Dogs and all animals which chew on bones have hard, strong teeth. Human beings who eat food that requires slow, persistent mastication, such as hard tack, tough meats, etc., develop strong and generally sound teeth; while the more civilized races and the privileged few who eat prepared foods or the most delicate and tender of meats, sauces, etc., are the dentist’s best-paying patients. If the mother puts this theory into practice and gives her child’s teeth work to do, she will help harden the teeth and prevent their decay. Especially after the fourteenth month, the diet must include broths made from meat, eggs, vegetables and fruits, plenty of starch and fats, with little sweets. Candy is especially bad for the teeth. Bread toasted in the oven, zwieback, and hard crackers should partially supplant cereals and mush. When the child is old enough to be fed meat, either chicken, lamb chop, or beefsteak broiled, may be scraped or minced away from the bone, and then the bone itself be given to the child to “pick.” The little teeth will thus have fine exercise. The habit of swallowing solid food whole, gulping it down with water or milk, is dangerous to the teeth as well as to the stomach. If the child shows a tendency to do this, do not serve liquid food and solid food at the same time. Teach the baby by example to eat slowly and masticate each bite thoroughly. If the first teeth are discolored and irregular, or if they decay early, have a dentist look them over. It may be necessary to treat them and have them filled long before time for the second set to appear. If decayed first teeth are permitted to remain in the jaw, or if they are drawn too soon, the second teeth will be unhealthy or irregular in shape and position. Weaning is a process which frequently accompanies the first period of dentition—by which I mean the last three months of baby’s first year, during which time he will probably cut six teeth. The combination of teething and weaning, however, is not so fearsome as it sounds—provided, of course, that the baby has been properly nourished and is developing along normal lines. Most of us can look back to the day when weaning the family baby was almost a domestic tragedy. The mother, more through fear than sentiment, wept and declared that, once her child did not nurse from the breast, life would never be quite the same! The baby would grow away from her! The entire family watched the process in awe, wondering whether baby would survive the sudden change of diet.