Water baby

“ So he knew that he had been hearing and seeing the water-babies all along; only he did not know them, because his eyes and ears were not opened.
And in they came, dozens and dozens of them, some bigger than Tom and some smaller, all in the neatest little white bathing dresses; and when they found that he was a new baby, they hugged him and kissed him, and then put him in the middle and danced round him on the sand, and there was no one ever so happy as poor little Tom.
“Now then,” they cried all at once, “we must come away home, we must come away home, or the tide will leave us dry. ”

“ To have come all this way, and faced so many dangers, and yet to find no water-babies! How hard! Well, it did seem hard: but people, even little babies, cannot have all they want without waiting for it, and working for it too, my little man, as you will find out some day.
And Tom sat upon the buoy long days, long weeks, looking out to sea, and wondering when the water-babies would come back ”

“ The skin of the new-born baby is very tender, and infection is always at hand. At the Better Babies Contests I have heard more than one physician trace an eruption on the baby’s skin to careless bathing or care of the tub. Doctors say that bad cases of boils can be traced to an infected tub. In fact, there are women who love their babies, yet who are so thoughtless as to leave diapers soaking in the bathtub, where, after a superficial rinsing off with warm water, baby is bathed. Diapers, all of baby’s clothing, in fact, should be soaked and washed in separate utensils, never in the bathtub. ”

“ They found the little fellow's rags by the side of the stream, and they also discovered his body in the water, and buried it over in Vendale churchyard.
II.--A Lonely, Mischievous Water-Baby
Tom was very happy swimming about in the river, although he was now only about four inches long, with a set of external gills, just like those of an eft. There are land-babies, and why not water-babies? Some people tell us that water-babies are contrary to nature, but there are so many things in nature which we don't expect to find that there may as well be water-babies as not. ”

“ And there were the water-babies in thousands, more than Tom, or you either, could count.—All the little children whom the good fairies take to, because their cruel mothers and fathers will not; all who are untaught and brought up heathens, and all who come to grief by ill-usage or ignorance or neglect; all the little children who are overlaid, or given gin when they are young, or are let to drink out of hot kettles, or to fall into the fire ”

“ I have seen things just like you again and again, but I thought you were shells or sea-creatures. I never took you for water-babies like myself."
Now, was not that very odd? So odd, indeed, that you will, no doubt, want to know how it happened, and why Tom could never find a water-baby till after he had got the lobster out of the pot. And, if you will read this story nine times over, and then think for yourself, you will find out why. It is not good for little boys to be told everything, and never to be forced to use their own wits. They would learn, then, no more than they do at Dr. ”

“ For, perhaps, if they do so, then after 379,423 years, nine months, thirteen days, two hours, and twenty-one minutes (for aught that appears to the contrary) , if they work very hard and wash very hard all that time, their brains may grow bigger, and their jaws grow smaller, and their ribs come back, and their tails wither off, and they will turn into water-babies again, and perhaps after that into land-babies; and after that perhaps into grown men. ”

“ There are land-babies—then why not water-babies? Are there not water-rats, water-flies, water-crickets, water-crabs, water-tortoises, water-scorpions, water-tigers and water-hogs, water-cats and water-dogs, sea-lions and sea-bears, sea-horses and sea-elephants, sea-mice and sea-urchins, sea-razors and sea-pens, sea-combs and sea-fans; and of plants, are there not water-grass, and water-crowfoot, water-milfoil, and so on, without end? ”

“ If the conditions are not favorable, it would be far better to wrap the baby snugly in a warm blanket—first having put a diaper on—and place it in its crib with a hot water bottle near it and defer the bathing until the following forenoon. By that time the baby will be adapted to its new surroundings; its lungs will have become accustomed to the air which it is breathing for the first time; the mother will have been rendered comfortable; in other words, the conditions and the environment will be favorable for the baby and for a better performance of the duty. ”

