acceptable to young folk, but set your face sternly against tea or coffee as beverages 

 until towards the age of thirteen or fourteen. Children suffer more from the harmful 

 element in these beverages than we do. Cocoa makes a pleasant flavour in hot water 

 and often induces growing boys and girls to take milk ; but, so far as nutriment is 

 concerned, the quantity taken is too small to be of any worth to the body. 



ALCOHOL IN ANY FORM IS INADMISSIBLE; 



if to be given under doctor's orders, inquire if it may be combined with jelly, which 

 minimizes the risk of a taste being contracted for the flavour as a beverage. 



Fat ought to play a considerable part in a child's diet, as will be seen 011 reference 

 to the chart of relative proportion of nutrients required at different age periods. 

 (Fig. 6.) Unfortunately, this is often distasteful, except in its most expensive forms 

 of cream and butter. Where these are available, cream with stewed fruit at break- 

 fast and dinner and a plentiful supply of bread and butter (except with hot meats) 

 are excellent foods. Where their supply is limited, 



FIRST-CLASS SUBSTITUTES 



are provided in dripping, finely chopped fresh suet, and lard ; these last forms of fat 

 must be served in one of the many disguises offered by steamed or boiled puddings. 

 The mixture can be flavoured with molasses or ginger, combined with sultanas, 

 raisins, or fresh fruit (currants are too indigestible to be included in any child's 

 dietary), eaten with sugar, preserves, jelly, or soup; while, in winter-time, home- 

 made toffee is a wholesome addition to breakfast or lunch for a healthy child, but 

 must never be eaten between meals. 



Fresh eggs, too, contain a most digestible form of fat; but fat fish, such as 

 salmon, herring, or mackerel, are not good for young children. 



NO FRIED FOOD, PASTRY, OR HOT CAKES 



should be given to little folk, neither are nuts (a food very rich in fat) allowable 

 under the age of nine or ten, and then only in small quantities, taken as a part of a 

 meal. 



Children crave for fruit but often dislike vegetables. If freely supplied with 

 fruit in a suitable form, the craving for sugar (of which there is a relatively large 

 proportion in fruits) is legitimately gratified. For the first two years of life the 

 juice of an orange is alone permissible; then a little of the pulp of a baked apple 

 may be given, prunes stewed and finely mashed with a fork, or baked banana. 



ALL FRUIT SHOULD BE COOKED 



before it is given to children under nine; especially bananas, plums and other stone- 

 fruit, from which the skins must also be removed. All fruit containing seeds, such 

 as berries and grapes, must have the seeds removed. In the case of berries this 

 means rubbing through a sieve. It cannot be too forcibly impressed that a child's 

 digestive system is 



THE WEAK LINK IN ITS CHAIN OF HEALTH. 



The extreme delicacy of the membrane lining the bowels renders it very 

 susceptible to damage by coarse particles (such as are present in coarse oatmeal or 

 whole-meal bread), and by the seeds in fruit, such as strawberries, or by currants or 

 carraways in cakes, or by imperfectly chewed and undigested morsels of nuts. The 

 germs of consumption or of diarrhoea, to mention two common sources of death 

 among our child population, may gain access to the body through the tiny abrasions 

 which are caused by these internal scratches ; while, in the absence of such infection, 

 the products of the process of digestion, which should be excreted, are liable to be 

 absorbed into the blood-stream, and bring about a kind of self-poisoning, which 

 shows itself in " bilious attacks," ill-temper, debility, and many other symptoms of 

 depressed health. 



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