t.

NIGHT TERRORS

Night terrors are probably due to some digestive disturbance, with a
coexisting highly nervous temperament. They oftentimes, in older
children, follow the reading of thrilling stories or a visit to an
exciting moving-picture show. The child goes to sleep and gets along
nicely for two or three hours and then suddenly jumps up out of bed
and rushes to its mother with little or no explanation for the act. In
his dreams the thoughts and the imaginations of his waking moments are
all confounded and alarming.

We recall one little fellow who constantly feared big, black birds
coming in the window and attacking him--he had been reading about
Sinbad the Sailor and his experiences with the big bird. He so feared
this big, black bird that he could not go to sleep. For a number of
nights he did not have the courage to tell his parents that it was the
fear of the big bird that kept him from going to sleep, but finally he
confided in his mother and told her of his fear. The mother and father
both entered into a conversation with him through an open door which
connected the two rooms, after the lights were out; they laughed and
talked about the big bird, they openly talked of it and allowed their
imagination to work with the child's imagination in planning how he
could combat with the bird, should it really come, asking him how big
it really was and what color he thought its eyes were and how big an
object he thought its feet could carry. They all three planned a fairy
story they might write which would rival the fairy stories of the
Arabian Nights. In a very short time--possibly a week or ten days--the
little fellow felt quite equal to these imaginary assaults, his fears
were quieted and his slumbers were no more disturbed by visions of the
big, black bird.

Everything should be done to relieve the stomach and intestines of
laborious work during the sleeping hours, hence let the evening meal
be light and eaten early enough to be out of the way, as far as
digestion is concerned, by bed time.

NERVOUSNESS

During the formative period of the nervous system--the first few
years--under no circumstances should the children be played with late
at night, when they are tired and sleepy, or hungry, for it is at such
times that the nervous system is so easily excited and irritated. When
the baby is to be played with, if at all, it should be in the morning
or after the mid-day nap. Rest and peaceful surroundings a