recommend that manufactured by the Sanitarium Food Co., Battle Creek,
Mich., as thoroughly reliable. There are hundreds of prepared infant
foods in the market, but most of them are practically worthless in point
of food value, being often largely composed of starch, a substance which
the immature digestive organs of a young child are incapable of
digesting. Hundreds of infants are yearly starved to death upon such
foods.
All artificial foods require longer time for digestion than the food
supplied by nature; and when making use of such, great care should be
taken to avoid too frequent feeding. It is absolutely essential for the
perfect health of an infant as well as of grown people, that the
digestive organs shall enjoy a due interval of rest between the
digestion of one meal and the taking of another. As a rule, a new-born
infant may be safely fed, when using human milk, not oftener than once
in every three or four hours. When fed upon artificial food, once in
five or six hours is often enough for feeding. The intervals between
meals in either case should be gradually prolonged as the child grows
older.
QUANTITY OF FOOD FOR INFANTS.--Dr. J.H. Kellogg gives the following
rules and suggestions for the feeding of infants:--
"During the first week of a child's life, the weight of the food given
should be 1/100 of the weight of the infant at birth. The daily
additional amount of food required for a child amounts to about one
fourth of a dram, or about one ounce at the end of each month. A child
gains in weight from two thirds of an ounce to one ounce per day during
the first five months of its life, and an average of one half as much
daily during the balance of the first year.
"From a series of tables which have been prepared, as the result of
experiments carefully conducted in large lying-in establishments, we
have devised this rule:--
"To find the amount of food required by a child at each feeding during
the first year of life, divide the weight of the child at birth by 100
and add to this amount 3/100 of the gain which the child has made since
birth. Take, for example, a child which weighs 7-1/2 lbs--at birth, or
120 ounces. Dividing by 100 we have 1.2 oz. Estimating the weight
according to the rule above given, the child at the end of nine months
will have gained 210 oz. Dividing this by 100 and multiplying by 3, we
have 6.3 oz. Adding to this our previous result, 1.3, we have 7.5 oz, as
the amount of food required at each feeding at the end of nine months by
a child which weighed 7-1/2 lbs. at birth. To save mothers the trouble
of making these calculations, we have prepared the following table,
which will be found to hold good for the average child weighing 7-1/2
lbs. at birth. This is rather more than the ordinary child weighs, but
we have purposely chosen a large child for illustration, as it is better
that the child should have a slight excess of food than too little.
AGE OF CHILD.
|1w.| 1m. |2m.|3m.|4m.|6m.|9m.|12m
Amount of each feeding in ounces...| 1| 1½-2| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |7½ | 9
Number of feedings.................| 10| 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5
Amount of food daily, in ounces....| 10|12-16|18 |24 |30 |36 |37½|45
Interval between feedings, in hours| 2| 2½ | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |3½ |3½
"In the above table the first column represents quantities for the first
week, the second for the end of the second month, the third for the end
of the third month, etc. It need not be mentioned that the change in
quantity should be even more gradual than represented in the table.
"Attention should also be called to the fact that the time mentioned as
the interval for feeding at different ages, does not apply to the whole
twenty-four hours. Even during the first week, the child is expected to
skip two feedings during the night, making the interval four hours
instead of two. By the end of the second month, the interval between the
feedings at night becomes six hours, and at the end of the ninth month,
six and one half hours.
"From personal observation we judge that in many cases children will do
equally well if allowed a longer interval between feedings at night. The
plan of feeding five times daily instead of six, may be begun at as
early an age as six months in many instances."
MANNER OF FEEDING ARTIFICIAL FOODS.--All artificial foods are best
fed with a teaspoon, as by this method liability to over-feeding and
danger from unclean utensils are likely to be avoided. If a
nursing-bottle is used, it should be of clear flint glass so that the
slightest foulness may be easily detected, and one simple in
construction, which can be completely taken apart for cleaning. Those
furnished with conical black rubber caps are the best. Each time after
using, such a bottle should have the cap removed, and both bottle and
cap should be thoroughly cleansed, first with cold water, and then with
warm water in which soda has been dissolved in the proportion of a
teaspoonful to a pint of water. They should then be kept immersed in
weak soda solution until again needed, when both bottle and cap should
be thoroughly rinsed in clean boiled water before they are used. Neglect
to observe these precautions is one of the frequent causes of stomach
disturbances in young children. It is well to keep two bottles for
feeding, using them alternately.
