Читать книгу How to live: A manual of hygiene for use in the schools of the Philippine islands онлайн

7 страница из 10

But if children’s bones do not break, they bend, and it is easy for them to grow into bad shape. If children do not sit up straight they become round-shouldered, and many children get into the habit of carrying one shoulder higher than the other. Often, too, they are careless about walking and sitting properly.

The Wrong Way to Carry a Baby.

In this country, where nearly all weights are carried on the head, we rarely see a man who does not carry his head and shoulders well. He learns in childhood to keep his shoulders even and to hold his head up. But there is one custom of the country which prevents the people from walking well. This is the practice of carrying little children on the hip. It is bad for the children, as it strains the muscles of the lower part of the back, and bends the soft little bones so that they do not grow straight as they naturally would. It is bad, too, for the person who carries the child. The body is thrown to one side, the weight of the child presses the soft organs of the abdomen downward, and the effect is often serious. It is very bad indeed for one child to carry another this way. Babies should be carried in the arms, as European children are.