Radio Mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

sense" rules and routines. The little Dionnes, themselves, are the best arguments for his theories. In five hundred years of medical records only thirty-three sets of quintuplets have been born, and not one baby from any set has lived more than a week. A quintuplet's chance for becoming more than an hour old is about one in a hundred billion. Yet starting out with such a handicap — and having been born in a crowded, primitive cottage with few of the helps of modern science at that — those tiny, pitiful babies whose aggregate weight was less than nine pounds have become these sturdy little girls, lovely as any children on this earth. DR. ALLAN ROY DA FOE is now giving a series of radio talks to bring the wisdom which has blessed the Quints to all the mothers of North America. The material for this article, and the list of fundamental rules which you will find later on, ready for clipping, is drawn from these broadcasts. The editors of Radio Mirror felt they could perform no greater service to readers who have children than to summarize this material and give it to you in permanent, easily usable form. About a hundred thousand visitors make a pilgrimage each month to see the Dionne Quintuplets. They stand on a balcony of the glassed-in, heavily-screened gallery which surrounds the Quints' playground on three sides. One thing these visitors never tire of exclaiming over is that these famous five, who have been photographed and filmed, who get so large a share of the world's attention, never show the slightest sign of being high strung or nervous. Marie, in her small pink muslin dress and socks, will spend long minutes in one corner of the playground, her sturdy little fingers patiently trying to fix the handle of a tiny wheelbarrow. And when she fails she will not set up a howl, but only sigh a bit, then run over to the sand pit to play with her sisters. Or maybe Yvonne will struggle to pull loose a wagon from the cement wading pool, and after a few unsuccessful efforts will smilingly ask Annette or Cecile to help her. If your own child doesn't act so — if his failures enrage him By GLADYS OAKS so that he devils the children about him, or discourage him to tears or idleness, it is for you too, we have drawn up Dr. Dafoe's rules. For Dr. Dafoe believes that a child is cooperative or difficult — and more often than not healthy or unhealthy — because of good or bad habits. It was and is his job to instill good habits into the lives and characters of the Dionne Quintuplets. And he feels it is the job of a sane, intelligent mother to instill them into the lives of her children. The delicate Quints, who had so little chance to live, were born into a crowded, inconvenient house without electricity, gas or modern heating. Yet even here Dr. Dafoe managed to establish an order-bringing schedule. In the hospitalnursery which is now the Quints' home you can tell time by the activities of the little girls. "The first three months of a child's life are the most important ones," says the Doctor. "Habits are formed that will stick to him all his life. Such habits as absolute regularity in feeding, sleeping and elimination can actually begin when a child is only three days old." Not a single one of the Quints has a sleeping problem. You can picture these five, each so like the other, tucked away in their cribs at the tick of seven and peacefully asleep by seven-thirty. Dr. Dafoe is sure that if you never start rocking or walking the baby to sleep, never hold his hand or lie down with him or sleep by his side, he will never cry to have you do it. Also, coaxing a child to sleep or giving him a nipple or anything to suck are bad habits "easy to acquire and hard to break." Yet even if you have permitted your baby to get into such harmful ways, there is still time to change them if you will bear a few unpleasant hours of letting him cry it out. The Quints have done their share of crying for things they wanted and shouldn't have. A normal baby will never injure or rupture himself by crying. As a matter of fact he should do a certain amount of it. It's his first natural exercise. The Quints take their naps out (Continued on page 61) .-Uv to bring "P *°e 4«Uv to bring "P 1,w ,._* t rules which he uses da«W ^ nurses.