DIET FOR OLDER CHILDREN.--No solid food or table-feeding of any
kind should be given to a child until it has the larger share of its
first, or milk teeth. Even then it must not be supposed that because a
child has acquired its teeth, it may partake of all kinds of food with
impunity. It is quite customary for mothers to permit their little ones
to sit at the family table and be treated to bits of everything upon the
bill of fare, apparently looking upon them as miniature grown people,
with digestive ability equal to persons of mature growth, but simply
lacking in, stomach capacity to dispose of as much as older members of
the family. The digestive apparatus of a child differs so greatly from
that of an adult in its anatomical structure and in the character and
amount of the digestive fluids, that it is by no means proper to allow a
child to eat all kinds of wholesome foods which a healthy adult stomach
can consume with impunity, to say nothing of the rich, highly seasoned
viands, sweetmeats, and epicurean dishes which seldom fail to form some
part of the bill of fare. It is true that many children are endowed with
so much constitutional vigor that they do live and seemingly thrive,
notwithstanding dietetic errors; but the integrity of the digestive
organs is liable to be so greatly impaired by continued ill-treatment
that sooner or later in life disease results. Till the age of three
years, sterilized milk, whole-wheat bread in its various forms, such of
the grains as contain a large share of gluten, prepared in a variety of
palatable ways, milk and fruit toasts, and the easily digested fruits,
both raw and cooked, form the best dietary. Strained vegetable soups may
be occasionally added for variety. For from three to six years the same
simple regimen, with easily digested and simply prepared vegetables,
macaroni, and legumes prepared without skins, will be all-sufficient. If
desserts are desirable, let them be simple in character and easily
digestible. Tea, coffee, hot bread and biscuit, fried foods of all
kinds, salted meats, preserves, rich puddings, cake, and pastries should
be wholly discarded from the children's bill of fare.
It is especially important that a dietary for children should contain an
abundance of nitrogenous material. It is needed not only for repairs,
but must be on deposit for the purpose of food. Milk, whole-wheat bread,
oatmeal, barley, and preparations of wheat, contain this element in
abundance, and should for this reason be given great prominence in the
children's dietary.
Flesh foods are in no way necessary for children, since the food
elements of which they are composed can be supplied from other and
better sources, and many prominent medical authorities unite in the
opinion that such foods are decidedly deleterious, and should not be
used at all by children under eight or ten years of age. Experiments
made by Dr. Camman, of New York, upon the dietary of nearly two hundred
young children in an orphan's home, offer conclusive evidence that the
death rate among children from gastro-intestinal troubles is greatly
lessened by the exclusion of meat from their dietary. Dr. Clouston, of
Edinburgh, an eminent medical authority, states that in his experience,
those children who show the greatest tendencies to instability of the
brain, insanity, and immoral habits are, as a rule, those who use animal
food in excess; and that he has seen a change of diet to milk and
farinaceous food produce a marked change in their nervous irritability.
Scores of other authorities corroborate. Dr. Clouston's observation, and
assert that children fed largely on flesh foods have capricious
appetites, suffer more commonly from indigestion in its various forms,
possess an unstable nervous system, and have less resisting power in
general.
Candy and similar sweets generally given to children as a matter of
course, may be excluded from their dietary with positive benefit in
every way. It is true, as is often stated in favor of the use of these
articles, that sugar is a food element needed by children; but the
amount required for the purpose of growth and repair is comparatively
small, and is supplied in great abundance in bread, grains, fruits, and
other common articles of food. If an additional quantity is taken, it is
not utilized by the system, and serves only to derange digestion, impair
appetite, and indirectly undermine the health.
