Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 183 



are served in an unripe state, when the skins are either green or 

 yellow; and in this form they are unwholesome for adults as well 

 as for children. Mothers who would not think of allowing chil- 

 dren to eat raw potatoes will not hesitate to give them yellow 

 bananas. The substance, raw starch, which makes the uncooked 

 potato undesirable, is equally undesirable in the unripe banana. 

 During the process of ripening this material becomes changed to 

 sugar. Therefore, if yellow skinned bananas must be used, they 

 should be cooked before serving. 



A noticeable feature of the above menus is the small amount 

 of meat used. This is not meant to indicate that we do not approve 

 of meat for the older child, but that there is danger in the child's 

 taking more than is necessary. It is better that children should 

 get the larger part of their tissue-building material (protein food) 

 from eggs, milk and vegetables rather than from meat. On this 

 subject Dr. Lafayette B. Mendel, an authority on dietetics, recently 

 said before the New Haven Mother's Club : 



"It has often seemed to me that many parents display an ex- 

 cessive zeal in foisting improper diets upon their children. They 

 fail to realize the comparative limitations of the youthful digestive 

 tract, while the children too soon learn to imitate the customs of 

 their elders. This is true, for example, in the habit of eating meat, 

 a stimulating and concentrated protein food. The colt or calf 

 does not thrive on a diet of rich corn meal, though it may be very 

 proper for the horse or cow. Carnivorous animals, be it noted, 

 do not allow their young to have meat until quite a time after they 

 have their teeth fully developed, though apparently it would be 

 their proper food. Meat given to kittens or puppies invariably 

 produces convulsions." It is said that cats will take away meat 

 from their kittens when it is given to them, even up to the time 

 when they are three months old. 



The following is a summary of a recent pamphlet on the feed- 

 ing of children issued by Columbia University, and may serve to 

 illustrate some of the points which we aimed to bring out in the 

 conference exhibit: 



1. The cultivation of a rational appetite is part of the training of the child. 



2. Children should be fed regularly and not too often. The stomach should 

 have a chance to rest. 



3. Children from two to five years of age need four meals a day, older ones three, 

 at fixed hour intervals. 



4. Milk is the best food for children of all ages, either as such or cooked with 

 cereals, vegetable soups, junket, custards and simple puddings. 



5. Well-cooked cereals should be served every day, but without sugar, syrup or 

 butter. Use cereals that are made from whole grains. 



