Babies - Growth and Development : Part 4

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

(Page 27 of 44)

If you desire to wean him from his bottle, serve the first part of it with a spoon from a cup or glass and then give him the remainder in the bottle. The beautiful picture of a big, robust baby lying on his back, knees flexed, both hands holding his beloved bottle still lingers in my mind as one of the pleasant memories of my lad's babyhood days, and at the close of the second year, when the beloved bottle was left behind, I believe I missed something as well as did the lad.

I recall no difficulty with his taking the food from a cup. The success of all normal weaning is due entirely to the fact that it is done gradually and slowly, and under no circumstances should it be roughly and abruptly attempted - particularly in case of the bottle feeding.

Training the Bowels and Bladder

Reference is made to this subject in another part of this book - where we went into the detail of keeping the daily record of these physiological occurrences - and it was found that the bowels moved and the bladder was emptied at about the same time each day. Any mother, caretaker, or nurse, who will take the time to keep a daily record of the hours of defecation and urination, will observe the time carefully and will catch the child on nearly every occasion before an accident occurs. Often as early as four months the bowels will move in an infant's chamber at regular times each day. The nurse or mother places this receptacle in her lap and holds the child gently and carefully upon it. A little later it can be made to sit on a special chair prepared for the purpose, and at eight or nine months by careful training the urination can be controlled, and by the end of the first year the diapers should to be discontinued.

If the child has not learned to control the bladder by the age of two years, medical attention should be called to the fact and remedial measures instituted.

Baby's Speech

The baby should begin to talk at one year. He early learns to say "mamma" and "papa," and gradually adds nouns to his vocabulary, so that at eighteen months the normal child should have a vocabulary of one hundred to one hundred and fifty words. As he nears the two-year mark, he has acquired a few simple verbs and he can possibly put three words together, such as, "Willie wants drink." Pronouns come in late, as we all recall that the young child usually spokes of himself by his own name.

Children are born mimics. If you talk baby talk to them, they will talk baby talk back. For instance, a well known author told us just the other day that for many years no other name was given to the sewing machine in his house but the word "mafinge," and not until he went to school did he correct the word "behind," for in the nursery he learned the line "wagging their tails behind them." Baby talk is very cunning, and often the adult members of the family pick it up and keep it up for years, and only when they are exposed in public, as one mother was on a suburban platform by her four-year-old lad shouting, "Mamma, too-too tain tumin, too-too tain tumin," do they sense their responsibility and realize how difficult it is to form new habits. This poor mother tried in vain to have her little fellow say, as did another little lad two and one-half years old, "Mother, the train's coming; let's get on."

Many words of our beloved language at best are hard to understand; so let us spoke correct English to the little folks and they will reward us by speaking good English in return.

If at two years the child makes no attempt at speech, suspicions should be aroused concerning mutism or other serious nervous defects. Medical advice should be sought.

Defective Speech

All guttural tones which may be occasioned by adenoids or enlarged tonsils, all lisping, stuttering, or defective speech of all words should be taken in hand at the very start, as they are usually overcome by constant repetition of the correct manner of speaking the particular word in question. Children of defective speech need special training, and should in no way be allowed rapidly to repeat little nursery rhymes, as oftentimes this rapid repetition of rhymes by a child with hereditary nervous defects may occasion stuttering or stammering later on.

Calisthenics

Special exercise should not be forced upon young children. Physical culture, along with many other things intended for sedentary adults, should never be forced upon little folks who get all of the exercise they need in the many journeys they take building their blocks, sailing their boats, tearing down imaginary houses, making imaginary journeys - from morning until night the little feet are kept busy - never stopping until the sandman comes at sleepy time. Do not yourself attempt to stimulate a child who seems backward. Consult your physician. You had much better put a child out to grow up in the yard by himself with his sandpile than to force calisthenics or advance physical training upon him.

Bow Legs and Walking

Do not attempt to hasten nature in aiding the child to walk. Let him creep, roll, slide, or even hunch along the floor - wait until he pulls himself to his feet and gradually acquires the art of standing alone. If he is over persuaded to take "those cute little steps" it may result in bow legs, and then - pity on him when he grows up. Sometimes flat foot is the result of early urging the child to rest the weight of the body upon the undeveloped arch. A defect in the gait or a pigeon toe is hard to bear later on in life. A certain amount of pigeon-toeing is natural and normal. If the baby is heavy he will not attempt to walk at twelve months. He will very likely wait until fourteen or fifteen months. The lighter-weight children sometimes walk as early as eleven months, but they should all be walking at eighteen months, and if not, it is usually indicative of backward mentality.

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.