Baby Safety

Opportunely last week, when President Coolidge directed attention to "National Safety Week," by giving the movement his approval, Jessie C. Fenton's article on "Safety First for the Babies" appeared in Hygeia, health magazine.

Author Fenton has written well about mental development and mental hygiene of children. She wrote this time:

"Useful accomplishments are just as easy to teach as those that have no utility except the pleasure they give such as 'pat-a-cake' or 'How big is baby?' A number of tricks that a small baby can learn are helpful in keeping him safe and well.

"The first lesson may be to give up things he has hold of which may hurt him. Safety pins are convenient for the first lessons. Every time the mother changes the baby's diapers, she can take time to place one of the pins in the child's hand for a moment. Then she can say to him, 'Give it to me,' at the same time taking it away again. Then she should praise him in a gay and lively manner and romp with him a little, so that he will have a pleasant association with the game and will feel that he has done something that is fun. . . .

"Falls are always imminent in a child's life, and the first creeping stage, before he has begun to stand or walk, is the time to begin teaching him to avoid them. Long before a baby can climb onto a bed or chair he should learn to get safely down. Whenever the mother happens to be handling the baby on a bed, for instance, she should not lift him down when she has finished, but should turn him over onto his little tummy, slide him gently backward until his legs hang over the edge of the bed and continue to draw him gently downward until his feet touch the floor. Then she can assist him to drop to hands and knees, and let him creep away for a short distance.

"Presently the mother can vary the procedure by letting him crawl about on the bed first until he nears the edge, whereupon she should turn him face down and help him with his backward slide. He will soon learn to get into the proper position by himself when he sees the edge near.

"In the same way he should be taught to slide from step to step down the stairway, backward and face downward, and given many careful lessons in climbing upstairs, too, putting a knee up first at each step."