juices and other fluids of the body are then diminished, and also because their digestion places a minimum of work upon a system already burdened with bacterial poisons.
Light or convalescent diet
generally means a simple mixed diet. In addition to the articles in the two preceding diets it includes oysters, chicken, baked potatoes, most fruits except bananas, simple desserts, white fish, and other meats and vegetables added judiciously until full diet is reached. Fried foods should not be included.
Full diet
means an unrestricted menu, but even from full diets especially indigestible foods should be excluded. The principles of feeding sedentary persons as described in manuals of dietetics apply to patients who are obliged to be inactive although not really ill, as for example, a patient suffering from a broken leg. Ordinarily in such cases, as in other kinds of illness, the appetite is greatly diminished, but a word of warning should be given against overfeeding patients whose meals are their chief interest. Such patients are only too likely to interpret full diet as anything they desire in any quantity at any time of day or night, and then to attribute their discomfort and irritability to their illness rather than to overeating.
Constipation is especially stubborn in sickness, since the patient is deprived of his usual exercise
and variety of food. So far as possible the bowels should be regulated by diet. Laxative foods include most vegetables with a large amount of fibre, coarse cereals and flour, oils and fats, and most fruits and fruit juices. Unfortunately many laxative foods are difficult for sick persons to digest and must therefore be used with caution. A glass of hot or cold water or orange juice an hour before breakfast may be helpful, and at bed time hot lemonade, oranges, prunes, figs, or other fruit if allowed.
It is essential for patients to drink water freely, and it should be given between meals and also between liquid nourishments. Persons inexperienced in the care of the sick frequently make the mistake of bringing water only when a patient asks for it.
Many acute illnesses begin with fever, headache, sore throat, and especially among children with vomiting, diarrhœa, and other digestive disturbances. In such cases all food should be withheld until the doctor comes, but boiled water, hot or cold, should be given freely. Efforts to tempt the appetite are then mistaken; few people are injured and many are benefited by omitting food even for 24 hours at the beginning of an acute illness, and with few exceptions a doctor can be found in a shorter time.