Children are not likely to crave candy and other sweets unless a taste
for such articles has been developed by indulgence in them; and their
use, since they are seldom taken at mealtime, helps greatly to foster
that most pernicious habit of childhood--eating between meals. No food,
except at their regular mealtimes, should be the universal rule for
children from babyhood up; and although during their earliest years they
require food at somewhat shorter intervals than adults, their meal hours
should be arranged for the same time each day, and no piecing permitted.
Parents who follow the too common practice of giving their little ones a
cracker or fruit between meals are simply placing them under training
for dyspepsia, sooner or later. Uninterrupted digestion proceeds
smoothly and harmoniously in a healthy stomach; but interruptions in the
shape of food sent down at all times and when the stomach is already at
work, are justly resented, and such disturbances, if long continued, are
punished by suffering.
The appetite of a child is quite as susceptible of education, in both a
right and wrong direction, as are its mental or moral faculties; and
parents in whose hands this education mainly rests should give the
subject careful consideration, since upon it the future health and
usefulness of their children not a little devolve. We should all be
rulers of our appetites instead of subject to them; but whether this be
so or not, depends greatly upon early dietetic training. Many a loving
mother, by thoughtless indulgence of her child, in season and out of
season, in dainties and tidbits that simply serve to gratify the palate,
is fostering a "love of appetite" which may ruin her child in years to
come. There are inherited appetites and tendencies, it is true; but even
these may be largely overcome by careful early training in right ways of
eating and drinking. It is possible to teach very young children to use
such food as is best for them, and to refrain from the eating of things
harmful; and it should be one of the first concerns of every mother to
start her children on the road to manhood and womanhood, well trained in
correct dietetic habits.
TABLE TOPICS.
"The wanton taste no flesh nor fowl can choose,
For which the grape or melon it would lose,
Though all th' inhabitants of earth and air
Be listed in the glutton's bill of fare."
--_Cowley._
Jean Jacques Rousseau holds that intemperate habits are mostly
acquired in early boyhood, when blind deference to social precedents
is apt to overcome our natural antipathies, and that those who have
passed that period in safety, have generally escaped the danger of
temptation. The same holds good of other dietetic abuses. If a
child's natural aversion to vice has never been wilfully perverted,
the time will come when his welfare may be intrusted to the
safe-keeping of his protective instincts. You need not fear that he
will swerve from the path of health when his simple habits,
sanctioned by nature and inclination, have acquired the additional
strength of long practice. When the age of blind deference is past,
vice is generally too unattractive to be very dangerous.--_Oswald._
That a child inherits certain likes and dislikes in the matter of
food cannot be questioned, and does not in the least forbid the
training of the child's taste toward that which is healthful and
upbuilding; it merely adds an element to be considered in the
training.--_Sel._
Prevention is better than cure. It is worth a life effort to lift a
man from degradation. To prevent his fall is better.--_Gough._
A cynical French writer of the last century intending a satire upon
the principles of vegetarianism adopted by Phillippe Hecquet, puts
into the mouth of one of the characters in his book what, in the
grossly voluptuous life of that country and time, the author no
doubt imagined to be the greatest absurdities conceivable in
reference to diet, but which, in the light of present civilization
are but the merest hygienic truths. A doctor had been called to a
gouty and fever-stricken patient. "Pray what is your ordinary diet?"
asked the physician.
"My usual food," replied the patient, "is broth and juicy meat."
"Broth and juicy meat!" cried the doctor, alarmed. "I do not wonder
to find you sick; such dishes are poisoned pleasures and snares that
luxury spreads for mankind, so as to ruin them the more
effectually.... How old are you, pray?"
"I am in my sixty-ninth year," replied the patient.
"Exactly," ... said the physician; "if you had drunk nothing else
than pure water all your life, and had been satisfied with simple
nourishment,--such as boiled apples for example,--you would not now
be tormented with the gout, and all your limbs would perform their
functions with ease."
Dr. Horace Bushnell says: "The child is taken when his training
begins in a state of naturalness as respects all the bodily tastes
and tempers, and the endeavour should be to keep him in that key, to
let no stimulation of excess or delicacy disturb the simplicity of
nature, and no sensual pleasure in the name of food become a want or
expectation of his appetite. Any artificial appetite begun is the
beginning of distemper, disease, and a general disturbance of
natural proportion. Nine tenths of the intemperate drinking begins,
not in grief and destitution, as we so often hear, but in vicious
feeding."
