An oral tradition

Dear You,

I like to hold babies. There's something quite peaceful in their faces, and something very comfortable about sitting in a rocking chair cradling a baby in my arm. For whatever reason, I soothe them -- perhaps it's the timbre of my voice. The baby I held yesterday is a girl and only a month old. She slept most of the time, even through periodically being passed from one family member to another.

Now and then through the afternoon she whimpered, and -- you know this already! -- she cried. What I saw was how rapidly someone stuffed a pacifier into her tiny mouth. Anyone can tell genuine distress from "fussiness," but both were treated the same. Not I. During my tenure when her crying didn't stop after a few seconds, I stood up and walked a few paces. Really, that's all it took.

Certainly it is painful to hear an infant cry -- one's impulse is to Do Something. But I don't think the Something should be to further encourage the fact that we take pleasure from (and avoid unhappiness with) our mouths. Here we are with a national epidemic of childhood obesity . . . and I can't help thinking of all the adults stuffing kids' faces with things to make them happier. Is this for the sake of the children, or is it just too much trouble for the grownups to exert themselves in other ways?

While I'm on the subject, what about the distressing tendency to keep the bored older children occupied in front of a television screen? Must we ruin their minds as well as their bodies?