Page:The physical training of children (IA 39002011126464.med.yale.edu).pdf/85

 and if there be a due performance of all the functions, he sleeps a great deal; and thus the body becomes refreshed and invigorated.

85. As much sleep is of such advantage, if an infant sleep but little, would you advise composing medicine to be given to him?

Certainly not. The practice of giving composing medicine to a young child cannot be too strongly reprobated. If he does not sleep enough, the mother ought to ascertain if the bowels be in a proper state, whether they be sufficiently opened that the motions be of a good color—namely, a bright yellow, inclining to orange color—and free from slime or from had smell. An occasional dose of rhubarb and magnesia is frequently the best composing medicine he can take.

86. We often hear of Coroner's inquests upon infants who have been found dead in bed—accidentally overlaid: what is usually the cause?

Suffocation, produced either by ignorance or by carelessness. From ignorance in mothers, in their not knowing the common laws of life, and the vital importance of free and unrestricted respiration, not only when babies are up and about, but when they are in bed and asleep. From carelessness, in their allowing young and thoughtless servants to have the charge of infants at night; more especially as young girls are usually heavy sleepers, and are thus too much overpowered with sleep to attend to their necessary duties. A foolish mother sometimes goes to sleep while allowing her child to continue sucking. The unconscious babe, after a time, looses the nipple, and buries his head in the bedclothes. She awakes in the morning, finding, to her horror, a corpse by her side! A mother ought, therefore, never to go to sleep until her child has finished sucking. The following are a few rules to prevent an infant from