We often forget that the reason for going to bed when we are sick is to give the body a chance to rest and fight off the infection. Most medicines are not for curing the disease but to assist the body to help itself.
Parents, in particular, are apt to be too good to their children when they are ill; mothers will wear themselves out trying to make the sickness bearable and a good many of these efforts will be worse than wasted; friends, by their expressions of sympathy and concern, can easily make the invalid more uncomfortable and unhappy than he otherwise would be. The ailing adult is generally able to protect himself by demanding to be left alone. But the child is in a predicament—if he is irritable, he is coddled the more, which leads matters on from bad to worse.
If the sick child is to be constantly read to and otherwise entertained or, if other children are to be allowed to come into the room, he might almost as well not go to bed at all. The fewer people he sees the better; the less he is talked to and asked how he feels the sooner he is likely to get better. All he needs —and probably wants—is to have his necessities attended to and then to be quiet. Doctor's orders should be given in his presence so that Mother's authority may be reinforced, but his illness should get very little other discussion.
The sick child's surroundings are likely to have an effect for good or ill on his condition. Untidiness and commotion are surprisingly annoying even to little invalids, so the simplicity and business-like methods of the well-trained nurse should be duplicated as nearly as possible by Mother when she has to take charge. These efforts toward the rest treatment should be carried on well into convalescence.
To be thoroughly bored with being alone and resting is one of the best signs of a successful cure. Too early recovery often causes serious setbacks and permanent after-effects. An extra day or two of quiet will generally bring the patient out into complete recovery.
Source:
Maplethorpe, Willard, M.D. What to Tell the Public About Health. New York: American Public Health Association, 1933. Print.
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