SIMPLICITY IN FEEDING

Especial attention should be given to simplicity in feeding:

  1. Avoid giving too many things at the same meal; from three to four articles at one time are sufficient
  2. Mothers should be especially cautioned against giving a child bread made with yeast, or baking powder, and against the old diet of milk toast
  3. All meat, flesh food, stimulants or narcotics of every kind should be omitted from the diet of children
  4. The crowning mistake of the doting mother is often made in feeding her child from the conventional table, on such things as weakened coffee or tea, meats, and condiments
  5. The custom of giving children an excess of sweets has ruined millions of little stomachs, and has given them a heritage of dis-ease and suffering before they have entered their 'teens
  6. All condiments, such as pepper, salt, vinegar, pickles, and all pungent things should be eliminated from the diet of children—the taste of the child is very susceptible to cultivation, and with very little encouragement it will accept things that have no place in the human economy, and which are positively harmful
  7. When a child begins teething, it may be given a small piece of hard water-cracker with safety

If the above rules are observed, it is reasonable to assume that normal hunger of the child will guide it very correctly in selecting, proportioning, and combining its food through the period of childhood until it enters the period of youth.