Children's Hygiene Issues in St. Petersburg Magazines at the Turn of the 19th - 20th Centuries

The article presents an analysis of materials about childhood hygiene, published in St. Petersburg magazines in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The magazines “People's Health”, “Health companion”, “Family Health” and others were the conductors of the most important ideas of actively developing hygiene and pediatrics in the Russian Empire of this period. Studying the content of thematic periodicals allows to find out which issues of child care were most popular both among publishers and readers. Editors conceived mothers to be their target audience, who had to follow the basic rules of hygienic child care in their daily lives. The study revealed that the magazines' materials considered the following most important aspects of childhood hygiene: strengthening health and immunity, combating various diseases and ways to prevent them, rules of body care and personal hygiene, nutrition for children of different ages, organizing appropriate living conditions necessary for harmonious growth of the child. Publications appealed to comply basic hygiene rules, which gradually spread to an increasingly wider audience, partly owing to the thematic magazines. The author concludes that it was important to popularize the most significant practical information for parents on the pages of periodicals: age characteristics and needs of children, which included healthy eating, sleep, physical activity, fresh air and cleanliness of the body and home.