Читать книгу The Physical Training of Children онлайн

77 страница из 86

There is a charming, bewitching little picture of a babe sucking his thumb in Kingsley’s Water Babies, which I cordially commend to your favorable notice and study.

66. But if an infant be allowed to suck his thumb, will it not be likely to become a habit, and stick to him for years—until, indeed, he become a big boy?

After he has cut the whole of his first set of teeth, that is to say, when he is about two years and a half old, he might, if it be likely to become a habit, be readily cured by the following method, namely, by making a paste of aloes and water and smearing it upon his thumb. One or two dressings will suffice, as after just tasting the bitter aloes he will take a disgust to his former enjoyment, and the habit will at once be broken.

Many persons, I know, have an objection to children sucking their thumbs, as, for instance—

“Perhaps it’s as well to keep children from plums,

And from pears in the season, and sucking their thumbs.”

My reply is—

P’rhaps ’tis as well to keep children from pears;