Always let the food be simply for nourishment--never more, never
less. Never should food be taken for its own sake, but for the sake
of promoting bodily and mental activity. Still less should the
peculiarities of food, its taste or delicacy ever become an object
in themselves, but only a means to make it good, pure, wholesome
nourishment; else in both cases the food destroys
health.--_Froebel._
Since what need mortals, save twain things alone,
Crushed grain (heaven's gift), and steaming water-draught?
Food nigh at hand, and Nature's aliment--
Of which no glut contents us.
Pampered taste hunts out device of other eatables.
--_Euripides._
FRAGMENTS & LEFT-OVER FOODS
Economy, one of the cardinal principles of success in the details of
housekeeping, as in all other occupations in life, consists not alone in
making advantageous use of fresh material, but in carefully preserving
and utilizing the "left-over" fragments and bits of food which accrue in
every household. Few cooks can make such perfect calculation respecting
the desires and needs of their families as to provide just enough and no
more, and the improvident waste of the surplus thus prepared, is in many
homes fully equal to one half the first cost of the meal. Scarcely
anything need ever be wasted--certainly nothing which was at first well
cooked. There are ways of utilizing almost every kind of cooked food so
that it will be quite as appetizing and nutritious as when first
prepared.
All left-over foods, as grains, vegetables, or others of a moist
character, should be removed to clean dishes before putting away. Unless
this precaution is observed, the thin smears and tiny bits about the
edges of the dish, which become sour or moldy much sooner than the
larger mass, are apt to spoil the whole. They should also be set on ice
or be kept in a cool, dry place until needed. Left-over foods of any
kind, to be suitable again for use, must be well preserved. Sour or
moldy fragments are not fit for food.
USES OF STALE BREAD.--If properly made from wholesome and
nutritious material and well preserved, there are few other foods that
can be combined into more varied and palatable dishes than left-over
bread. To insure the perfect preservation of the fragments, the loaf
itself should receive good care. Perfectly sweet, light, well-baked
bread has not the same propensity to mold as a poorer loaf; but the best
of bread is likely to become musty if its surroundings are not entirely
wholesome. The receptacle used for keeping the loaves should be
frequently washed, scalded, and well dried. Crumbs and fragments should
be kept in a separate receptacle and as thoroughly cared for. It is well
in cutting bread not to slice more than will be needed, and to use one
loaf before beginning on another. Bread grows stale much faster after
being cut.
Whole or half slices of bread which have become too dry to be palatable
may be utilized for making zwieback, directions for the use and
preparation of which are given on page 289.
Broken pieces of bread not suitable for zwieback, crusts, and trimmings
of the loaf make excellent _croutons_, a most palatable accompaniment
for soups, gruels, hot milk, etc. To prepare the _croutons_ cut the
fragments as nearly uniform in size as possible,--half-inch cubes are
convenient,--and place them on tins in a warming oven to dry. Let them
become crisply dry, and lightly browned, but not scorched. They are
preferable to crackers for use in soups, and require so little work to
prepare, and are so economical withal, that one who has once tried them
will be likely to keep a supply on hand. The crumbs and still smaller
fragments may be utilized for thickening soups and for various dressings
and puddings, recipes for many of which are given in preceding chapters.
If crumbs and small bits of bread accumulate more rapidly than they can
be used, they may be carefully dried, not browned, in a warming oven,
after which put them in a mortar and pound them, or spread them upon an
old bread board, fold in a clean cloth and roll them with a rolling pin
until fine. Prepared thus, stored in glass fruit cans and put away in a
dry place, they will keep almost indefinitely, and can be used when
needed. For preparing escalloped vegetables of all kinds, these prepared
crumbs are excellent; they give a fine, nutty flavor to the dish, which
fresh crumbs do not possess.
