Stir the farina into the boiling water (slightly salted) in the farina kettle (i. e., one boiler set within another, the latter filled with hot water). Boil fifteen minutes, stirring constantly until it is well-thickened. Then add the milk, stirring it in gradually, and boil fifteen minutes longer. Sweeten, and give to the child so soon as it is cool enough.
You may make enough in the morning to last all day; warming it up with a little hot milk as you want it. Keep in a cold place. Some of the finest children I have ever seen were reared upon this diet. Do not get it too sweet, and cook it well. Be sure the farina is sweet and dry.
Barley.
It sometimes happens that milk disagrees with a delicate infant so seriously that it is necessary to substitute some other article of diet for a few days. I have known barley water to be used, in such cases, with great success.
- 2 cups boiling water.
- 2 tablespoonfuls pearl barley—picked over and washed.
- A pinch of salt.
- 2 teaspoonfuls white sugar—not heaping.
Soak the barley half an hour in a very little lukewarm water, and stir, without draining, into the boiling water, salted very slightly. Simmer one hour, stirring often, and strain before sweetening.
Arrowroot. ✠
- 1 cup of boiling water.
- 1 cup fresh milk.
- 2 teaspoonfuls best Bermuda arrowroot, wet with cold water.
- 1 small pinch of salt.
- 2 even teaspoonfuls white sugar, dissolved in the milk.
Stir the arrowroot paste into the salted boiling water; stir and boil five minutes or until it is clear; add the sweetened milk, and boil ten minutes, slowly, still stirring.
If the child has fever, or cannot digest milk, substitute hot water for it. It is, however, a dangerous experiment to forbid milk altogether for an infant. I should rather diminish the quantity, putting in, say, one-third or one-fourth as much as the receipt names, and filling up with boiling water.