Desserts form a very important item in the dietary of the child, because they contain starch and sugar, important to the up-building of the system. Custards, junket, rice pudding without raisins, and an occasional dish of pure ice-cream should be the desserts up to six or seven years. These can be varied by stewed fruit, or ripe fruit in season, making sure that all the seeds and stems are removed.
No young child should be given pies or pastry of any description, rich preserves, nuts, or candy. The child who has not been given candy in his babyhood grows up with very little taste for it. Food, like fresh air and sleeping, is very much a habit.
Fruits form a considerable and important part of the diet. Up to the time a child is five years old he should have fruit juices; then solid fruit. Sweet oranges yield up the best juice; but grape-fruit rubbed through a sieve, fresh pears, strawberries, and raspberries, crushed through a coarse sieve, may also be used.
Orange or prune juice can be given after seven or eight months of age. Before the second bottle in the morning two teaspoonfuls may be given, gradually increasing to one or two ounces at one year.
Apples, baked or stewed, are extremely healthful. Prunes well prepared and rubbed through a sieve, pears stewed or baked until tender, peaches and apricots pealed or stewed, are all worth places in the diet of a child. Pulp in either fresh or cooked fruits should be avoided.
Children should never be given green fruit of any kind; and, in hot weather, if they cause a tendency to diarrhea, fresh fruits must not be permitted in the child’s diet, but all sorts of stewed fruits can be substituted for them.
A word of warning about cocoa. This is an excellent beverage for a young child, but it is a mistake to think that it must be made rich with cream. A good quality of whole milk and just as much cocoa as the recipe on the box demands should be used for young children. Whipped cream on the cocoa is not necessary. If your children want ice-cream, cold drinks, treats of any sort, make these at home. Know what your children eat.
A few recipes for preparing food that children can easily digest follow:
Albumen Water—Divide the white of one fresh egg in several directions with a sharp steel knife; to this add one pint of cold boiled water, and a little salt. Shake well and give cold from bottle or with spoon.
Rice Water—Take one tablespoonful of rice; wash well; soak over night. Add one pint of water and a little salt. Boil until grains are soft—three to four hours. Add water from time to time to keep quantity to one pint. Strain through muslin.