The thermal tyranny of the nursery: How climate change redefined the duty of care

“ Heating, too, and not cold, far less "trouble with teeth," is to blame when the first-born child of inexperienced young married people becomes feverish, or has a cough, and these symptoms are only aggravated when the innocent victim is treated with "teas" and mixtures, kept in an overheated room, and loaded down with bedclothes. ”

“ It is needless to describe a cold, but it is much more to the purpose to say how its occurrence is to be prevented, and nine times out of ten the observance of two simple rules will suffice for this. First, take care that there is no great difference between the temperature of the day and of the night nursery. The one should never be above 60°, nor the other below 50°, and the undressing and the bath should always take place in the warmer room. Second, never let the child wear the same shoes or boots in the house as it does out of doors. ”

“ The absolute and real state of temperature in a room can only be ascertained by the aid of a thermometer; and no nursery should ever be without one. It should be placed, however, in such a situation as to indicate the real temperature of the atmosphere, and not where it will give a false result.
No mother should forget that the infant, at birth, has not the power of generating heat, internally, to the extent which it possesses afterward. The lungs have as yet but a feeble, inefficient action. ”

“ Moreover, it will be necessary to have a guard in every room where a fire is burning, to protect the ladies, who, in accordance with the present fashion, wear such 1153preposterous crinolines, and thus to prevent the frightful deaths which are at the present time of such frequent and startling occurrence; lady-burning is now one of the institutions of our land!
A nursery is usually kept too hot; the temperature in the winter time ought not to exceed 60 degrees Fahrenheit. A good thermometer should be considered an indispensable requisite to a nursery. ”

“ But, still, in the winter time, if the weather be biting cold, a little fire in the bedroom grate is desirable. In bringing up children, we must never run into extremes—the coddling system and the hardening system are both to be deprecated; the coddling system will make the strong child weakly, while the hardening system will probably kill a delicate one.
A child's bed ought, of course, to be comfortably clothed with blankets—I say blankets, as they are much superior to coverlids; the perspiration will more readily pass through a blanket than a coverlid. A thick coverlid ought never to be used ”

“ The nursery ought to have a large fire-guard, to go all round the hearth, and which should be sufficiently high to prevent a child from climbing over. Not only must the nursery have a guard, but every room where he is allowed to go should he furnished with one on the bars. ”

“ In just eight years, we've halved our dependence on foreign oil, doubled our renewable energy, and led the world to an agreement that has the promise to save this planet. But without bolder action, our children won't have time to debate the existence of climate change; they'll be busy dealing with its effects: environmental disasters, economic disruptions, and waves of climate refugees seeking sanctuary. ”

“ Our overriding environmental challenge tonight is the worldwide problem of climate change, global warming, the gathering crisis that requires worldwide action. The vast majority of scientists have concluded unequivocally that if we don't reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses at some point in the next century, we'll disrupt or climate and put our children and grandchildren at risk. ”

“ Our own sensations not always to be trusted. Thermometer. Why infants require more external heat than adults. Means of warmth. Air heated in other apartments. Clothes taking fire. Stove—railing around it. Excess of heat—its dangers.
There is one general principle, on this subject, which is alike applicable to all persons and circumstances. It is, to keep a little too cool, rather than in the slightest degree too warm. In other words, the lowest temperature which is compatible with comfort, is, in all cases, best adapted to health ”

“ The purification of the blood, through their agency, is not only incomplete, but the heat evolved is as yet inconsiderable. In the absence of internal heat, then, there is an increased demand externally. If 60° be deemed suitable for most other persons, the new-born infant may, for a few days, require 65° or even 70°.
Much may and should be done in preserving the child in a proper temperature by means of its clothing. On this point I shall speak at length, in another part of this work. My present purpose is simply to treat of the temperature of the nursery. ”

“ The greatest loss of heat occurs by radiation from the skin and by the evaporation of sweat, therefore undue loss from this extensive area should be prevented by its suitable covering; otherwise the child is placed at a far more serious disadvantage than would be suffered by an adult similarly situated; for in his case growth as well as equilibrium must be maintained. Few parents realise the further fact that the power of heat regulation is very imperfect at birth; indeed its slow development accounts for the instability of a child’s temperature for many years after. ”

