

The Care and Feeding of Children 987 



Acid-producing foods. — Many of the foods produce what is called an 

 acid reaction in the body. While such foods are important in nutrition, 

 it is equally important that they should not predominate but should be 

 balanced by what is known as base-forming foods. In meat, eggs and 

 cereals as a whole, acid-forming elements predominate. Base-forming 

 elements predominate in milk, fruits and succulent vegetables. Hence 

 the necessity of including fruits and succulent vegetables in the dietary. 

 I Constipation should never be allowed to continue for any length of time. 

 The intestines should be kept free from any accumulation of waste matter, 

 as poisonous substances result which are absorbed into the blood stream 

 of the mother and interfere with her health and with that of the child. 

 A tendency toward this disorder may be overcome in most cases by right 

 regulation of the diet and proper exercise. The following laxative diet 

 is suggested : 



Diet for constipation. — Whole wheat or graham bread; stewed prunes; 

 properly cooked cabbage and onions; well-cooked oatmeal; shredded 

 wheat; plenty of fruit, fresh or cooked; abundance of vegetables; if in 

 normal health, six or eight glasses of water a day. 



To sum up, a well planned diet will contain eggs, milk, cream, well- 

 cooked cereals, fruits and vegetables, meat in small amounts; it should be 

 easily and completely digested; rich foods requiring great effort to digest 

 should be omitted. 



Cheerfulness is always a means toward good health. Gloominess may 

 be the result of digestive disturbances but it may also cause them. Melan- 

 cholia interferes with the mother's digestion and general assimilation of 

 food. This may affect the composition of her blood and thus disturb 

 the nutrition of the child whose food reaches it indirectly from her blood 

 vessels. The same result may occur during the nursing period, and many 

 a grieved or angry mother has seen the ill effect of such emotion in a 

 lessened or changed supply of milk. 



Prenatal influence. — The old idea that melancholy at this time per- 

 petuated itself in the disposition of the child, thus marking it for its life- 

 time, has been proved untrue. Gloom does cause malnutrition and a 

 poorly nourished mother may produce a sickly child. A sickly child is a 

 suffering one; and may it not be allowed to be melancholy under such 

 conditions without blaming a mysterious prenatal influence ? 



Gradually we are forsaking some of our former beliefs concerning this 

 prenatal influence. We know now that birth marks are not due merely 

 to a state of mind in the mother but to a condition of body, to some 

 interference with nutrition, to some diseased or inherited condition of the 

 germ, to some blow sustained by the mother which has affected the grow- 

 ing child; but not to a mother's sudden fright or fear or mental attitude 



