EXERCISE.
SEC. 1. Objections to the use of cradles.--SEC. 2. Carrying in the
arms--its uses and abuses.--SEC. 3. Creeping--why useful--to be
encouraged.--SEC. 4. Walking--general directions about it.--SEC. 5.
Riding abroad in carriages.--SEC. 6. Riding on horseback--objections.
Riding schools.
This subject may be considered under the following heads: ROCKING IN THE
CRADLE; CARRYING IN THE ARMS; CREEPING; WALKING; RIDING IN A CARRIAGE;
AND RIDING ON HORSEBACK. These I shall consider in their order.
SEC. 1. _Rocking in the Cradle._
There are two opinions in regard to the use of the cradle in the
nursery. Some condemn it altogether; others think its occasional use
highly proper. Those who condemn it, do it chiefly on the ground that it
produces a whirling motion of the brain, which, while it inclines to
giddiness and lulls to sleep, disturbs, in some degree, the process of
digestion.
It seems to me that there is weight to this objection; and although the
cradle has been extensively used without producing any obviously evil
effects, I should greatly prefer to have it universally laid aside. As
far as mere amusement is demanded, it is quite unnecessary, since there
are so many amusements which are far better. As a means of inducing
sleep, I am still more strongly opposed to it; for if a child be
rationally treated in every other respect, it will never need artificial
means to induce it to sleep. Nature will then be the most appropriate
directress in this matter.
If there is a cradle in a nursery, it is almost always full of clothes
loaded with air more or less impure, and the child is buried in it more
than is compatible with health, even in the judgment of the mother or
the nurse; for so convenient is its use, and so great the temptation to
keep the child in it, that he will often be found soaking there a large
proportion of his time. Every one knows that the air has not so free
access to a child in the cradle as elsewhere, especially if it have a
kind of covering or hood to it, as we often see. Besides, the cradle is
a piece of furniture which takes up a great deal of space in the
nursery; and every one who has made the trial effectually, will, it
seems to me, greatly prefer its room to its company.
If any cradle is to be used, those are best which are suspended by
cords, and are swung, rather than rocked. And this swinging should be in
a line with the body of the child as much as possible; as this motion is
less likely to produce injury than its opposite.
SEC. 2. _Carrying in the Arms._
This is the most appropriate exercise for the first two months of
existence; and indeed, one of the best for some time afterward.
Although a healthy, thriving child ought to sleep, for some time after
birth, from two thirds to three fourths of his time, yet it should never
be forgotten that the demand for proper exercise during the rest of the
time, is not the less imperious on this account; but probably the more
so.
I have already mentioned the importance of bathing, which is one form of
exercise, and of gentle motion in the arms, immediately afterward. The
same gentle motion should be often repeated during the day; care being
taken to hold the child in such a position as will be easy to him, and
favorable to the free exercise of all his limbs and muscles.
There are many mothers and nurses, who not only rejoice that the infant
inclines to sleep a great deal, since it gives them more liberty, but
who take pains to prolong these hours beyond what nature requires, by
artificial means. I refer not only to the use of the cradle, but to
means still more artificial--the use of cordials and opiates, to which I
have already adverted. But whatever the means used may be, they defeat
the purposes of nature, and are in the highest degree reprehensible.
Nothing but the most chilling poverty should prevent the mother from
having the child--for a few weeks of its first existence at least--in
her own arms, nearly all the time which is not absolutely demanded for
repose. She should even invite it to wakefulness, rather than encourage
sleep.
Attention to exercise ought to be commenced before the child is more
than ten days old. For this purpose he should be placed on his back, on
a pillow, in order that the body may rest at as many points as possible.
In this position he has the opportunity to move his limbs with the most
perfect freedom, and to exercise his numerous muscles. There is nothing
more important to the infant--not even sleep itself--than the action of
all his muscles; and nothing contributes more to his rapid growth.
At first, the body should be kept, while on the arm, in nearly a
horizontal position, with the head perhaps a very little elevated; but
after a few weeks, it will be proper to change the position for a small
part of the time; placing the body so that it may form an angle of a few
degrees with the horizon. When this is done, however, it should always
be by placing the hand against the shoulders and head, in such a manner
as to support well the back; for it is extremely injurious to suffer the
feeble spine to sustain, at this early period, any considerable weight.
