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Show This is National Baby Week, a good time to learn the benefits of the vitamin of love in my opinion, every one of them a manifestaf tion of the vitamin of love: 1. Children respond to play, happy voices, gay has cared for Mealtimes should be happy occasions. Bedtime prayers should be heard, followed kiss., by a good-nig6. At an early age there should be some religious training; parents and children should attend church together. A district attorney told me: "In a family where parents play with the children and hear their prayers at night, delinquency is very rare." 7. Mothers and fathers should be loving friends before they are disciplinarians. It is unkind to force a baby or young child to face up to fear alone. When a child is afraid of the dark, for example, I recommend that a small light be left in the room. When my children were small, I gave them flashlights and turned an exploration of our big barn into an adventure. When they were convinced the dark was empty, not peopled with goblins or other creatures, they took a giant step msicrand laughter from infancy 2. pediatrician A who jfX more than 8,000 families, I V, . heredity. J . 10 am The vitamin of love love, lovingly demonstrated - r term is my for is as essential to r oil. growth as orange juice or I remember years ago, when we were just commencing to understand the desirability of loving contact, Bellevue Hospital in New York brought elderly men from other wards to the nursery and encouraged them to play with the babies. I am sure the benefits were twofold. Man needs loving from the cradle to the grave. I must add that, to evoke the happiest results, love must be expressed in terms which children can recognize readily and take pleasure and comcod-liv- er ' . v. , ' t '"- ' ' : '" 1 -, r' 4 - ? V - ' i " ' r- - -- - ' V I " ., " , . , ' ' ;- A ' , . ' , r fort in. Unfortunately, love is not always manifested this way. For example, tKe baby of an apprehensive mother, however much loved, is likely to absorb maternal tension and be fretty. He will re act anxiously to any new experience, even such a simple- - thing as beings placed on a doctor's scale. In other words, the vitamin of love is a combination of attitude and atmosphere. One of my favorite stories concerns a delightful couple who came to my office with the baby they had just adopted. I have, of course, known many children who developed slowly. Nevertheless, I wondered whether this little fellow was going to be all right His head was an odd shape; he was utterly lethargic. Yet the change in two months was dramatic. The head shape had improved, but, more importantly, this baby exchanging coos with his mother, laughing at the silly sounds his father amused him with -- had become more responsive than I thought possible. He had become responsive because he had had something to respond to. Today this boy, approaching his fourth birthday, is one of my most rewarding patients. His development physical, cerebral, and emotional has been inspiring. He is loved and knows it What, mothers will ask, adds up to an ideal parent-chil- d relationship? Ten simple things, Mmbr ond Dipiomotc, American Acodmy of ftdtotrict as told to AdeloWhitely Fletcher Family COVER: You never know where veteran funnyman Bob Hope, now starring in "Critic's Choice," will turn up. Once it tcas Moscow-wher-e a riotous adventure ensued. See page 6. J&cclcly IEONAIO $. OAVIOOW WAITER C DREYFUS PATRICK I. OTOURXE MORTON FRANK PrttuUnl nd PublUhtr Vie Prrtident -- "Mother-does-try-ao-har- ob-serv- ed- well-adjust- ed I Adetrthimg DirtcUir WEEXIY d" - Dirtttor of PuMUker Relation communication to Family Weekly, -. Snd all advertising 153 N. Michigan Av Chicago 1. lit. Address all communication about editorial feature to Family Weekly, 60 E. 36th St.. New York 22, N. Y. 1HS, FAMIIY - away from fear. 0. Parents should accept the fact that certain phases of growth present behavior problems. It is more constructive to unaereiana wese pnases than to rage at them. Boys and girls fronr eight to ten, for instance, tend to be self centered,, even domineering. I aN ways advise that their attention be directed toward others; that they be encouraged to take homework to the classmate who is ill or walk a dog for a neighbor. The more praise children receive the less likely they are to need punishment. 9. In a good mother-chil- d relationship, there feelis no place for ings. It is natural for children to do things which are disappointing to adults. They should not, however, be alarmed by a mother their source of strength- who shows her own immaturity in whining complaints and tears. 10. Children respond to family life in which the adults show consideration and politeness; eventually they will imitate these virtues. I am not being sentimental when I say the vitamin of love is the greatest single thing we can give our children. Over and over. I have that those who were blessed with the vitamin of love when they were young will mature into adults and will pass on this precious gift to their own children. six-month-- By MINER C. HILL, M.D. chu- ht times more important than y o 4. 5. convinced of two things: Environment is pay-t- dren's interests the better, whether it is a picture that a child has colored or a report about the new driver of the school bus. If a choice must be made between finishing the dishes or taking time to listen, leave the dishes rather than the child. 3. "Discipline by substitution" is a phrase to remember. It simply means distracting a child's attention if mm what he does wrong. In other words, get him interested jn something else. This works better than any punishment, particularly with babies at the "grabby" stage. THE GREATEST THING YOU CAN GIVE YOUR CHILD AS The more attention parents April U, ioard of Editors ERNEST V. MIYN Eiitor-in-Cki- tf IEN KARTMAN Ktteutiv Edifr ROIERT FITZGIISON Managing Editor mf MELANIE DYKSTRA Art Dirrttor DE FROFT Food Editor Rotolyn Abrevaya, Arden Eidell, Hal London. Jack Ryan; Peer J. Opoenheimer, Hollywood. MAGAZINE, INC. 153 N. Michigan Are., Chicago 1, 111. All right reserved. |