The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and MotherNapheys, George H. (George Henry)
Science
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother
Napheys, George H. (George Henry)
Women -- Health and hygiene
It will be observed that this dietetic table calls for five meals a day.
Should the child eat so frequently? We answer yes. But the meals should
be at regular intervals. A child, in order to replace the waste of the
system, and to furnish over and above sufficient material to build up
the growing body, requires a much larger proportionate amount of food
than an adult. It also requires its food at shorter intervals. By
observing the hours for meals stated above, _regularity_, which is of so
much importance to the health of the digestive organs, will be secured.
If a young child be allowed only the three ordinary meals of the family,
it will crave for something between times, and too often have its
craving met with a piece of cake or other improper food. Its appetite
for dinner or supper will in this manner be destroyed, and the stomach
and the general health suffer.
After the third or fourth year children are able to eat all kinds of
vegetables. They may then very appropriately be allowed to eat at the
table with the family. It is only necessary to refuse them very salt,
sour, and highly-spiced victuals. Of all others they may partake in
moderation. Neither wine nor any malt liquor should be given them. Tea
and coffee are also, to say the least, unnecessary. They should have a
regular luncheon between the meals which are furthest apart. This must
be at a regular hour, and consist of bread and butter, with milk or
water.
Pains should be taken to see that children do not fall into the habit
of eating rapidly. Too often this pernicious habit, so destructive to
healthy digestion, is formed in early life, and becomes the source of
that dyspepsia which is the bane of so many lives. Food that is gulped
down enters the stomach unmasticated, and unmixed with the secretions of
the mouth. A dog may bolt his food without injury, but a human being
cannot.
A child should be taught to eat everything that is wholesome, and not be
permitted to become finical or fastidious in its appetite. It ought not,
however, to be forced to eat any particular article for which it is
found that there is an invincible dislike. Variety of diet is good for a
child, after the second or third year.
THE POSITION OF THE CHILD WHEN FED.
An infant, no matter how young, should not receive its meals when lying.
Its head should always be raised in the nurse's arm, if it be too young
to support it itself. The practice of _jolting_ and _dandling_ the
infant after eating is a wrong one. Rest of the body should be secured
by placing the child on a bed, or holding it on the mother's knee, for a
half hour or so. Observe the inclination which all animals show for
repose and sleep after a full repast, and respect the same inclination
in the infant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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