Dinner:—(12 o'clock) Strained soup, four ounces. Chop, roast beef, steak, chicken, small quantity of any one. Baked potato and cooked rice, or spaghetti. A selection of green vegetables may be made from asparagus tips, string beans, peas, spinach, cauliflower, carrots; they should be cooked until very soft, and mashed or put through a sieve. For dessert, plain rice pudding or bread pudding, stewed prunes, baked or stewed apple, junket, custard or cornstarch. A glass of milk or water.
Supper:—(6 o'clock) Cereal; farina, arrowroot, cream of wheat, wheatena (each cooked two hours), with salt but no sugar. Give two or three tablespoonfuls. Drink of milk with stale bread and butter. Twice a week, a little plain ice cream, or junket, custard or cornstarch.
Three meals a day at this time are better than more frequent feedings. The child has a better appetite and much better digestion. It may be found necessary to give delicate children a luncheon at 3 o'clock. A glass of milk and a Graham wafer, or a cup of broth and a zwieback, will answer the purpose. Children recovering from serious illness will need more frequent nourishment. Up to the sixth year the diet may conform to the above schedule, increasing the individual quantities as circumstances may warrant.
THE DIET OF OLDER CHILDREN (FROM SIX TO TEN YEARS)
After the sixth year the diet will conform to the adult diet, with certain exceptions. The important exceptions are as follows: All meats are to be excluded except roast beef, steak, lamb chops, roast lamb, mutton chop; all meats should be cooked rare and either scraped or finely divided. They should be broiled or roasted, never fried, and never given oftener than once daily, and then only in small quantity. Pies, rich puddings, pastries of all kinds, gravies, sauces, all highly seasoned dishes; wine, beer, coffee, tea, should never be given to children. Ham, bacon, sausage, pork, liver, kidney, game, and all dried and salted meats, codfish, mackerel and halibut, are particularly bad.
The following articles are permissible: Broiled chicken, shad, bass. The "platter gravy" from a roast is very nourishing if given in small amounts. Milk should continue to form an important part of the dietary up to the tenth year. It should be clean and fresh but not too rich. Sometimes it is found advisable to dilute the milk with water that has been boiled and cooled. Some children will take it if a pinch of salt or bicarbonate of soda is put into it, and they will digest it easier and better. They should never be allowed to take more than one quart daily and frequently less will do more good. Cream is not good for children of this age. Eggs are valuable; they should never be given fried or in the form of omelets, they are best given boiled, poached or coddled and only slightly cooked. It is never necessary to give more than one egg at a meal. There are children with whom eggs do not agree; these children are disposed to "biliousness."
Vegetables.—Certain vegetables are objectionable at this age: Raw celery, radishes, raw onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, corn, lima beans, cabbage, egg plant. The following are good: White potatoes (never fried), spinach, peas, asparagus tips, string beans, celery, young beets, carrots, squash, turnips, boiled onions and cauliflower. It is important to remember that all vegetables should be thoroughly cooked; they cannot be cooked too much. After boiling for some time the water should be drained off and fresh water used to complete cooking. Vegetables should be fed in small quantities. From the third to the tenth year they form an important and essential part of the diet of all children. After the tenth year they can be eaten as served to adults, and other vegetables may then be added. As a rule salads of all kinds should be omitted until after the twelfth year.
Cereals.—Children should not be allowed to eat too much cereal at one meal,—never more than one small saucerful. Cereals should be properly cooked. It is not safe to adhere strictly to the directions on the package of any cereal. As a rule they require much longer cooking. They are best cooked in a double boiler. They may be served with milk, salt, and not more than one teaspoonful of sugar.
Bread.—Fresh bread is never allowable. Graham wafers, oatmeal crackers, Huntley and Palmer breakfast biscuits, bran muffins, rye bread, corn bread, stale rolls, are all suitable to growing children.
Hot bread, fresh rolls, buckwheat or griddle cakes, all sweet cakes, are objectionable.