Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/22

 this time, the child passes through it with little discomfort, and serious consequences are avoided. The importance of proper regulation of the diet, and the soothing effect of fresh air upon the irritated nervous system at this time, cannot be over-estimated.

The modes of exercising the child are explained, and as the development of the muscular system depends to so great an extent on judicious exercise, no mother should fail to become acquainted with the instruction given on this subject.

The infant man, like the adult one, is a creature of habit, and, with a little systematic training, it is very easy to form good habits, provided you begin early; but, if you delay until bad habits have been formed, it then becomes an entirely different matter. In the simple operation of getting the child to sleep, the difficulty experienced is generally the result of not beginning with it until bad habits have been formed. It is just as easy for the infant to go to sleep at a regular time every day by being placed quietly in the bed, as it is for it to go to sleep after being patted, trotted, and walked about the room for an hour or two; but, if it is walked to-day, of course it will expect it to-*morrow. The ill-effects of this kind of treatment, together with the way in which it is to be avoided, the author has plainly given us.

Bathing, if properly conducted, is always agreeable, and of advantage to the child, and mothers often ask how often they should bathe their children, and whether in warm or cold water, and, as even the bathing of the child may be done improperly, directions are given which should always