Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 42

If necessary, slip one hand under the pillow, raise the head a little, holding the gla.s.s to the lips with the other. Anyone lying down should take food very slowly. If solid, it should be cooked, especially well, as there is danger of choking.

Tubes should be washed immediately after using. If used continuously they should be cleaned with a tube brush made for that purpose. Straws should be burned or destroyed. If feeding with a spoon, be careful that neither the food nor the spoon burns the lips or mouth. Feed slowly and a little at a time, allowing plenty of time between mouthfuls.

Occupying and Amusing the Sick

When people are recovering from an illness, or when they are what we call chronic invalids, they often enjoy and are helped by being amused or occupied. At this time a Girl Scout may be very helpful. First of all, she should be cheerful herself. Then she should be able to play two or three quiet games, such as cards, dominoes, checkers, and be able to read aloud and to tell cheerful and amusing stories. Children may often be kept quiet and happy by hearing little rhymes recited. It might be a good idea for every Girl Scout to be able to tell three short stories and three funny stories, know three conundrums and three short poems, play three quiet games of cards, play checkers, play dominoes and know three puzzles.

Excitement is always bad for sick people and they become tired easily, so they should not be read to, talked to, nor played with for too long an interval, even if they seem to wish it themselves. The Scout must always remember that these things are being done for the pleasure of the sick person, and she must be very patient, to let the games or stories be of their own choosing if they wish it, and to avoid being noisy herself.

Daily Routine

There should be a regular daily routine. Have regular hours for feeding, bathing, giving treatment and medicines, giving the bedpan, etc. Be punctual.

Usually the first thing to do in the morning is to close or open the window as necessary, and to give the patient a bedpan. Have it warm.

Take temperature, pulse and respiration and record them. Bring a basin of warm water, soap, towel, etc., to wash hands and face, and a gla.s.s of water to brush teeth. Tidy the hair. Straighten up the room a little.

Prepare and serve patient's breakfast. After an hour the bed bath may be taken, but a tub bath should not be taken until two hours after breakfast.

Make the bed. Clean up the room. If the patient is well enough, let her read or see visitors after this. Serve the dinner. After dinner, open the windows, lower the shades, and let the patient rest and sleep if possible for at least an hour. Sick people need more rest than well people and should have a regular hour for rest in the daytime. If they sleep, so much the better, as it has been proved that patients who take a nap during the day sleep better at night. After four o'clock give a drink of some kind of hot or cold substance, as needed or desired--broth, milk, lemonade. In the late afternoon sick people are often tired and restless. Change of position, rearrangement of the pillows or a good rub give comfort and relieve the restlessness.

Diversion of some kind, nothing noisy or exciting, may serve the same purpose. It may be found wise to delay the bath until this time of day as bathing has a soothing effect.

Between supper and bedtime the sick person should be kept from excitement. This is a good time for reading aloud or allowing them to read for themselves, but a very poor time to see visitors.

_Preparations for the Night._ Bring in all the necessities for was.h.i.+ng the hands and face and brus.h.i.+ng the teeth and combing the hair, and help where needed. Change the nightgown (it is better to have a gown for the day and one for the night), brush the crumbs from the bed, make the sheet smooth, shake up the pillows and straighten out the bedclothes, having extra covers handy in case of need. Fill the hot water bag, attend to the fire, if there is one, and arrange everything in the room just as it will be needed for the night. Give a warm drink, and allow the patient to rinse the mouth (or, if wished, the brus.h.i.+ng of the teeth may be delayed until this time). The last thing to do for the sick person is to give a good rub, paying special attention to the bony parts (lower end of spine, shoulder-blades, hips, knees, ankles). Then arrange the ventilation.

Before settling a sick person for the night, be sure that everything about the room is done, as any moving about after she is prepared to sleep may tend to disturb her and prevent her from going to sleep.

5. THE HEALTH GUARDIAN FOR GIRL SCOUTS

Has the town you live in a free swimming pool with instructors and well arranged hours for little children, older girls and boys and grown-ups?

Can you step out after school and have a couple of hours on a well kept tennis court? Is there a good golf course reasonably near, with convenient trolley service? Are there plenty of playgrounds, so that the children are off the streets? And, since grounds are not enough, are there friendly young play-leaders connected with them, to get the children together and teach them all sorts of games and sports?

If none of these things are to be found, or not enough of them, wouldn't you like to have them?

"Of course I should," you reply, "but what can I do about it? I am only a girl, and I can't get all these things by just wis.h.i.+ng for them!"

But that's just what you can do.

All these things in a town mean that the town is looking out for the health of its young people. Exercise is one of the most important means of preserving health, and most of the large cities nowadays are working hard to see that no child shall be out of reach of a good park, a good swimming pool and a good playground.

This all comes under the city government and as this is a democratic form of government, these things are all arranged by vote. That is, the citizens vote to use the public money for such things and vote for the officials who shall spend the money for them. Do you see that if you make up your mind now about the village improvements you want, you can vote for them later and get them?

Women are naturally interested in all that happens to children, and if all the women of a community should get together and vote for everything that concerned the health and happiness and good education of children, can't you see what happy days their school-days would be?

If you saw "Public Health" at the head of a chapter, you might not think it looked very interesting; but when you once get the idea that if your mother had had her say on the Public Health Board you would have had a fine skating pond with a good skate-house, last winter, and sunny, well-aired school rooms to study in, with a big gymnasium for basket ball in bad weather, you may be more interested in the merit badge for Public Health called "Health Guardian!"

