Insufficient chewing
Eating too rapidly
Drinking milk rapidly instead of sipping
Dawdling over meals
Eating with fingers
Carelessness about the dropping of food on table and floor
Unwillingness to try new foods
Unwillingness to eat vegetables
Preference for sweets and starches
Overeating of bread
Common faults of adults, in the feeding of children:
Overfeeding
Irregular feeding
Allowing child to choose or refuse food and become finicky
Giving too large a portion of bread and cereal
Too much mushy food
More than one quart of milk a day
Insufficient hard foods
Coaxing child to eat when not hungry or when tired or ill
School children should always have an adequate warm breakfast, with plenty of time to eat without hurrying, and a warm midday meal. If the school is too far away for them to return home, some provision should be made with the teacher, school principal, or near-by home, for one or two warm dishes.
Children under six years should always have the mother or other intelligent attendant with them during meals to train in careful chewing and drinking, neatness, courtesy, conversation. With children under four years a spirit of play may be brought into the feeding, especially with the less desired foods; this should gradually be dropped during the fifth year.
Utilize the opportunity for training in motor coördination and self-reliance. Babies can be given water from a spoon at one month, and can begin drinking from a cup at six months; thus trained, they will never acquire the bottle habit, and they can learn to feed themselves during the second or third year. The motor control and self-reliance thus gained are far more important than the messing of food during a few months. Let the children help clear their table (18 months); brush up any crumbs (2 years); bring in their own dishes and food (3 years); wash dishes (3 years); help with the cooking (4 years).
Use enamel cups, sauce dishes, and plates until at about three years the child can confidently handle dishes without breaking them.
The serving of food has the value of a religious ceremony and a social banquet, as well as the satisfying of physical needs. With intelligence and forethought it can be made of such significance, and a means of teaching reverence, courtesy, self-control of physical appetites, pleasant conversation.