192 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



September, 1913 



perly, a certain bulk and consist- 

 ence of food is necessary. The 

 stomach must not be quite full, or 

 the natural churnin? action is ren- 

 dered impossible ; but, on the 

 other hand, it must be nearlv full, 

 or thi.^j cannot proceed. After the 

 first year of life there .should Ije a 

 steadv increase in the amount of 

 solid food taken, and varieti- in 

 diet becomes more and more im- 

 portant. 



— A Mixed Diet. — 



When the child is sufhcientlv de- 

 veloped to be put on a mixed 

 diet, care must be taken that the 

 diet is reallv vari'od. Parents in- 

 sist on a sameness in their chil- 

 dren's food which they \vionld never 

 tolerate in their own. Animal food 

 should not be piven too frequentlv 

 at first,, but bv an active child of 

 four years and upwards it may be 

 eaten at once least a dav. One of 

 the first forms of animal food that 

 may be sfiven to children is that 

 of g-ood beef-tea, which, with a lit- 

 tle judgment, mav be given even 

 as young as twelve or thirteen 

 months if the infant s^ems insuffi- 

 cientlv nourished. If mav be 

 given a tablesnoonful or two at a 

 time, or in larger quantities, as it 

 is foimd to atrree. 'WTren babv is 

 well on with cuttin<r his teeth, at 

 about fifteen or sixteen months, he 

 mav have etrf^s conked in various 

 wavs, and lisrht farinaceous pud- 

 dings, custard, and the like. To 

 help in forming the teeth, and es- 

 pecially when the bones .seem weak, 

 food such as oatmeal porridge, 

 which is of jrreat value, may be 

 sweetened with malt extract, which 

 should ; always be used if sugar dis- 

 agrees. This helns to disjest 

 starch, and it contains both flesh 

 and bone-forming and heat-giving 

 material. Children, as a rule, 

 like it very much, and grow fat 

 upon it. T may be spread on 

 their bread instead of butter. For 

 dinner, at abont the last-named 

 arre, a little boiled wrhite fish care- 

 fully picked over with the fingers 

 to remove the bones, or cod, the 

 flakes of which should be divided 

 and shredded up to render It easily 

 difestible. mav be given, mixed 

 with floury potato, squeezed from 

 the skin in which it has been boil- 

 ed, and with butter and salt. Mo-' 

 thers should be careful not to omit 

 salt from their children's dietary, 

 as it is an important food. 



— Pure Water. — 

 Plenty of fresh, pure water 

 should be. allowed. It should be 

 remembered that water is the 

 most important food— no less than 

 79 out of loo parts of the blood 

 are water. Water is, of course. 



contained in all articles of food ; 

 bi'Jt parents need not be so afraid 

 as they sometimes are of allowing 

 children to drink it neat. Dinner 

 should consist of meat, vegetables, 

 and fruit, or fruit-pudding, with 

 water for a drink. At breakfast, 

 fish, or an ege, or marmalade, or 

 stewed fruit should be given as a 

 chanp-e from the usual porridge or 

 bread and milk. Both at this 

 meal and at tea the drink should 

 be milk only, cold or warm, or 

 diluted with warm water and 

 sweetened if desired. For tea, 

 bread and butter, or bread and 

 mannalfide, or tonst, with, r'srhaps 

 a little stewed fruit, for a chan^-e. 

 If supper is reaujred, plain biscuits 

 and butter, with milk and water, 

 may be given. 



— Savgar. — 

 The craving for sugar in youne 

 children , is a healthy and, natural 

 one. Physiologists have proved 

 that both sup-ary and fattv mat- 

 ters are oxydised . in the body, and 

 durine this process heat is evolved. 

 Now the child iust as much loves 

 sup^kr as it abhors fat, and it is 

 onh' reasonable to uppose the 

 childish system demands more 

 sugar. Firstly, because it loses 

 more heat, and, secondly, becanse 

 it cannot deal with much fat. 