“ Dewees is fully persuaded that the excessive heat of nurseries has occasioned a great mortality among very young children. "In the first place," he says, "it over-stimulates them; and in the second, it renders them so susceptible of cold, that any draught of cold air endangers their lives. They are in a constant perspiration, which is frequently checked by an exposure to even an atmosphere of moderate temperature." ”

“ A child in a hot, close nursery is bathed in perspiration; if he leave the room to go to one of lower temperature, the pores of his skin are suddenly closed, and either a severe cold or an inflammation of the lungs, or an attack of bronchitis, is likely to ensue. Moreover, the child is both weakened and enervated by the heat, and thus readily falls a prey to disease.
A child ought never to be permitted to sit with his back to the fire; if he be allowed, it weakens the spine, and thus his whole frame; it causes a rash of blood to the head and face, and predisposes him to catch cold. ”

“ The domestic management of a cold is simple enough. The usual error is the overdoing precautions, the keeping the room too hot, or overloading the child with extra garments, or its bed with extra covering, by which it is kept in a state of feverishness, or of needlessly profuse perspiration. ”

“ The system of “hardening” children, by an inadequate supply of clothing, and keeping them uncomfortably cold throughout the whole day, is inhuman, as well as unprofitable. It operates upon the child somewhat like the long-continued chill upon a certain portion of the farmer’s herd, that are kept shivering under the thatched shed, retarding the growth of their systems, which require more food to satisfy the keen cravings of hunger than when they are comfortably 306 sheltered. ”

“ It is an ascertained fact that more children of the poor, who are thus lightly clad, die, than of those who are properly defended from the cold. Again, what holds good with a young plant is equally applicable to a young child; and we all know that it is ridiculous to think of unnecessarily exposing a tender plant to harden it. If it were thus exposed, it would wither and die!
131. If a child be delicate, if he has a cold body or a languid circulation, or if he be predisposed to inflammation of the lungs, do you approve of his wearing flannel instead of linen shirts? ”

“ Cold feet cause a great amount of indigestion, and exposure of the large blood-vessels of the thigh during childhood frequently sows the seeds of kidney diseases, to develop in afterlife.
Insufficient clothing and much exposure to cold have the effect of making a child appear torpid, benumbed bodily and mentally, and it stands to reason that if its small powers are entirely consumed in merely keeping alive and fairly warm, no vital energy will be left for anything else, and a child has more to do than the adult: it has not only to repair waste, but it has to grow and make new tissue. ”

“ It is folly in the extreme to attempt to harden a very young child either by allowing him, in the winter time, to be in a bed-room without a fire, or by dipping him in cold water, or by keeping him with scant clothing on his bed. The temperature of a bed-room, in the winter time, should be, as nearly as possible, at 60° Fahr. ”

“ It is a mistake, when a child has completely recovered from an acute but brief illness, to coddle him for weeks afterward merely because a grown person in similar [282] circumstances would have failed to regain his strength.
When a child is sick in bed, especial efforts should be made to insure adequate ventilation without chilling him. Children always lose heat rapidly because the body surface is proportionately large; when they are ill, therefore, it is especially necessary to keep them well covered, to see that their hands and feet are warm, and to avoid chilling them during their baths. ”

“ In taking the temperature of a baby place him on his back, hold him firmly with his legs elevated, and carefully insert the bulb of the thermometer, well oiled, for about one inch. Keep the child quiet, and hold the thermometer in place three minutes. Great importance should not be attached to a slight fever of short duration. The temperature of a child is much more easily affected by slight causes than that of an adult, and rectal temperatures between 97.5° and 100.5° should not cause anxiety unless continued. ”

“ If the child has had a shivering fit; if his skin be very hot and very dry; if his lips be parched; if there be great thirst; if his cheeks be flushed; if he be dull and heavy, wishing to be quiet in his cot or crib; if his appetite be diminished; if his tongue be furred; if his mouth be burning hot and dry; [Footnote: If you put your finger into the mouth of a child labouring under inflammation of the lungs, it is like putting your finger into a hot apple pie, the heat is so great.] if his urine be scanty and high-coloured, staining the napkin or the linen ”

