Science in the Kitchen / A Scientific Treatise On Food Substances and Their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes

by E. E. Kellogg

"From personal observation we judge that in many cases children will do equally well if allowed a longer interval between feedings at night. The plan of feeding five times daily instead of six, may be begun at as early an age as six months in many instances."

Manner of Feeding Artificial Foods.—All artificial foods are best fed with a teaspoon, as by this method liability to over-feeding and danger from unclean utensils are likely to be avoided. If a nursing-bottle is used, it should be of clear flint glass so that the slightest foulness may be easily detected, and one simple in construction, which can be completely taken apart for cleaning. Those furnished with conical black rubber caps are the best. Each time after using, such a bottle should have the cap removed, and both bottle and cap should be thoroughly cleansed, first with cold water, and then with warm water in which soda has been dissolved in the proportion of a teaspoonful to a pint of water. They should then be kept immersed in weak soda solution until again needed, when both bottle and cap should be thoroughly rinsed in clean boiled water before they are used. Neglect to observe these precautions is one of the frequent causes of stomach disturbances in young children. It is well to keep two bottles for feeding, using them alternately.

Diet for Older Children.—No solid food or table-feeding of any kind should be given to a child until it has the larger share of its first, or milk teeth. Even then it must not be supposed that because a child has acquired its teeth, it may partake of all kinds of food with impunity. It is quite customary for mothers to permit their little ones to sit at the family table and be treated to bits of everything upon the bill of fare, apparently looking upon them as miniature grown people, with digestive ability equal to persons of mature growth, but simply lacking in, stomach capacity to dispose of as much as older members of the family. The digestive apparatus of a child differs so greatly from that of an adult in its anatomical structure and in the character and amount of the digestive fluids, that it is by no means proper to allow a child to eat all kinds of wholesome foods which a healthy adult stomach can consume with impunity, to say nothing of the rich, highly seasoned viands, sweetmeats, and epicurean dishes which seldom fail to form some part of the bill of fare. It is true that many children are endowed with so much constitutional vigor that they do live and seemingly thrive, notwithstanding dietetic errors; but the integrity of the digestive organs is liable to be so greatly impaired by continued ill-treatment that sooner or later in life disease results. Till the age of three years, sterilized milk, whole-wheat bread in its various forms, such of the grains as contain a large share of gluten, prepared in a variety of palatable ways, milk and fruit toasts, and the easily digested fruits, both raw and cooked, form the best dietary. Strained vegetable soups may be occasionally added for variety. For from three to six years the same simple regimen, with easily digested and simply prepared vegetables, macaroni, and legumes prepared without skins, will be all-sufficient. If desserts are desirable, let them be simple in character and easily digestible. Tea, coffee, hot bread and biscuit, fried foods of all kinds, salted meats, preserves, rich puddings, cake, and pastries should be wholly discarded from the children's bill of fare.

It is especially important that a dietary for children should contain an abundance of nitrogenous material. It is needed not only for repairs, but must be on deposit for the purpose of food. Milk, whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, barley, and preparations of wheat, contain this element in abundance, and should for this reason be given great prominence in the children's dietary.

Flesh foods are in no way necessary for children, since the food elements of which they are composed can be supplied from other and better sources, and many prominent medical authorities unite in the opinion that such foods are decidedly deleterious, and should not be used at all by children under eight or ten years of age. Experiments made by Dr. Camman, of New York, upon the dietary of nearly two hundred young children in an orphan's home, offer conclusive evidence that the death rate among children from gastro-intestinal troubles is greatly lessened by the exclusion of meat from their dietary. Dr. Clouston, of Edinburgh, an eminent medical authority, states that in his experience, those children who show the greatest tendencies to instability of the brain, insanity, and immoral habits are, as a rule, those who use animal food in excess; and that he has seen a change of diet to milk and farinaceous food produce a marked change in their nervous irritability.

Scores of other authorities corroborate. Dr. Clouston's observation, and assert that children fed largely on flesh foods have capricious appetites, suffer more commonly from indigestion in its various forms, possess an unstable nervous system, and have less resisting power in general.

Candy and similar sweets generally given to children as a matter of course, may be excluded from their dietary with positive benefit in every way. It is true, as is often stated in favor of the use of these articles, that sugar is a food element needed by children; but the amount required for the purpose of growth and repair is comparatively small, and is supplied in great abundance in bread, grains, fruits, and other common articles of food. If an additional quantity is taken, it is not utilized by the system, and serves only to derange digestion, impair appetite, and indirectly undermine the health.

Children are not likely to crave candy and other sweets unless a taste for such articles has been developed by indulgence in them; and their use, since they are seldom taken at mealtime, helps greatly to foster that most pernicious habit of childhood—eating between meals. No food, except at their regular mealtimes, should be the universal rule for children from babyhood up; and although during their earliest years they require food at somewhat shorter intervals than adults, their meal hours should be arranged for the same time each day, and no piecing permitted. Parents who follow the too common practice of giving their little ones a cracker or fruit between meals are simply placing them under training for dyspepsia, sooner or later. Uninterrupted digestion proceeds smoothly and harmoniously in a healthy stomach; but interruptions in the shape of food sent down at all times and when the stomach is already at work, are justly resented, and such disturbances, if long continued, are punished by suffering.

The appetite of a child is quite as susceptible of education, in both a right and wrong direction, as are its mental or moral faculties; and parents in whose hands this education mainly rests should give the subject careful consideration, since upon it the future health and usefulness of their children not a little devolve. We should all be rulers of our appetites instead of subject to them; but whether this be so or not, depends greatly upon early dietetic training. Many a loving mother, by thoughtless indulgence of her child, in season and out of season, in dainties and tidbits that simply serve to gratify the palate, is fostering a "love of appetite" which may ruin her child in years to come. There are inherited appetites and tendencies, it is true; but even these may be largely overcome by careful early training in right ways of eating and drinking. It is possible to teach very young children to use such food as is best for them, and to refrain from the eating of things harmful; and it should be one of the first concerns of every mother to start her children on the road to manhood and womanhood, well trained in correct dietetic habits.