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Show HINTS FOR MOTHERS Prejudices die hard, as Is exemplified exempli-fied In the -almost touching but certainly cer-tainly Irritating tenacity with which the baby's binder is clung to In un-Instructed un-Instructed quarters. The fallacy underlying un-derlying this devotion lies In tho belief be-lief that the spinal and nbdomlnal muscles are weak and need support. Weak, of course, they are, as In every ev-ery other miiBclo before It Is developed, devel-oped, but then no strain should be put upon them. Ono would no moro expect n month old baby to raise Itself to a sitting posturo than to stand; tho one power Is as much n duo outcome of natural natur-al development as the other nnd (.tumid no moro bo forced or undertaken under-taken too soon. Muscles, llko everything else, develop de-velop by ubo and not by disuse. We iihould'not expect bundnges or spllntB lo strengthen a limb. Indeed wo know that tho reverse is the cobo and that left supported and unused long enough tho power to uho will atrophy. So the constricting binder weakens weak-ens the abdomlnnl muscles nnd prevents pre-vents their development, npart from tho harm dono to tho dlgcsttvo organs or-gans by tho compression. Tlicreforo j let us sco that our babies nro left free to develop in tho nnturnl way, with no binder savo in those earliest 'of all days when protection Is need-id, need-id, but not deliberate pressuro oven I then I A light wool nhlrt should, iio'vov-er, iio'vov-er, bo worn ovor the abdomen to irovent chilling: nnd colic. |