 Tyooking at the matter from this 

 point of \4ew, we see how wrong 

 those people are who obiect to 

 gi^xe their children sweet things, 

 while t'r-\nn<T to force them to eat 

 fat; for which they have a supreme 

 disgust. People are also apt to 

 Hve children little or no fruit. 

 They have not the slirrht?st obiec- 

 ti'on to srivitip them purgatives, but 

 they deny them what will prevent 

 the evil , they desire to cure. 



— What to Avoid. — 



If a child shows a marked dis- 

 taste for any particular kind of 

 food, it is wrong to force it to eat 

 that kind. Firstly, such 'enforced 

 obedience crentps ill feelintr ; se- 

 condly, food which is disagreeable 

 is likely to cau.se indijifestion and 

 thirdly, there may be some or- 

 p-anic idiosyncrasy which renders 

 that food obnoxious to the sys- 

 tem. There is a case on record of 

 a man on whom' miitton .seemed to 

 act as a kind of irritant poison, 

 and similar cases are not very 

 rare. On the other hand, if a 

 child has a strono- deeire for any 

 one kitid of food it is unwise to 

 deny it unless you can show a 

 very good reason for so doing, 

 when you .should tell the child that 

 reason as simply as possible ; as. 

 for instance, " No, dear, that will 

 give, you a pain in the stomach, 



or make you siek." Never be 

 misled into saying, " Such things 

 are not good for little boys and 

 girls," for children do not see why 

 grown-up people should have the 

 good things which they are forbid- 

 den to enjoy. If, however, you 

 give a reason which at oncie ap- 

 peals to their own experience of the 

 order of nature, they are ready to 

 recognise it as a sound one. 



" Everylady's .Tournal " — the 

 Australian magazine for women — 

 is essentially a iournal that is in- 

 dispensable to the woman who is 

 fighting to run her home on prac- 

 tical and up-to-date lines. The Au- 

 gust issue, 'however, just publish- 

 ed, strikes a strone note of geineral 

 interest and entertianment with 

 such articles as " The Literary Girl 

 Who Goes to London." T\Tiss .'Ro- 

 berts on " Milliards for 'Womien," 

 " The Story of Captain Oates," 

 " The Splendour of the Etiorlish 

 Court," and some fine short 

 stories. 



Prospective purchasers of bi- 

 cycles who are naturally on the 

 qui vive for irood value at the low- 

 est terms will have to look about 

 them' for a very long time before 

 they discover an offer worthy of 

 so much attention as that made 

 them by Mr. F. A. Paterson, whose 

 chief office is at Henley Beach 

 Road, Mile End ; also at Glen Os- 

 mond Road, Parkside, and King 

 William Road, Hyde Park, who 

 annmmces that he is prepared to 

 build bicycles to order from £6 

 lo/-, ranging up to £114 10/- for 

 cash, or on very easy terms. To 

 the large number of those who 

 have found the usual high prices 

 of cycles prohibitive the machines 

 offered by Mr. Paterson may seem 

 altnrether too good to be true,' 

 but it is one nevertheless, tbe se- 

 curity of which has been proved to 

 the complete satisfaction of the 

 numberous customers of the firm, 

 as well as the Police Department, 

 for whom they have a contract fo 

 suT)iilving bicycles for two year" 

 It must also be noted that a thre' 

 years' guarantee is tnven with th 

 frame of the.se moderatelv-price 

 machines, whilst a further niaran 

 tee is Piven that he gives the be" 

 yalue in bicycles in the Stat 

 Those desirous to glean furth 

 Particulars are requested to writ 

 Mr. Paterson at the above addres 

 for a catalogue, which will b 

 mailed per return. We may men 

 tion that Mr. Paterson also ha 

 an establishment at .Henley Beac' 

 Road, Mile Knd, and King Wil 

 liam Road, Hyde Park. 