Still more erroneous is the practice of some careless nurses, of
carrying the child quite upright a part of the time, almost without any
support at all. There can be no doubt that the spinal column of many a
child is injured for life in this way. There can be no apology for such
things.
But it is not sufficient to denounce, merely, the custom of holding the
infant's body in an erect position. Every inquiring mother--and it is
for such, and no other, that I write--will naturally and properly ask
the reason why.
The child is not born with all its bones solid. Some are mere cartilage
for a considerable time. This is the case with the bones of the back.
Now every person must see that the weight of the child's head and
shoulders, resting for a considerable time on the slender cartilaginous
spinal column, may easily bend it. And a curvature, thus given, may, and
often does, deform children for life.
Dr. Dewees mentions a nurse who, from a foolish fondness for displaying
them, made the children consigned to her charge sit perfectly upright
before they were a month old. It is truly ludicrous, he says, to see the
little creatures sitting as straight as if they were stiffened by a back
board. It is truly _horrible_, I should say, rather than ludicrous.
Crooked spines must be the inevitable consequence, if nothing worse.
The practice of bracing children, as it is called, by straps, back
boards, corsets, &c., where it has produced any effect at all, has
always had a tendency to crook the spine. This may be seen first, by
observing one shoulder to be lower than the other, and next by a
projection of the part of the shoulder blades next to the spine.
Whenever these changes begin to appear, it is time to send for a
physician, though it may often be too late to effect a cure. But on the
general subject of bracing and corseting, I have treated at sufficient
length elsewhere.
There is another error committed in carrying children in the arms. The
head of the infant is often permitted either to hang constantly on one
side, or to roll about loosely; as if it hardly belonged to the body.
In the former case there is danger of producing a habit of holding the
head upon one side, which it will be very difficult to overcome; in the
latter, the spinal marrow itself may be injured--which would produce
alarming and perhaps fatal consequences.
But all these evils, as has already been said, may be prevented, if the
hand is placed so as to support the head and shoulders. Let not the
mother, however, who reads this work, trust the matter wholly to a
nurse; she must see to it herself; else she incurs a most fearful
responsibility. The suggestions I have made are the more important in
the case of children either very fleshy or very feeble, and of those
disposed to rickets or scrofula; but they are important to all.
I have said that the motion of the child, on the arm, should be gentle.
Many are in the habit of tossing infants about. There can be no
objection to a slight and slow movement up and down, for a minute or so
at a time; indeed, it is rather to be recommended, as likely to give
strength and vigor no less than pleasure to the child. But when such
movements are carried to excess, so as to frighten the child, they are
highly reprehensible. The shock thus produced to the nervous system has
sometimes been so great as to produce sudden death. Nor is it safe to
run, jump, or descend stairs hastily or violently, with a child in our
arms; and for similar reasons.
Infants should not be carried always on the same arm, for there is
danger of contracting a habit of leaning to one side, and thus of
becoming crooked. On this account, the arm on which they rest should be
often changed. Nor should they be grasped too firmly. A skilful mother
will hold a child quite loosely, with the most perfect safety; while an
inexperienced one will grasp him so hard as to expose the soft bones to
be bent out of their place, and yet be quite as liable to let him fall
as she who handles him with more ease and freedom.
SEC. 3. _Creeping._
"Mankind must creep before they can walk," is an old adage often used to
remind us of that patient application which is so indispensable to
secure any highly important or valuable end. But it is as true
literally, as it is figuratively. The act of creeping exercises in a
remarkable degree nearly all the muscles of the body; and this, too,
without much fatigue.
Some mothers there indeed are, who think it a happy circumstance if a
child can be taught to walk without this intermediate step. But such
mothers must have strange ideas of the animal economy. They must never
have thought of the pleasure which creeping affords the mind, or of the
vigor it imparts to the body.
Children are wonderfully pleased with their own voluntary efforts. What
they can do themselves, yields them ten-fold greater pleasure than if
done by the mother or the nurse. Yet the latter are exceedingly prone to
forget or overlook all this--and to say, at least practically, that the
only proper efforts are those to which themselves give direction.
They are moreover exceedingly fond of display. Some mothers seem to
act--in all they do with and for children--as if all the latter were
good for, was display and amusement. They feed them, indeed, and strive
to prolong their existence; but it appears to be for similar reasons to
those which would lead them to take kind care of a pet lamb.
