armth, and freedom are the essentials in latter-day baby
clothes. It is cheaper to make the clothes than to buy them. Excellent
and accurate paper patterns can be obtained, giving the quantity of
material necessary and suggesting the kind and quality best suited for
the purpose. These patterns may be obtained from the Butterick
Publishing Company in New York City.

CARE OF THE NEWLY-BORN BABY.--After the nurse has completed her duties
with the mother after the confinement, she will prepare to give baby its
first bath.

The bath should be given in a warm room. This is a matter that should
receive more consideration than has been given it. Nurses do not as a
rule attach much importance to this duty, while in reality it is a most
important one. I have seen trained nurses make ready to give baby its
first bath in rooms, during the night, that were not heated adequately.
I am convinced that many babies have been victims of this careless habit
to the extent of grafting on them the tendency to catarrhal colds and
bronchitis because of undue exposure at this critical period. If one
will remember that a baby has just been removed from an environment
where the temperature was suitable and constant, to one in which it
needs a large degree of artificial heat until such time as it may become
accustomed to the change, one may appreciate the risk taken in exposing
the child for even a short time. The mother should therefore warn the
nurse not to undertake the baby's first bath until the temperature and
other conditions are favorable. Many nurses and other individuals have
the impression, without knowing why, that the baby should be cleansed
and bathed immediately after birth. This is not at all necessary. If the
conditions are not favorable, it would be far better to wrap the baby
snugly in a warm blanket--first having put a diaper on--and place it in
its crib with a hot water bottle near it and defer the bathing until the
following forenoon. By that time the baby will be adapted to its new
surroundings; its lungs will have become accustomed to the air which it
is breathing for the first time; the mother will have been rendered
comfortable; in other words, the conditions and the environment will be
favorable for the baby and for a better performance of the duty.

The next important feature of the first bath is that it should be done
in the quickest time consistent with efficient service. Only the
necessary exposure should be indulge