erish, with heavy eyes, and aching
head, up and dressed, trying to amuse itself with its customary toys;
then, with 'Please nurse me,' begging to be taken in the lap, then
getting down again; fretful, and sad, and passionate by turns; dragging
about its misery, wearing out its little strength, in deference to the
prejudice that bed is so weakening.

_The bed does not weaken, but the disease does which renders bed
necessary._

A child frets sometimes at the commencement of an illness if kept in
its own little cot. But put it in its nurse's or mother's big bed, set a
tea tray with some new toys upon it before the child, and a pillow
behind it, so that when tired with play it may lie back and go to sleep,
and you will have husbanded its strength and saved your own, have halved
your anxiety and doubled the child's happiness.

Young infants, indeed, when ill often refuse to be put out of the arms,
but over and over again I have found the experiment succeed of laying
the baby on a bed, the nurse or mother lying down by its side, and
soothing it to sleep. Were there no other drawback, it is a waste of
power to have two persons employed in nursing a sick child; one to keep
it in her lap, and the other to wait upon her.

It is important in all serious illnesses of children, as well as of a
grown person, that the bed should be so placed that the attendant can
pass on either side, and can from either side reach the patient to do
whatever is necessary. Most cots for young children have a rail round
them to prevent the child falling out of bed when asleep or at play; but
nothing can be more inconvenient than the fixed rail over which the
attendant has to bend in order to give the child food or medicine, or
for any other purpose. When I founded the Children's Hospital in Ormond
Street, I introduced children's cots (the idea of which I took from
those in the Children's Hospital at Frankfort) the sides of which let
down when needed, while on the top of the rail, or dependent from it, a
board is placed surrounded by a raised beading on which the toys, the
food, or drink may be put with great convenience. These bedsteads, with
probably some improved arrangement for letting down the sides, may be
seen now in most children's hospitals, but I have been surprised to
observe how seldom they are employed in private nurseries, and how
comparatively few bedstead-makers are acquainted with them. The result
would probably have been very diff