“ A hole is knocked in the pot to allow it to sink in the water. The midwife, who is charged with the duty of heaving the pot and its contents overboard, must look straight ahead; if she were to glance to the right or left the child whose afterbirth is in the pot would squint. And the man who rows or steers the boat must make her keep a straight course, otherwise the child would grow up a gad-about. Before the pot is flung into the sea, the midwife disengages the piece of white cotton in which it is wrapt, and this cloth she takes straight back to the house and covers the baby with it. ”

“ Starch, soda, and bran baths are often used in place of the ordinary soap and water bath when the skin is inflamed, as in cases of chafing or prickly heat.
FEAR OF BATHS
Force and harshness are not likely to cause baby to overcome very much of the fear of a tub bath. Patience, perseverance, and purposeful diversion of mind will bring sure results.
In the case of a very young baby, have a helper stretch a towel across the filled baby tub, lay the baby in it, with its head well supported, and then gently lower the towel into the water, keeping the head out. ”

“ Do not even you know that a green drake, and an alder-fly, and a dragon-fly, live under water till they change their skins, just as Tom changed his? And if a water animal can continually change into a land animal, [58] why should not a land animal sometimes change into a water animal? Don't be put down by any of Cousin Cramchild's arguments, but stand up to him like a man, and answer him (quite respectfully, of course) thus:—
If Cousin Cramchild says, that if there are water-babies, they must grow into water-men, ask him how he knows that they do not? ”

“ The baby is a good swimmer for a little tot, and takes kindly to the water. Mother starts for the opposite shore, but as they round the bend the man smell is blown sharply into her nostrils. She wheels softly and guides her offspring back and away to safety. He learns at a tender age that the man and the bear smell are to be strictly avoided. ”

“ Give the baby a bath every day in hot weather, never having the water cool enough to cause him to catch his breath, nor warm enough to make him cry. He will soon learn to enjoy it. “My baby will laugh and clap his hands every time he is put in the water,” says one happy mother, “and after a few minutes’ bath and a good rubbing he is ready for a long, refreshing sleep.”
If the baby’s head becomes covered with a yellow coating rub vaseline well into the scalp, and after it has remained four or five hours take a fine comb and carefully comb it all off ”

“ The body. It is best to wash the baby’s entire body with warm water and soap before placing him in the tub. The bath in the tub is for rinsing off the soap and for exercise. He should be turned over so that his chest will rest on the mother’s forearm while his feet touch the bottom of the tub. Teach the baby to like the bath, and he will not be frightened. He should not stay in the water more than two or three minutes, and when lifted out should be wrapped in a soft, warm bath towel. He should be dried quickly by gently patting the skin with soft towels, not by wiping. ”

“ To teach mothers the need for boiled water as a necessary drink for baby and older children is alone a worthy avocation. To impress upon one of these willing but ignorant mothers the absolute necessity for washing her hands before she prepares her baby's food, that she must keep a covered vessel in which the soiled napkins are placed until washed, that she should frequently sponge her baby in the hot weather, and explain thoroughly why these are important details, is a work of true religious charity. ”

“ Charles Kingsley wrote "The Water-Babies, a Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby," under romantic circumstances. Reminded in 1862 of a promise he had made that "Rose, Maurice, and Mary have got their books, the baby must have his," Kingsley produced the story about little Tom, which forms the first chapter in "The Water-Babies," a fairy tale occupying a nook of its own in the literature of fantasy for children. ”

“ Just as we directed the nurse or caretaker to stand while the oil rub or sponge bath was given, so we admonish the mother to stand while the tub bath is given. First, get everything in readiness for the bath as directed for the oil bath, and then the baby's tub setting on the securely cleated slats placed across the top of the family tub may be filled with water by means of a hose attached to the faucet. The temperature should be 100 F. when baby is dipped in to be rinsed. ”

