Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1877 — Cruel Management of Young Children. [ARTICLE]

Cruel Management of Young Children.

Young children will learn to creep, to stand on their feet, to’move their nmbs and to walk just as soon as their bongs are sufficiently firm and their muscles properly developed to perform all that is required of these parts When efforts are made to stand erect or to walk. It,will be superlative folly for any one to attempt to compel a young child to fes limbs before the bones have acquired solidity and the muscles are clothed with strength. We once knew a young mother haring an infant daughter about fen months old, which the proud and ambitious mother was determined should walk before the child was ope year old. The .ljttle tottlcr was fat, large, heavy ana barely strong enough to stand for a short time When havinga hold of a chair. Bat the young mother attempted to compel the child to stand alone, which was an utter impossibility. The little thing when piaced on its feet would drop to the floor like a little roll of wet cloth when placed on end. The mother whipped, and* scoltfed and coaxed, then held h6r darling ojj, her little feet for a few minutes, and then told her to stand. But down the littlethinjg Would drop as quickly as if it 1 had received a death blow. Then the good mother would fly at her ehild again in a rage—fretting, scolding and whipping, ana declaring that the child was willful and obstinate, and that such an obstinate will mdst be broken. But she could not break It. She was obliged to give up in terrible despair. So she.threw herself on the floor and groaned and Wept aloud, while ‘the poor ..child, lay there . half. ..dead, SS& t'liXSS' to the house, when the confiding wife related with anguish her ifagloriouftl defeat by her Willful and’obstinate daughmi* of only ton months of ' age. She shrieked ana groaned and rolled on fife floor; 1 and invoked death to cqme to her relief ~ Her husband, who was shocked ftt smell a scene, took up his sobbing and aLmost dead child; assuaged thd anguish Of the stricken heart, and soon was ablq to Jay the little thingdpwn tq quiet sleep. Tljen, after the tossed wife had subsided and ’WftS in a suitable condition to bear counsel, the genslrh*ißlMmd (sxplajmed to her.the superlative fcflly oi. attempting, to do something that ghe could, asnr do, something that never had. been done, something that no mortal ever would be able to do, and sorhetMiHg that wgfi as much, a practical impossibility as U ift to make a piece of> limber cord stand erect. He explained to her that the bones, ligaments, cartilages and ujuspljiii ; .} et weak and not able to uphold . themselves without harm. The bones of infants > are flexible. They are imperfectly devtejpped. They contain but a small percentage of lime, not enough to render the bones so firm and stiff as to warraht any fefeat amount of physical exertion. Of* course infants itaust got the use of all their muscles by exposing themi Wfe wish only to caution nurses and mothers against doing this at too early a period of Infantile life. How many infants are ruined or ktUjpa in this way, Heaven only knows. Uet yosmg mothers remember this one thing, tjiaf a child will creep, stand alone jjnd walk just as soon as the limbs have acquired the necessary strength; but no sooner.— “ Aj/pfola," in N. T. Herald. ~ ,