An infant should not be allowed to look at the glare either of a fire
or of a lighted candle, as the glare tends to weaken the sight, and
sometimes brings on an inflammation of the eyes. In speaking to, and
in noticing a baby, you ought always to stand _before_, and not
_behind_ him, or it might make him squint.

78. _Ought a babe to lie alone from the first_?

Certainly not: at first--say, for the first few months--he requires
the warmth of another person's body, especially in the winter; but
care must be taken not to overlay him, as many infants, from
carelessness in this particular, have lost their lives. After the
first few months he had better lie alone, on a horse-hair mattress.

79. _Do you approve of rocking an infant to sleep_?

I do not. If the rules of health be observed, he will sleep both
soundly and sweetly without rocking; if they be not, the rocking might
cause him to fall into a feverish, disturbed slumber, but not into a
refreshing, calm sleep. Besides, if you once take to that habit, he
will not go to sleep without it.

80. _Then don't you approve of a rocking-chair, and of rockers to the
cradle_?

Certainly not: a rocking-chair, or rockers to the cradle, may be
useful to a lazy nurse or mother, and may induce a child to sleep, but
that restlessly, when he does not need sleep, or when he is wet and
uncomfortable, and requires "changing;" but will not cause him to have
that sweet and gentle and exquisite slumber so characteristic of a