are quickly and easily formed, but hard to correct.  Dr. Tooker says:  “An infant is as plastic as moist clay, you can mold it to your will.  But you must have a will and a purpose and a plan, and make your judgment and your duty law.”

But suppose baby will not sleep, but continues cross and wakeful and peevish; can I not give medicines to produce sleep?  Never.  If baby is wakeful and refuses to sleep, there is something wrong with your training, his clothing, covering, or his food, or he may be sick, he may not get enough food, etc., or he may have worms.  If everything is all right and you have trained your baby right from his birth, he will sleep.  Find out the cause and remove it.  All soothing syrups, cordials, and quieting medicines contain opium in some form, and all experienced physicians realize the danger of giving these mixtures to babies.  Babies have been killed by medicines which were declared to contain neither opium nor anything else injurious.  They are often used.  Remember that opium, laudanum and paregoric are dangerous for babies and old people.  Careful proper training, allowing plenty of sleeping time, no waking at wrong hours, warm feet, legs and body, cool head, proper modified food, and especially mother nursing, with mother careful with herself, will give a good baby in nine out of ten cases.

Will children ever sleep too much?  Not if they are healthy; you must remember a newly-born baby sleeps nine-tenths of the time; excessive sleeping may indicate disease of the brain.

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EXERCISE.

Is exercise necessary for infants?  Yes.