LEFT-OVER GRAINS.--Left-over grains, if well kept, may be reheated
in a double boiler without the addition of water, so as to be quite as
palatable as when freshly cooked. Small quantities of left-over grains
can be utilized for preparing various kinds of desserts, where the
ingredients require previous cooking. Rice, barley, pearl wheat, and
other whole grains can be satisfactorily used in soups in which a whole
grain is required; oatmeal, rolled oats, corn meal, grits, etc., with
the addition of a little milk and cream, may be made into delicious
gruels; they may also be used advantageously in the preparation of
vegetable soups, many of which are even improved by the addition of a
few spoonfuls of well-kept cooked oatmeal or rolled oats. The left-over
grains may also be utilized in a variety of breads, directions for the
preparation of which are given in the chapter on Bread.
LEFT-OVER VEGETABLES.--Left-over portions of most varieties of
vegetables can be best utilized for soups as stated on page 275. Cold
mashed potato may be made into potato cakes as directed on page 237 of
the chapter on Vegetables, where will also be found many other recipes,
suited to the use of these left-over foods.
LEFT-OVER MEATS.--Most cook books offer numerous recipes for
croquettes, hashes, and fried dishes prepared from remnants of meat and
fish, which, although they serve the purpose of using up the fragments,
are not truly economical, because they are generally far from wholesome.
Most fragments of this character are more digestible served cold as a
relish, or utilized for soups and stews, than compounded into fancy
dishes requiring to be fried and highly seasoned or served with rich
sauces.
LEFT-OVER MILK.--Small quantities of unsterilized milk or cream
left over should always be carefully scalded, then cooled at once to a
temperature of 60,° and put in a cool place, in order to keep it sweet
and fresh until the next meal.
TABLE TOPICS.
"Care preserves what Industry gains. He who attends to his business
diligently, but _not_ carefully, throws away with one hand what he
gathers with the other."--_Colton._
"What does cookery mean?"
It means the knowledge of all fruits and herbs and balms and
spices--it means carefulness, and inventiveness, and watchfulness,
and willingness, and readiness of appliance. It means the economy of
your great grandmothers and the science of modern chemists,--it
means much tasting and no wasting.--_Ruskin._
A penny saved is two pence clear
A pin a day's a groat a year.
--_Franklin._
Bad cooking is waste--waste of money and loss of comfort. Whom God
has joined in matrimony, ill-cooked joints and ill-boiled potatoes
have very often put asunder.--_Smiles._
Never sacrifice the more precious things--time, health, temper,
strength--in attempting to save the less precious--money.
--_Sel._
Learn by how little life may be sustained and how much nature
requires. The gifts of Cerea and water are sufficient nourishment
for all peoples.--_Pharsalia._
THE ART OF DINING
Human nature is so susceptible to externals, while good digestion is so
dependent upon interior conditions, that all the accessories of pleasant
surroundings--neatness, cheeriness, and good breeding--should be brought
into requisition for the daily gathering of the family at mealtime. The
dining room should be one of the airiest, choicest rooms in the house,
with a pleasant outlook, and, if possible, with east windows, that the
morning sun may gladden the breakfast hour with its cheering rays. Let
plants, flowers, birds, and pictures have a place in its appointments,
that the association with things bright and beautiful may help to set
the keynote of our own lives in cheerful accord. A dark, gloomy,
ill-ventilated room brings depression of spirits, and will make the most
elaborate meal unsatisfactory; while the plainest meal may seem almost a
feast when served amid attractive surroundings. Neatness is an important
essential; any home, however humble, may possess cleanliness and order,
and without these, all charms of wealth and art are of little account.
A thorough airing each morning and opening of the windows a few minutes
after each meal to remove the odor of food, are important items in the
care of the dining room. The furnishing may be simple and
inexpensive,--beauty in a home is not dependent upon expense,--but let
it be substantial, tasteful, harmonious in color and soft in tone,
nothing gaudy or showy. Use no heavy draperies, and have no excess of
ornament and bric-a-brac to catch dust and germs. A hard-finished wood
floor is far superior to a carpet in point of healthfulness, and quite
as economical and easy to keep clean. The general furnishing of the
room, besides the dining table and chairs, should include a sideboard,
upon which may be arranged the plate and glassware, with drawers for
cutlery and table linen; also a side-table for extra dishes needed
during the service of a meal.