Chapter 5
In this age of degeneracy, children are born with enfeebled con-
stitutions. Parents are amazed at the great mortality among infants
and youth, and say, “it did not use to be so.” Children were then more
healthy and vigorous, with far less care than is now bestowed upon
them. Yet with all the care they now receive, they grow feeble, wither
and die. As the result of wrong habits in parents, disease and imbecility
have been transmitted to their offspring.
After their birth, they are made very much worse by careless inat-
tention to the laws of their being. Proper management would greatly
improve their physical health. But parents seldom pursue a right course
toward their infant children, considering the miserable inheritance al-
ready received from them. Their wrong course toward their children
results in lessening their hold of life, and prepares them for premature
death. These parents had no lack of love for their children, but this love
was misapplied. One great error with the mother in the treatment of
her infant is, she deprives it very much of fresh air, that which it ought
to have to make it strong. It is a practice of many mothers to cover their
infant’s heads while sleeping, and this, too, in a warm room, which is
seldom ventilated as it should be. This alone is sufficient to greatly
enfeeble the action of the heart and lungs, thereby affecting the whole
system. While care may be needful to protect the infant from a draught
of air, or from any sudden and too great change, especial care should
be taken to have the child breathe a pure invigorating atmosphere. No
disagreeable odor should remain in the nursery, or about the child.
Such things are more dangerous to the feeble infant than to grown
persons.
Mothers have been in the practice of dressing their infants in
reference to fashion instead of health. The infant wardrobe is generally
prepared to look prettily, more for show than for convenience and
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comfort. Much time is spent in embroidering, and in unnecessary
fancy work, to make the garments of the little stranger beautiful. The
mother often performs this work at the expense of her own health, and
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