It is on this account that they dress them out in the manner they do,
strive to make them sit up straight, and prohibit their creeping. It is
on this account too, as much perhaps as any other, that go-carts and
leading strings are put in such early requisition. The contrary would be
far the safer extreme; and the parent who keeps his child scrambling
about upon the back as long as possible, and when he cannot prevent
longer an inversion of this position, retains him at creeping as long
as is in his power, is as much wiser, in comparison with him who urges
him forward to make a prodigy of him, as he is who, instead of making
his child a prodigy in mind or morals at premature age, holds him back,
and endeavors to have his mental and moral nature developed no faster
than his physical frame.
I wish young mothers would settle it in their minds at once, that the
longer their children creep the better. They need have no fears that the
force of habit will retain them on their knees after nature has given
them strength to rise and walk; for their incessant activity and
incontrollable restlessness will be sure to rouse them as early as it
ought. Least of all ought the difficulty of keeping them clean, to move
them from the path of duty.
Children who are allowed to crawl, will soon be anxious to do more. We
shall presently see them taking hold of a chair or a table, and
endeavoring to raise themselves up by it. If they fail in a dozen
attempts, they do not give up the point; but persevere till their
efforts are crowned with success.
Having succeeded in raising themselves from the floor, they soon learn
to stand, by holding to the object by which they have raised themselves.
Soon, they acquire the art of standing without holding; [Footnote: The
art of standing, which consists in balancing one's self, by means of the
muscles of the body and lower limb--simple as it may seem to those who
have never reflected on the subject--is really an important acquisition
for a child of twelve or fifteen months. No wonder they feel a conscious
pride, when they find themselves able to stand erect, like the world
around them.] ere long they venture to put forward one foot--they then
repeat the effort and walk a little, holding at the same time by a
chair; and lastly they acquire, with joy to them inexpressible and to us
inconceivable, the art of "trudging" alone.
When children learn to walk in nature's own way, it is seldom indeed
that we find them with curved legs, or crooked or clubbed feet. These
deformities are almost universally owing either to the mother or the
nurse.
Let me be distinctly understood as utterly opposed, not only to
go-carts, leading strings, and every other _mechanical_ contrivance, to
induce children to walk before their legs are fit for it, but to efforts
of every kind, whose main object is the same. Teaching them to walk by
taking hold of one of their hands, is in some respects quite as bad as
any other mode; for if the child should fall while we have hold of his
hand, there is some danger of dislocating or otherwise injuring the
limb.
Falls we must expect; but if a child is left to his own voluntary
efforts as much as possible, these falls will be fewer, and probably
less serious, than under any other circumstances.
SEC. 4. _Walking._
"The way to learn how to write without ruled lines, is _to rule_," was
the frequent saying of an old schoolmaster whom I once knew; and I may
say with as much confidence and with more truth, that "the way for a
child to learn to walk alone, is to hold by things."
I have anticipated, in previous pages, much of what might have otherwise
been contained in this section. A few additional remarks are all that
will be necessary.
At first, the nursery will be quite large enough for our young
pedestrian. Much time should elapse before he is permitted to go abroad,
upon the green grass;--not lest the air should reach him, or the sun
shine upon his face and hands, but because the surface of the ground is
so much less firm and regular than the floor, that he ought to be quite
familiar with walking on the latter, in the first place.
But when he can walk well in the play ground, garden, fields, and
roads, it is highly desirable that he should go out more or less every
day, when the weather will possibly admit; nor would I be so fearful as
many are of a drop of rain or dew, or a breath of wind. For say what
they will in favor of riding, sailing, and other modes of exercise,
there is none equal to walking, as soon as a child is able;--none so
natural--none, in ordinary cases, so salutary. I know it is unpopular,
and therefore our young master or young miss must be hoisted into a
carriage, or upon the back of a horse, to the manifest danger of health
or limbs, or both.
Who of us ever knew a herdsman or a shepherd who found it for the health
and well-being of the young calf or lamb to hoist it into a carriage,
and carry it through the streets, instead of suffering it to walk? Such
a thing would excite astonishment; and the man who should do it would be
deemed insane. The health and growth of our young domestic animals is
best promoted by suffering them to walk, run, and skip in their own way.
