NERVOUSNESS.

What are the principal causes of nervousness in young infants and in children?  The brain is a delicate structure at this time, and it grows rapidly, and during the first year of life grows as much as during all the rest of life.  This needs quiet and peaceful surroundings and infants who are naturally nervous should be left almost alone, and few people should see them.  Such babies should not play much.  The poor little baby is often so tried by the attentions given him by older people that he does not know what to do, and as one author, a lady, says:  “If he could speak he would beg for a quiet hour, and be perfectly happy if left alone with his own little hands and toes for his sole amusement.”  Babies of the very poor are less nervous than those of the wealthy and this is generally due to the fact that their mothers are too busy to constantly entertain and bother them.  Children are better companions for babies than adults.  Such little attentions given by the parents and relatives make sleepless and nervous babies very often.  Playing with them before time and out of season, makes them not only nervous and irritable, but causes indigestion and allied diseases.

TOYS.

It is instinct for baby to put everything in its mouth.  However, toys should be chosen that are smooth, easily washed and which cannot be swallowed.  Avoid toys with sharp points like corners, or loose parts, small objects that can be pushed into the nose or ear or swallowed, such as coins, marbles, buttons, safety pins, beads, painted toys and those covered with hair or wool.  Infants frequently swallow such wool or hair.

KISSING.

What objections are there to kissing babies?  They are many and serious.  No one, at least, outside of the immediate family has any right to kiss baby.  Tuberculosis, diphtheria, syphilis and many other diseases are given by kissing.  If infants are kissed at all, they should be kissed upon the cheek or forehead.

[608 Mothers’ remedies]

FOREIGN BODIES.

If in the throat, examine and remove with the finger.  If it has gone into the stomach, give plenty of dry food, such as bread, potatoes, but do not give an emetic or cathartic.  An infant should have its usual food.  A cathartic would hurry the foreign body too rapidly through the intestines, and in this way do harm.  In the usual way it becomes coated with fecal matter and usually passes the intestines without causing any injury.

What shall I do if it is in the ears?  If you can easily remove it with your fingers or small hair pin or crochet hook, do it.  If not, take the baby to a physician.  If it is a corn, bean or pea, do not wet it, or it will swell and become larger.