As we have urg’d that Milk is the Food of Nature, so we may with equal Propriety call Bread the Staff of Life. Breast-milk my Readers will observe, is preferred to every other; but where that cannot be obtain’d, then Cows-milk, made thinner and lighter by the Addition of Water, is to supply its place; and, between whiles, the Child is to be fed with Milk-victuals; from which, as it is thicken’d with Bread, it will receive great Nourishment. But here great care must be taken to keep up its Appetite for this Food at first setting out; as it is of all others the most proper; and not spoil its Relish for it by the Admixture or Intervention of any thing else while in Health, ’till a more advanc’d Age.
The first Error usually run into, is, the immoderate use of Spice and Sugar; which Physicians who have consider’d these matters positively condemn: and if a Child is well, putting either of these in it’s Victuals, answers not the least good End. Spice and Sugar are certainly fine natural Productions, and of vast Use to Mankind; but the Food of Infants should be as simple as possible; and if it is made otherwise by the early use of these, the Effects will always be very troublesome, and oftentimes mischievous. What is more common than to give young Children Lumps of Sugar to eat; yet what more erroneous? Every Day’s Experience shews us how wrong the Practice is: it vitiates their Taste; creates in them an unconquerable Fondness for it, even to a Degree of Vulgarness; and manifestly clogs their Stomachs.
The Error next in rank to these, or rather a part of the same, as Sugar is greatly concern’d in it, is, the Custom Parents have of giving Children Tea. Tea, to a young Child, if we omit the Milk, has not a single Ingredient to recommend it: the Sugar in it has already been treated of; the Water, (as Tea is usually drank too hot,) serves to scald it’s Mouth and Throat, or at best to relax the Stomach and weaken the Tone of it; and the Plant or Shrub it self has Qualities, which, to say the least of it, seldom contributes to promote it’s Health.
That this Herb of which our Tea is made has had many Tongues to speak it’s Praise, I am convinc’d; or it would not have obtain’d that universal use we now see made of it: and some likewise have taken up their Pen, and with great Labour describ’d its Virtues and Utility to Mankind: but all this is too weak to stand against that infallible Guide, Experience. To insist that Tea has no good Qualities would be offering an Affront to the Judgment and Experience of many wise People, and is very far from being my Design; on the contrary, I am convinc’d it has. Bohea Tea is esteem’d balsamic, and Green is allow’d to be an astringent Stomachic. Still these or any other particular Qualities, do not justify it’s general use; for while the same Experience proves that for one who receives Benefit by drinking it, ten receive Harm, it must upon the Whole be condemned.
Tea may be consider’d like some certain Drugs, which in skilful hands are safe and useful, but in ignorant ones, poisonous. That the intemperate and indiscriminate use of Tea is hurtful, is too well known to be disputed; some it is true are manifestly refresh’d, comforted and enliven’d by it; others feel not the least sensible effect from the longest use of it, and drink it purely thro’ Custom; but again there are others, and those much the Majority, who impair their Health so visibly by this pernicious Practice, that they shorten their Lives, or at least render them comfortless, if not miserable. Now who that considers these things well, or but once reflects that ’tis at least ten to one that their Children are Sufferers by it, can reasonably speaking be hasty in bringing them to it; especially too if we farther reflect, that by a seeming magic Power it often enslaves People even to Infatuation. Infants then have nothing to do with this darling deluding Liquor; and when at a more advanc’d Age, Parents should still give it them very sparingly, if at all; and be careful to keep them if possible from ever being attach’d to it.
Before I take my leave of this Article, let me recommend to Parents some Observations for their farther guidance herein. Those Children who have weak Nerves should not by any means drink Tea at all. Tea should never be made strong; nor drank in large quantities, nor hot, nor without Milk, nor very sweet. Tea should not be drank in a Morning by those who cannot eat; nor can it in general be drank in the Afternoon with Safety, but by those who have eat a hearty Dinner, and drink it soon. Bohea Tea is found to affect the Nerves the most sensibly; and Green, from its Astringency, is not only the most grateful, but its Effects prove it to be least hurtful.
Many are the Errors which Parents fall into in the Management of Children, especially at first setting out. I have often seen Children wash’d away with the watry Gripes, when upon inquiry it appear’d they had no other Food but Water Pap: others reject this, and fall into the Error of giving Children Broth; which alone, is in it’s Nature too laxative for Infants. But Water Pap must be condemn’d as far the most improper; for it is manifest that Bread, of which it is made, besides the Fermentation it undergoes in the Hands of the Baker, has, according to the Juices it meets with, a farther Power of fermenting in the Stomach: therefore, should Nature by chance be thwarted, should universal Observation be for once contradicted, by shewing a Child whom Milk is unfit for; in that case I recommend, that Broth be added to the Pap; which will bring the Food nearest to the Quality of that animal Fluid, Milk, the natural Nourishment. And as watry Gripes are often owing to ill-digested Pap, Broth, tho’ laxative, would certainly from its Smoothness prevent or lessen the Stimulation in the Bowels; as we find in the Cure of such Gripes great Service from Glysters of Oil, Chickens-guts, and other things of the like Kind.
But farther; I am clearly of Opinion, that the first Change in Childrens Diet should be from Milk to Broth, and not from Milk to Meat: their tender Stomachs ought not to be put too early upon the Office of digesting the fleshy Fibres of Meat; but they may, as they approach to a Year old, by way of Introduction to eating Flesh, and by way of changing Diet, sometimes have Broth; but by no means for constant use, to the neglect of Milk.
It is universally confess’d, that in England we eat too much Flesh; and were I to urge all that might be said on that Head, it would be dwelling too long on a single Point. But since this Error of our Country is acknowledg’d by many of the wisest Men in it, let it serve as a general Caution to Parents; let them turn it to the Advantage of the rising Generation; by being neither hasty in giving Flesh Meat to their Children, nor even permitting them to be intemperate in the Use of it.