“ Support him with the left hand, and, with the right, rinse off the soap, using a piece of gauze or absorbent cotton. The very young baby should be kept in the water only long enough to rinse off the soap. As he grows older, and shows pleasure in the bath, he may remain in the water three, four, or five minutes. If, from the first bath, a child shows great fear and does not seem to outgrow this, do not plunge him directly into the water. Have a large square of muslin stretched over the tub, lay him on this and gently lower him into the bath, always keeping his head above the water. ”

“ Ask him if he knows about all this; and if he does not, tell him to go and look for himself; and advise him (very respectfully, of course) to settle no more what strange things cannot happen, till he has seen what strange things do happen every day.
If he says that things cannot degrade, that is, change downwards into lower forms, ask him, who told him that water-babies were lower than land-babies? But even if they were, does he know about the strange degradation of the common goose-barnacles, [59] which one finds sticking on ships' bottoms ”

“ No water-babies, indeed? Why, wise men of old said that everything on earth had its double in the water; and you may see that that is, if not quite true, still quite as true as most other theories which you are likely to hear for many a day. ”

“ No one can be healthy unless she is extremely clean. Baby will want his bath daily, with soap and warmish water. He likes to kick the water and splash, as long as you support his head. Before starting on this swimming expedition, you should have all his clothes, warm, by you, and all that you will want must be within reach, and he expects a warm flannel on your knees to lie on. You must carefully dry all the creases in his fat body for him, with a soft towel. ”

“ You can't be to say dirty, an' dis here water is pow'ful cold."
Mammy and I had had this discussion about my cold bath every morning since I had been old enough to bathe myself. It was only after many battles that she had stopped sneaking warm water into my big can. That morning I let it pass, although the water was lukewarm.
"Y'ain't mad wif yo' ole Mammy, is yer, honey chile? Looks like I didn't have de heart [7] to plunge my baby lamb into sho'nuf cold water on sech a dark chilly day, wif her a-leavin' an' all. 'Tain't ter say warm now. ”

“ The children and their instructresses were bathing. There was a spirit of buoyancy in the brown nakedness disporting itself in the buoyant waters—buoyant were the splashes, the laughter, and the outcries!
The children and the instructresses walked out of the water upon the dry ground and ran naked upon the sand. Their legs, bare and sunburnt, seemed white in the green grass, like young birch-saplings growing out of the earth.
They suddenly caught sight of the sisters, formed a ring of beautiful wet bodies around them, and twirled in a circle at a fast, furious pace. ”

“ And now I must plant it again with seaweeds, and coralline, and anemones, and I will make it the prettiest little rock-garden on all the shore."
So they worked away at the rock, and planted it, and smoothed the sand down round it, and capital fun they had till the tide began to turn. And then Tom heard all the other babies coming, laughing and singing and shouting and romping; and the noise they made was just like the noise of the ripple. So he knew that he had been hearing and seeing the water-babies all along ”

“ Thus, when a child is born into the air, it screams with pain and fright, in consequence of entering at once a medium unsuited to its nature. Now, when it is born in water, it shows none of these signs of distress, but continues tranquilly the same sort of existence it had in its mother. It is gradually and quietly taught to use its lungs, without that shock to its system which in air often proves fatal to its tender life. ”

“ Let him by all means, then, as soon as the navel-string has separated from the body, be bathed either in his tub, or in his bath, or in his large nursery-basin; for if he is to be strong and hearty, in the water every morning he must go. The water ought to be slightly warmer than new milk. It is dangerous for him to remain for a long period in his bath; this, of course, holds good in a tenfold degree if the child has either a cold, or a pain in his bowels. ”

“ I cannot conceal my dislike of the prigs, both male and female, who come to dress and be admired. Their intention is an insult to the sensible shabby visitors. But the children, with inexhaustible wealth of sand, as good as gold, and suddenly discovered licence to wet their feet!—for there is a favourite myth current among even nervous mothers and nurses that “salt water does not give cold”—look at the children digging, where mischief is impossible, defying the recollection of sanitary advice with unfading ecstacy, by walking into the water simply to get their feet wet whenever they feel dry. ”