Newborns - The Nursery : Fresh Air, Lighting

The Mother and Her Child
by William S. Sadler, M.D., Lena K. Sadler, M.D.

(Page 14 of 41)

These shallow pans of water with large wick evaporating surfaces will evaporate from three to four quarts during the twenty-four hours. The humidity should be fifty throughout the seasons of artificial heating.

Many colds may be entirely avoided by the use of humidifiers or evaporators. The open grate is one of the very best means of nursery heating. Gas and oil heaters should not be depended upon for nursery heat. Only in an emergency should they be used at all, and the electric heater is by far the best device for such occasions.

Baby's Corner in Mother's Room

It is probably a conservative estimate to say that ninety-five percent of all the babies occupy a corner of mother's and father's bedroom for the first two or three years. And believing this estimate to be correct, it is advisable to give the matter some consideration. To begin with, a lot of the non-essentials, ruffles of the average bedroom, must go. The good father's chiffonier may have to be put in the bath room; heavy floor coverings must be discarded, to be replaced by one or two small, light-weight rugs; wall decorations and the usual bric-a-brac of dressers, tables, etc., should be carefully packed away. In fact, there should be nothing in the room save the parents' bed, dresser (several drawers of which must be devoted to baby's necessities), table, low rocker, a stool, baby's bed and a good big generous screen, made out of a large clothes horse enameled white.

Window draperies must be taken down and packed away, while they are replaced with simple muslin which can go to the laundry twice a month. If it be within the means of the family purse, it is well to renovate the walls just prior to the advent of the little stranger.

And now the baby's bed is placed in the corner most protected from draughts and the glare of the sunlight. If it can be so arranged that baby looks away from the light, and not at it, we are guarding it from defective vision in the future.

Crib Substitutes

Many a beautiful artistic creation so much admired in this world is found to be, on closer inspection, a very ordinary thing which has received an artistic touch; and so, many convenient, sanitary, and beautiful cribs are fashioned from market baskets fastened to tops of small tables whose legs are sawed off a bit; from soap boxes fastened to a frame, and from clothes baskets. A can of white enamel, a paint brush and the deft hand of a merry, cheery-hearted expectant mother can work almost miracles. Remember, please, that all draperies must be washable and attached with thumb tacks so as to admit of easy and frequent visits to the laundry.

A medium-sized clothes basket will take care of our baby for four or five months. The same general plan for the mattress and bedding is followed as before described.

Extra Heat To The Crib

If necessary - and it usually is, especially during the winter months - a hot-water bottle may be placed underneath the bedding on top of the mattress. This insures a steady, mild, uniform warmth and it not only saves the baby from the danger of being burned, but it also obviates the temporary overheating of the child which usually occurs when the bottle is placed inside the bed, next to the baby. If the bed is properly made - the blankets coming from under the babe up and over - there is little or no need for extra heat for well babies after the first month.

Lighting Baby's Room

If electric lighting is not an equipment of the home neither gas or oil lamps should be allowed to burn in the room for long periods. For emergency night lighting a well-protected wax candle should be used. However, don't go to sleep and allow a candle to burn unprotected as did one tired, exhausted mother. The father, suddenly aroused from his sleep, saw a large flame caused by the overturning of a wax candle into a box of candles, while the lace drapery of the basinet was within a few inches of the flame and the baby just beyond. Grabbing a pillow he smothered the flames and saved baby and all.

Fresh Air

Plenty of fresh air and lots of sunshine should enter baby's room. The large screen amply shields from draughts, and when therefore protected there need be no unnecessary concern about cool fresh air, especially after two or three months, as it is invigorating and prevents "catching cold." Warm, stuffy air is devitalizing and even during the early weeks when the fresh air must be warm, an electric fan should be advantageously placed so that many times each day the warm fresh air may be put in motion without creating a harmful draught.

Warm stuffy air makes babies liable to catch cold when taken out into the open.

Throw open the windows several times each day and completely change the air of baby's room. In the absence of the large screen, a wooden board five or six inches high is fitted into the opening made by raising the lower window sash. Then as the upper sash is lowered the impure air readily escapes while fresh air is admitted.

The Bath Equipment

Make early preparations for bathing the baby in the easiest possible manner; in fact, the young mother should seek to attend to all her duties - the family, the home, and the baby - in the easiest way. For the administration of a bath during the early months, a table is needed, protected by oilcloth on which is placed a roomy bathtub with a folded Turkish towel on the bottom for baby to sit on.

Nursery Cleanliness

The nursery should furnish the baby's first protection from contagious diseases. It must be a veritable haven of safety. Therefore, no house work of any kind should be done in the room, such as washing or drying the baby's clothes. The floors and the furniture should be wiped daily with damp cloths. A dry cloth or feather duster should never be used to scatter dust around the room.

All bedding and rugs should receive their daily shaking and airing out of doors, remembering that particles of dust are veritable airships for the transportation of germs. In every way possible avoid raising a dust. So much of the lint which commonly comes from blankets may be avoided with the daily shaking out of doors.

Soiled diapers should not accumulate in a corner or on the radiator; their removal should be immediate, and if they must await a more opportune time, soak them in a receptacle filled with cold water. Even those diapers slightly wetted should never be merely dried and used again, but should be properly washed and dried. No washing soda should be used in the cleansing of diapers - just an ordinary white soap, a good boil, and plenty of rinse water, with drying in the sun if possible. They require no ironing. Hands that come in contact with soiled or wet diapers must be thoroughly cleansed before caring for the baby or preparing his food.

As before mentioned, and it will bear repetition often, all windows and doors must be well screened, for flies and mosquitoes are dreaded foes in any community and in baby land in particular. All used bottles and nipples as well as used cups, pitchers, bits of used cotton, should be removed at once. The washcloth is a splendid harbinger of germs. There should be one for the face, and one for the body and bath, and both should receive tri-weekly boiling. Bath towels should not be used more than twice, better only once.

The techniques of bathing, together with the location, furnishings, and cleanliness of the baby's sick room, will be taken up in later chapters.

About the Author

Dr. William S. Sadler M.D. was a well-known American psychiatrist and college teacher in the school of medicine at the University of Chicago. For over sixty years he practiced his profession in Chicago, thirty-three years being associated in practice with his wife, Dr Lena Kellogg Sadler. The doctors were pioneers in the research on the mysterious Urantia Papers.