The Care and Feeding of Children ioii 



of the every-day diet. Certainly we should learn to digest foods that 

 require real work on the part of the digestive organs, but this should come 

 gradually. It is all very well to say that Jane or John is a perfectly vigor- 

 ous child and already at two or three years of age shares the family dietary 

 in all particulars. Do the grown-up Janes and Johns exhibit such sound 

 health as to justify us in our belief that the vigor has endured? 



Much of the trouble that is laid at the door of teething and most of the 

 difficulties feared during the baby's second summer are due not to teeth 

 and time, but to wrong feeding methods. The child's first summer is in 

 point of fact more perilous than the second, but usually during the first 

 year it is living on a carefully regulated diet and all the digestive pro- 

 cesses are proceeding normally. 



During the second year, when foods other than milk should of necessity 

 appear in the child's diet, unwise choice of foods is made and digestion 

 is disturbed. Cutting teeth adds to this disorder and the time becomes 

 one to be feared by the mother and suffered by the child. 



The following list of dietaries is given as a guide to aid in a wise choice 

 of food for the child up through the seventh year. It is intended to be 

 suggestive and to illustrate types of food for different ages, and does not 

 pretend to cover all the foods which may appear in the child's dietary 

 during these years. The actual dietary as prepared and served to the 

 child must be a matter for individual adjustment and requires the prac- 

 tice of much soimd common sense. 



Dietary from 12th to i8th month 

 First meal. 6-7 a. m. 



Warm milk mixed with a little thick cereal gruel or cereal jelly 



or 



A little lightly cooked egg mixed with stale crumbs, and a glass of warm 

 milk. 

 Second meal. 9-10 a. m. 



Glass warm milk. 

 Third meal. 1-2 p. m. 



A lightly cooked egg mixed with stale crumbs, glass of warm milk 



or 



Tablespoonful of thoroughly mashed potato with meat juice, glass of 

 warm milk. 

 Fourth meal. Midway between meals. 



One or two tablespoonfuls orange juice or prune juice. (This meal may 

 be given at nine o'clock in the morning instead of at this time.) 

 Fifth meal. 5-6 p. m. 



Glass warm milk with cereal jelly. 



