A young friend said that she wasn't sure she fully understood the statement by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health "If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needs to be met mainly through the parent's thought, silently or audibly on the aforesaid basis of Christian Science." Science and Health, p. 412. She said that sometimes she tended to feel at fault if her child became ill.
A parent need not feel personal blame if a child is ill, and certainly the statement from Science and Health doesn't indicate that one should. But one does need to recognize the parent's responsibility to pray for healing, especially when the young child does not yet know how to pray for himself.
Now, what basis does a parent have in Christian Science for treating the case with prayer and meeting in his own thought an illness that his child is confronting? Preceding Mrs. Eddy's statement about meeting the needs of a young child or infant are important instructions, including: "Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the body corresponds with the normal conditions of health and harmony." Ibid.