Remember that Public Health is simply good housekeeping, applied to the community.

It is a subject which women are sure to take up more and more, and a Girl Scout who has given the matter a little thought and study is going to make a good citizen later on, and will be certain to have her advice asked--and taken--in the matter of making her town healthy and happy.

For instance, if the desks in the public schools are not of the right height and shape, the children are bound to suffer in their health and hygiene.

It is the business of the State to see that all public buildings, schools, theatres, factories, etc., have a certain amount of light and air to the cubic foot, because so much is necessary for health.

It is the business of the State to see that only a certain number of hours a day should const.i.tute a day's work. This is because a certain amount of rest is a necessity for all citizens.

It is the business of the State to see that food and water can be brought into the community. Also that they be kept pure, both in transportation and after they reach the community. This includes the policing of all reservoirs and the filtering of the water; the refrigerating of meat and milk; the condemning of rotten fruit and vegetables; the collecting and disposal of all garbage and waste.

It is the business of the state to prevent spitting in public places, (one of the greatest sources of public infection); to prevent the use of common drinking utensils, towels, etc.; to insist on the isolation of contagious diseases and the placarding of the houses where they occur.

In order to carry on these great wise policies the state should offer free clinics where citizens can find out what is the matter with them and how to prevent it, and trained community nurses for the sick.

Do you see what a wonderful power an intelligent woman can be in the community she lives in? Women ought to be much better, really, in this public housekeeping than men, because most of them have had to learn to do it on a small scale, and know how necessary light, air, rest, exercise and cleanliness are.

But, you may say, as yet, I am too young to vote, anyway; what can I do?

The answer is very simple: every citizen, whether she is young or old, whether she has a vote or not, can find out the laws of the town she lives in and help to enforce them!

And the most important of these laws are those which affect the public safety and the public health. Whether there is a Public Health Commissioner or a Town Board or a Village Superintendent or only a District Nurse to appeal to, there is sure to be somebody whose business it is to listen to violation of the law.

If every troop of Girl Scouts knew the health laws of their town, _and helped to get them obeyed_, there would be a wonderful lessening of epidemics and a wonderful advance in the health and beauty of our towns.

If the Girl Scouts stood, all over the country, for the intelligent guardians.h.i.+p of the public health and recreation, they would rapidly become one of the greatest and most respected organizations in America, for this reason alone.

6. THE HEALTH WINNER

"_... For since a little self-control, since a clean and elementary diet, pure water, openness of the body to sun and air, a share of honest work, and some degree of mental peace and largesse, are the simple conditions of health, and are or ought to be, accessible to everybody--_

"_To neglect these is sheer treason._"

_--Toward Democracy, by Edward Carpenter._

Five Points of Health for Girl Scouts

A cheerful Scout, a clean Scout, a helpful Scout, is a well Scout. She is the only Scout that really _is prepared_. She not only knows the laws of health, she lives them: she stands tall, she plays daily in the open air, she rests and sleeps at night, and conserves her energy at all times, she is careful to get the right amount of air, water, sun and food each day, and perhaps most important of all, she keeps clean.

1. _Stand Tall_--Every Scout should be recognized a long way off, not only by her uniform, but by her erect carriage. In sitting, the lower back should be against the back of the chair. In bending forward to read or write, bend straight from the hips. At Scout meetings practice sitting without support for the back. When "at ease" during drill, stand with feet apart and parallel and with hands hanging free. When resting, lie flat on the back without pillows. Correct posture is obtained by balancing the different parts of the body--hips, head, chest in a straight line, so that the bony framework bears the weight. The muscles and ligaments will not then be strained, and the bones will not be forced into an abnormal position. Two rules to remember are: "Stand tall" and "Keep your spine long."

2. _Take Exercise_--If you have watched soldiers obey commands in drill you know how quickly their joints and muscles work. The setting-up exercises given in the Handbook have been planned to preserve the power of joints and muscles, and to prevent them from becoming like rusty machines. These exercises should be taken with windows open, if not out of doors. Clothing should be light and loose, and corsets removed. These exercises are not to be considered a subst.i.tute for vigorous outdoor work or play, but only as supplementary to or when these are impossible.

The day should be planned to include at least an hour and a half of vigorous activity in the open air. This will take different forms, according to the place and season, so that in the summer one may swim, row or paddle, or play tennis or any other game outdoors, and in the winter skate, coast or snowshoe. However, the best all year round exercise, and the simplest and easiest to get is walking. Five miles a day is an adequate average. Even walking alone is good exercise, but walking in a group or two and two is better, because keeping step, singing, whistling and talking and laughing together add enormously to the exhilaration of motion and of sun, wind or rain in the face.

A Girl Scout should avoid unusual exercise before, during and immediately following menstruation. However, she should remember that a reasonable amount of exercise at this time is quite normal and beneficial, except where there is an actual disorder of some sort. In this case a physician should be consulted.

3. _Rest and Conserve Energy_--Go to bed early and sleep from eight to eleven hours, according to age. Sleep with windows open all the year round. Rest sometime during the day, flat on the back if possible, but even five minutes sitting quietly with hands in the lap and eyes closed is better than nothing. The following table shows the number of hours of sleep that are needed at different ages: