Cold Baths for infants
Every robust child should have his daily tonic bath, though many experts think that it is necessary to exercise great care in infancy and, in fact, until the child has reached the age of seven or eight years. Experience has proved that there will be no injury to even the youngest infant, but, instead, a de¬cided benefit, from tonic baths properly given. The writer has known of many infants to whom daily cold baths were given regularly from the day of their birth. But these baths have usually been the sudden quick affusion or pouring of a con¬siderable quantity of water over the body, so that the shock did not last more than one or two seconds. The force of the water itself, by this form of bath, is a powerful aid to reaction.
Naturally, if the infant is sickly or feeble, it will be much better to begin with a warmer or moderate temperature and slowly to reduce to a cool or cold one as a better state of health is gained. It is not necessary, in fact, to give a really cold hath to an infant or small child.
As good results will be obtained by using cool water. Any temperature below neutral will be tonic to young children, though the lower the tempera¬ture, within reason, the more tonic will the effect be, if the vitality is good and reaction prompt and complete. This does not mean that a rural mother should break the ice in a wash¬basin every morning to give her infant, or even her child of several years, a bath. There are different decrees of cold, and it should be remembered that to infants and young children water does not need to be far below neutral to seem cold. The cool wet-hand friction bath is generally the best of all baths for little children. By this application the tonic effect of the lower temperature is secured, yet the warmth of the hand of the mother or nurse will greatly reduce the shock and hasten reaction. Whatever form the bath takes, it should be given quickly and followed immediately by perfect drying to insure freedom from exposures that retard reaction.