“ If the attack has been severe, the child will be left greatly exhausted, sadly emaciated, and suffering from the effects of that ulceration of the bowels which accompanies the fever, and from which life may still be in imminent danger. But the fire is quenched; the question is no longer how to put out the conflagration, but how to repair the mischief it has caused.
When mild, the disease usually comes on very gradually, the child loses its cheerfulness, the appearance of health leaves it, the appetite fails, and the thirst becomes troublesome ”

“ The child, perhaps, has delicate lungs; it must, therefore, have warm clothing; so garment after garment, made fashionably, that is to say, very full and very short, is heaped one upon the other over the chest and upper part of the body, until the poor child can scarcely move under the heavy burden with which, with mistaken kindness, it has been laden, while the lower limbs, in which the circulation is most languid, and which require to be protected as well as the chest, are frequently exposed to the air, and the foot is covered with a shoe which is too thin to keep it dry. ”

“ Take the matter of clothing, for example: this is frequently piled on till the hapless youngster presents the appearance of a bale of millinery, impeding movements, keeping the child overheated, and forming a conspicuous part of the hot-house life which the child is henceforth to lead. ”

“ But so great is the instability associated with human immaturity and future potentiality, that arrested development is too often the heavy penalty paid by the child for the ignorance and carelessness of his parents. [107] Faults of food and clothing, insufficient warmth, cleanliness, or exercise, premature work or precocious responsibility and independence, prolonged overstrain or insufficient stimulation of mind and body, are the prevalent causes by which a child’s normal growth is warped and prejudiced. ”

“ The windows ought to be large, and should be made to freely open both top and bottom. Whenever the child is out of the nursery the windows ought to be thrown wide open; indeed, when he is in it, if the weather be fine, the upper sash should be a little lowered. ”

“ There is another great objection to having your nursery walls covered with green paper-hangings; if any of the paper should become loose from the walls, a little child is very apt to play with it, and to put it, as he does everything else, to his mouth. ”

“ The child shares and more than shares every danger of the home, and furthermore suffers an endless list of accidents peculiar to his limitations. Even our dull nerves are roused to some sort of response by the terrible frequency of accidents to little children. ”

“ Then the steam-power underground raised it up slowly, through long ages, till it became dry land. And ages hence, perhaps, it will have become a sea-bottom once more. Washed slowly by the rain, or sunk by the dying out of the steam-power underground, it will go down again to the place from whence it came. Seas will roll where we stand now, and new lands will rise where seas now roll. For all things on this earth, from the tiniest flower to the tallest mountain, change and change all day long. Every atom of matter moves perpetually ”

“ There will be great accumulations of ice and snow in winter; the heat of the brief hot summer will be partly reflected back into space by the white snow, and it will be unequal to the task of melting all the winter’s ice before the earth spins away once more towards its chilly aphelion. The earth will accumulate cold so long as this conspiracy of extreme conditions continues.
Diagram To Illustrate One Set of Causes, the Astronomical Variations, Which Make the Climate of the World Change Slowly but Continuously. It does not change in regular periods. It fluctuates through vast ages. ”

“ The enormous and constantly increasing output of coal and iron necessarily means the approach of the day when our children's children, or their children's children, shall dwell in an ironless age—and, later on, in an age without coal—and will have to try to invent or develop new sources for the production of heat and use of energy. But as regards many another natural resource, scientific civilization teaches us how to preserve it through use. The best use of field and forest will leave them decade by decade, century by century, more fruitful ”

“ The exhaustion of the coal-fields might slow down progress for a time, but so long as mankind keeps its continuity, its past achievements and its rate of achievement will act as a stimulus and encouragement to further efforts, and new sources of energy will be discovered and utilized.
And so we may feel justified in expecting continual progress for at least a thousand years. Can we imagine the result? A globe laid out like a huge garden, with a climate under perfect control; the internal heat of [86] the earth brought to the surface and utilized as a source of never-failing energy. ”

“ For every winter shows them free from the east wind; more perfectly than their elders, they enclose the climate of life. And, moreover, with them the climate of life is the climate of the spring of life; the climate of a human March that is sure to make a constant progress, and of a human April that never hesitates. The child “breathes April and May”—an inner April and his own May.
The winter child looks so much the more beautiful for the season as his most brilliant uncles and aunts look less well. He is tender and gay in the east wind. ”