Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/79



74. ''Do you recommend exercise in the open air for a baby? and if so, how soon after birth?''

I am a great advocate for having exercise in the open air. "The infant in arms makes known its desire for fresh air by restlessness—it cries, for it cannot speak its wants: is taken abroad, and is quiet."

The age at which he ought to commence taking exercise will, of course, depend upon the season and upon the weather. If it be summer, and the weather be fine, he should be carried in the open air a week or a fortnight after birth; but if it be winter, he ought not, on any account, to be taken out under the month, and not even then, unless the weather be mild for the season, and it be the middle of the day. At the end of two months he should breathe the open air more frequently. And after the expiration of three months he ought to be carried out every day, even if it be wet under foot, provided it be fine above, and the wind be neither in an easternly nor in a northeasternly direction; by doing so we shall make him strong and hearty, and give the skin that mettled appearance which is so characteristic of health. He must, of course, be well clothed. I cannot help expressing my disapprobation of the practice of smothering up an infant's face with a handkerchief, with a veil, or with any other covering, when he is taken out into the air. If his face be so muffled up, he may as well remain at home; as, under such circumstances, it is impossible for him to receive any benefit from the invigorating effects of the fresh air. 75. Can you devise any method to induce a baby himself to take exercise?