The Care and Feeding of Children Part 18

BROTHS AND SOUPS

_What broths and soups are to be recommended?_

Meat broths are generally to be preferred to vegetable broths,--mutton or chicken being usually most liked by children. Nearly all plain broths may be given. Those thickened with rice, barley or corn starch form a useful variety, especially with the addition of milk.

Vegetable purees of peas, spinach, celery or asparagus may be used for children over seven years old. Tomato soup should not be given to young children.

BREAD, CRACKERS AND CAKES

_What forms of breadstuffs are best suited to young children?_

Fresh bread should not be given, but stale bread cut thin and freshly dried in the oven until it is crisp is very useful, also zwieback, the unsweetened being preferred. Oatmeal, graham or gluten crackers and the Huntley and Palmer breakfast biscuits, stale rolls, or corn bread which has been split and toasted or dried till crisp, form a sufficient variety for most children.

_What breadstuffs should be forbidden?_

All hot breads, all fresh rolls, all buckwheat and other griddle cakes, all fresh sweet cakes, especially those covered with icing and those containing dried fruits. A stale lady-finger or piece of sponge cake is about as far in the matter of cakes as it is wise to go with children up to seven or eight years old.

DESSERTS

_What desserts may be given to young children?_

Mistakes are more often made here than in any other part of the child's diet. Up to six or seven years, only junket, plain rice pudding without raisins, plain custard and, not more than once a week, a small amount of ice cream.

_What should be especially forbidden?_

All pies, tarts and pastry of every description, jam, syrups and preserved fruits; nuts, candy and dried fruits.

_Does "a little" do any harm?_

Yes, in that it develops a taste for this sort of food, after which plainer food is taken with less relish. Besides the "little" is very apt soon to become a good deal.

_Does not the child's instinctive craving for sweets indicate his need of them?_

That a child likes or craves sweets is the usual excuse of an indulgent parent. Every child likes his own way, but that is no reason why he should not be trained to obedience and self-control; a child's fondness for sweets can hardly be considered a normal instinct. As a matter of fact, supported by everyday experience, no causes are productive of more disorders of digestion than the free indulgence in desserts and sweets by young children. It is a constantly increasing tendency, not easily controlled as a child grows older; and in early childhood, the only safe rule is to give none at all.

FRUITS

_Are fruits an essential or important part of the diet?_

They are a very important part and should be begun in infancy. They are particularly useful for the effect they have upon the bowels. It is important that they should be selected with care and given with much discretion, especially in cities. In the country where fruit is absolutely fresh, a somewhat greater lat.i.tude may be allowed than is given below.

_What fruits may safely be given to children up to five years old?_

As a general rule, only cooked fruits and the juices of fresh fruits.

_What fruit juices may be used?_

That from sweet oranges is the best, but the fresh juice of grape fruit, peaches, strawberries and raspberries may also be used.

_What stewed fruits may be given?_

Stewed or baked apples, prunes, pears, peaches and apricots.

_What raw fruits are to be particularly avoided with young children?_

The pulp of oranges or grape fruit, also cherries, berries, bananas and pineapple.

_What precautions should be emphasized regarding the use of fruits?_

That they should be used with greater care in hot weather and with children who are p.r.o.ne to attacks of intestinal indigestion.

_What symptoms indicate that fruits should be avoided?_

A tendency to looseness of the bowels with the discharge of mucus, or frequent attacks of abdominal pain or stomach ache.

_Is there any special choice of meals at which fruit should be given?_

The fruit juice given early in the morning, upon an empty stomach, works more actively upon the bowels than if it is given later in the day.

It is not, as a rule, wise to give cream or milk with sour fruits.

Usually the fruit is best given at the mid-day meal, as a dessert, at a time when no milk is taken. It is in all cases important that the quant.i.ty of fruit should be moderate.

_What besides water and milk should a child be allowed to drink and what should be forbidden?_

Tea, coffee, wine, beer and cider in all quant.i.ties and in all forms should be forbidden to young children below p.u.b.erty. Cocoa which is made very weak, i.e., almost all milk, is often useful as a hot drink.

Lemonade, soda-water, etc., should if possible be deferred until the tenth year. A free indulgence in things of this kind should never be permitted with children of seven or eight years.

INDIGESTION IN OLDER CHILDREN

_What are the different ways in which indigestion shows itself in children?_

First, in acute disturbances which last for a few days only; and, secondly, in chronic disturbances which may continue for weeks or months.

_Which of the two forms of indigestion is more likely to impair seriously the health of the child?_

Chronic indigestion; for since the cause is not recognized it often goes on for months and even years unchecked.

_What are the symptoms of acute indigestion?_

These are familiar and easily recognized. They are vomiting, pain, undigested movements from the bowels, often fever and considerable prostration.

Such attacks are usually traceable to their proper cause, the removal of which is followed by prompt recovery.

_What are the common causes of acute indigestion?_