It is also indispensably requisite not to allow
the child to sleep with persons in bad health, or who are far advanced
in life; if possible, it should sleep alone.
Sect. V. BATHING AND CLEANLINESS.
DURING INFANCY.--Too much attention cannot be paid to cleanliness; it
is essential to the infant's health. The principal points to which
especial attention must be paid by the parent for this purpose are the
following:--
TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER.--At first the infant should be washed daily
with warm water; and a bath every night, for the purpose of thoroughly
cleaning the body, is highly necessary. To bathe a delicate infant of a
few days or even weeks old in cold water with a view "to harden" the
constitution (as it is called), is the most effectual way to undermine
its health and entail future disease. By degrees, however, the water
with which it is sponged in the morning should be made tepid, the
evening bath being continued warm enough to be grateful to the feelings.
A few months having passed by, the temperature of the water may be
gradually lowered until cold is employed, with which it may be either
sponged or even plunged into it, every morning during summer. If
plunged into cold water, however, it must be kept in but a minute; for
at this period, especially, the impression of cold continued for any
considerable time depresses the vital energies, and prevents that
healthy glow on the surface which usually follows the momentary and
brief action of cold, and upon which its usefulness depends.
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