At a little past 1 year of age, a normal child may begin taking a few well-cooked vegetables, such as a bit of baked potato, a spoonful of spinach, carrot, celery, green peas, or other vegetables that have been forced through a sieve or chopped very fine. At 1-1/2 years, the normal child should be taking each day one vegetable, a cereal, buttered bread or toast softened with milk, eggs, fruit juice, a little jelly, and plain custards. However, each of these foods should be added to the diet with caution and in small amounts, and if it appears to disagree with the child in any way, it should be discontinued until such time as it can be tolerated.
In case a child is being raised on a formula of cow's milk and it is a strong, normal child, it should be taking whole milk at the age of 8 or 10 months. If the child is not strong, the milk may still be diluted with a small amount of sterile water, but this should be gradually decreased until the child is able to tolerate whole milk.
50. FEEDING SCALE FOR INFANTS.--It is, of course, a difficult matter to make definite rules for the feeding of all children, for conditions arise with many children that call for special plans. However, for children that are normal, a feeding scale may be followed quite closely, and so the one given in Table VI is suggested.
TABLE VI
FEEDING SCALE FOR INFANTS
| First Three Months | Milk. |
| Fourth Month | Same as for preceding months and orange juice and cereal waters. |
| Sixth Month | Same as for preceding months and well-cooked and strained cereal. |
| Eighth Month | Same as for preceding months and beef juice, beef broth, and yolk of soft-cooked egg. |
| Tenth Month | Same as for preceding months and unstrained cereal, half of soft-cooked egg, both white and yolk, chopped or strained cooked vegetables, such as spinach and other greens, asparagus, carrots, celery, and squash, stale bread, crackers, toast and butter. |
| Eleventh Month | Same as for preceding months and well-cooked rice, baked potato, jelly, plain custard, corn-starch custard, and junket. |
| Twelfth Month | Same as for preceding months and whole egg, a tablespoonful of tender meat, string beans, peas, turnips, onions, chopped or strained applesauce, stewed prunes, and other fruits. |
| Eighteenth Month | Same as for preceding months and home-made ice cream, plain sponge cake, milk soups, and cereal puddings. |
This scale is to be used by adding to the diet for one month the foods suggested for the next month, giving them at the time the child reaches the age for which they are mentioned. For instance, a child of 8 months may have everything included in the first three, four, and six months and, in addition, beef juice, beef broth, and the yolk of a soft-cooked egg, which is the diet suggested for the eighth month. Then at the tenth month it may have all of these things together with those given for this month.
51. When any of these foods is first added to the diet, much care is necessary. Each new food should be given cautiously, a teaspoonful or two at a time being sufficient at first, and its effect should be carefully observed before more is given. If it is found to disagree, it should not be repeated. If at any time a child is subject to an attack of indigestion, its diet should be reduced to simple foods and when it has recovered, new foods should be added slowly again. In the case of any of the ordinary illnesses to which children are subject, such as colds, etc., the diet should be restricted to very simple food, and preferably to liquids, until the illness has passed. The diet of a baby still being fed on milk should be reduced to barley water or a very little skim milk diluted with a large amount of sterile water. When the illness is over, the child may be gradually brought back to its normal diet.