OUR BABIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3200, 22 April 1911, Page 4

OUR BABIES.

LEARNING TO MANAGE A BABY

(By “Hygeia”)

The following article, which I derive from a recent English journal, will, I am sure, cause many parents to reflect over an important aspect of the upbringing of girls, which has come to occupy a very secondary place in the present day namely, the duties or home life, and the development in girls of a womanly devotion to children, together with a practical knowledge of how to care for them. When large families were the rule some contact with babies, and some share in their rearing, felL to the lot of most girls, bnt nowadays, owing to small families 4nd all-engrossing lessons and school life, the interests, sympathies, inclinations, and energies of the rising generation are mainly procured ou'tside the home. To stem this tendency is beginning to be the aim of the most enn evened school mistress of the day, and I am glad to see that in the _ English school referred to below the girls have to go to lied at half-past 8 instead of being allowed ito work' late at night, as they so often do in their own homes, especially when engaged, in competing for places, scholarships, etc. Nothing is more essential for proper nutrition and development of budding womanhood than long hours for sleep and freedom from educational stress. At the new model higher school for girls, which has been recently established at Hastings (Hawke’s Bay), I am glad to find that the girls go to bed at 8 o’clock, and the rule is to take a swim and have a good walk before breakfast. Besides this, special provision is made in the direction of training practically all the pupils in cooking, housekeeping, etc., while strenuous mental competition in any direction is discountenanced. In connection with the School of Domestic Economics just established at Otago University. each intending graduate will be required to spend three months as a nurse at the Karitane Baby Hospital, thus placing the pupils in a hospital-nursery instead of importing the nurse and baby into the school, as in the case now to be described. How the girls at a Scarborough school learn from a real baby how a baby should be cared for. The “Nursery Course” is attracting attention far and near, and the enterprising example of the principals of “High Cliff” is likely to be widely followed before very long. Babies are in fashion! And no woman is entitled to consider herself in the least up-to-date unless she understands the care and upbringing of babies just as well as, and even better, than, she knows how to manage her pet dogs and cats. Many women who were brought up in ignorance of the right way to care for babies are now attending lectures on nursery management. They also join child-study societies, while all go-ahead schools, whose principals know how to move with the times, are including a “nursery course” in their curriculum. NO “MAKESHIFTS.” Some of these schools have invested in life-sized celluloid or china dolls for the girls to experiment on, but dressing and undressing, or washing an unresisting doll is a very different thing from performing the toilet of a healthy, struggling baby; while preparing food for a model that cannot eat

is nothing like as interesting as getting a meal ready for a baby shouting its encouragement. The principals of the High Cliff School. Scarborough—Miss Field Hall and Miss Ford —have recently determined to countenance makeshifts no more, and have installed a veal live baby in a model nursery attached to the hospital. The baby’s name is Margerv, and she is the fourth child of a mother by no means overburdened with this world’s goods. I daresay, although Ido not know, that art the bottom of her heart Margery’s mother felt a wee bit nervous at the idea of allowing her seven-weeks-old daughter to enter the model nurseries at the High Cliff School. The baby was small and delicate, and perhaps her mother feared (that the well-meant, but untrained, attention of so many young ladies would do her more iharm than good. If she had these fears, she kept- them to herself, and she soon found that there was not the slightest need for anxiety, for the model nurseries are in charge of a fully-qualified Queen Charlotte’s nurse, who allows no experiments to be made, but insists that every minute of the baby’s life shall be lived strictly according to scientific rules.