They ask no artificial legs, or horses, or carriages. But would it not
be difficult to find arguments in favor of carrying children about, when
they are able to walk, which would not be equally strong in favor of
carrying about lambs and calves and pigs.
This is the more remarkable from the consideration, elsewhere urged,
that in general we take more rational pains about the physical
well-being of domestic animals, than of children. However, it will be
seen, on a little reflection, that the number of those who carry
children about, is, after all, very inconsiderable. The greater portion
of the community regard it as too troublesome or costly; and if poverty
brought with it no other evils than a permit to children to walk on the
legs which the Creator gave them, it could hardly be deemed a
misfortune.
It is scarcely necessary to add that there will be nothing gained to the
young--or to persons of any age--from walks which are very long and
fatiguing. Walking should refresh and invigorate: when it is carried
beyond this, especially with the young child, we have passed the line of
safety.
SEC. 5. _Riding in Carriages._
It will be seen by the foregoing section, that I am not very friendly to
the use of carriages for the young, after they can walk. Before this
period, however, I think they may be often serviceable; and there are
occasional instances which may render them useful afterward. On this
account, I have thought it might be well to give the following general
directions.
Carriages for children should be so constructed as not to be liable to
overset. To this end, the wheels must be low, and the axle unusually
extended. The body should be long enough to allow the child to lie down
when necessary; and so deep that he may not be likely to fall out.
Everything should be made secure and firm, to avoid, if possible, the
danger of accidents.
The carriage should be drawn steadily and slowly; not violently, or with
a jerking motion. Such a place should be selected as will secure the
child--if necessary--from the full blaze of a hot sun. This point might
indeed be secured by having the carriage covered; but I am opposed to
covered carriages, for children or adults, unless we are compelled to
ride in the rain.
While the child is unable to sit up without injury, and even for some
months afterwards, he ought by all means to lie down in a carriage,
because it requires more strength to sit in a seat which is moving, than
in a place where he is stationary. In assuming the horizontal position,
in a carriage, a pillow is needed, and such other arrangements as will
prevent too much rolling.
After the child's strength will fairly permit, he may sit up in the
carriage, but he ought still to be secured against too much motion. As
his strength increases, however, the latter direction will be less and
less necessary. I need not repeat in this place, (had I not witnessed so
many accidents from neglect,) the caution recently given, that great
care should be taken to prevent the child from falling out of the
carriage.
While children are riding abroad in cold weather, much pains should be
taken to see that they are suitably clothed. It is well to keep them in
motion, while they are in the carriage, and especially to guard against
their falling asleep in the open air, until they have become very much
accustomed to being out in it.
It has been said by some writers, that a ride ought never to exceed the
length of half an hour; but no positive rule can be given, except to
avoid over-fatigue.
SEC. 6. _Riding on Horseback._
While children are very young, I think it both improper and unsafe to
take them abroad on horseback; I mean so long as they are in health. In
case of disease, this mode of exercise is sometimes one of the most
salutary in the world. But after boys are six or seven years old, and
girls ten, if they are ever to practise horsemanship, it is time for
them to begin; both because they are less apt to be unreasonably timid
at this age, and because they learn much more rapidly.
So few parents are good horsemen, that if there is a riding school at
hand, I should prefer placing a child in it at once. But I wish to be
distinctly understood, that I do not consider it a matter of importance,
especially to females, that they should ever learn to ride at all.
Some of the principal objections to riding on horseback, by boys, as an
ordinary exercise, are the following:
1. Walking, as I have already intimated, is one of the most HEALTHY
modes of exercise in the world. It is nature's exercise; and was
unquestionably in exclusive use long before universal dominion was given
to man, if not for many centuries afterward; and I believe it would be
very difficult to prove that it interfered at all with human longevity;
for the first of our race lived almost a thousand years.
2. Young children, in riding on horseback, are rather apt to acquire,
rapidly, the habit of domineering over animals. It seems almost needless
to say how easy the transition is, in such cases, should opportunity
offer, from tyranny over the brute slave, to tyranny over the human
being. There are slave-holders in the family and in the school, as well
as elsewhere. It is the SPIRIT of a person which makes him either a
tyrant or slave-holder. And let us beware how we foster this spirit in
the children whom God has given us.