A. HEALTHY, CONTENTED BABY. The result is that after three months m the nurseries Margery is a tine, healthy, eon tented baby, accepting her large share of adoration with joyful gurgles and smiles. The girls say (that she talks, and that they can understand her; but i.urse smiles. Her very own mother comes every week to see the baby, and is delighted with her progress. Nurse explains to her just what (the girls have done with Margery during tne week, and gives the mother many a useful hint as to how she will be able to keep her in perfect health when she finally returns to her own home. For many years physiology, hygiene, and theoretical nursery management have been included in the curriculum of the High Cliff school, for the principals believe in turning out, not only accomplished young women, able to take to take their place in society, but true women capable of making real homes for their husbands and children. They have always wanted to combine practical teaching with theoretical teaoliing, but until a little while ago they did not see their way clear to establish a model nursery with a real baby in residence. When they knew they would be able to make the dream a reality, they broached the idea to the girls, who were delighted with it, though some of them wore a little frightened the prospect before them. For writing a paper on testing the temperature of the baby’s bath, and the proper way to prepare a bottle, is not at all the same thing as really doing these things for a small person with strong views of her own as to what she likes and dislikes. However, Margery arrived, and with the Queen Charlotte’s nurse in attendance, was installed in a charming cottage quite close to the school. DELIGHTFUL QUARTERS. Tihe rooms set apart for the day and night nursery face south, and are full of air and light. The paint is all white, and the walls are washable, and a pretty . restful green in tone, and the girls are trying to induce .Margery to take an interest in the pictures on the walls —• simply framed copies of world-famous child studies. However, I must confess that so far her appreciation of art is of the slightest! The floor is covered with a green cork carpet, and the funriture is quite sim-j pie and strong. I

REGULAR HABraS Baby Margery is a lucky *‘ tal, for rhe lives a weH-arrange an^ carefully-regulated life, a *“l » y. ed idol of the whole.school. Whenrt>eu time comes the girls love tofluster round and watch her being • and tubbed. At such times they re ccive instruction as to how hot th bath should lie, how to hand! ?. t ;j’ and how her clothes should be adjustedThe girls learn how to prepare baby, food few much to give, and when They are also taught how to keep her bottles, etc., scrupulouslydean. Mar gery is weighed with careful Regular y every .week, and her adoring ... are taught to tell how she is thriving, and how much she should gam weieht week by week. In the affair of the comforter n arse was very firm; her pupils thought almost hard-hearted. , , , Needless to say, the seven-weeks -old baby, coming from its cottage home, was accustomed to that wicked m - tion the comforter. Margery always had had it, and was determined always Nurse was equally determined that she should never have it again. Hence many tears. In those early strugg e*» with the baby the girls learnt a inert valuable lesson' —to refuse to give m to a little child when it badly wants something that'is not good for it. MAKING BABY’S CLOTHES. One branch of nursery ‘training the girls receive is in the cutting out aru making of baby’s clothes, and every garment Margery wears their nanus have made. , The materials are good, and t.ie clothes very soft and pretty, but here again the girls are net allowed to forget the inevitable washtub. Nothing concerning the. care and training of little children is omitted from the course. They learn how to play with litt.e ones; how to talk to them and te~ them tales, or teach them nursery rhymes They know by the tone of a cry whether a baby is in pain or hungry and cross; and they can tell by many a sign hidden from.untrained eyes if the child is thriving as it should. They are taught what food to give and how' to ecok it. Girls of 16 join the theoretical classes, but Miss Field Hall and Miss Ford have decided that no one under 17 is eligible for the practical nursery class. Nurse says that the quickness with which the girls have picked up the proper way to hande the babv and attend to her wants is wonderful. A-t first they were shy and strange, and a little awkward. Many of them are “only” children, and had never held a baby in their arms before. They approached Margerv with fear and trembling. Now that is all changed, and they perform their services for arc* skilfully and gladly. NO COLDS ALLOWED. No one with the suspicion of a cold is adowed near the baby, and it is fortunate that tlie healthy life the gins lead, and the fine air of Scarborough, renuer colds rare, for the girl who is shut out of the paradise of the nursery is a disconsolate being. v So popular has the model nursery, with its resident baby, become that .the principals have been induced to allow a limited number of outside students to take up a course, and live for the time at tlie nursery cottage. They are girls who have completed their ordinary education, and are now specialising in all branches of domestic economy ; cookery, laundry work, nursery management, and what Miss Field Hall graphically calls “home craft.” More babies are to be added to the model nursery soon, for the experiment is already a great success, and the principals want to keep at least two babies in residence—one very young and the other 10 or 12 months old. It will surprise some young people who are allowed to stay up to “all hours” to hear .that at the High Cliff School even pupils of 17 have to go to bed at 8.30! No wonder thev look well.

Windows are open day and night, and the girls are encouraged to take a great deal of outdoor exercise. They ride, play hockey and tennis, are fine swimmers and oarswomen.