He ought not to have meat until he has several teeth to chew it with. If he has most of his teeth—which he very likely, at this age, will have—there is no objection to his taking a small slice either of mutton or occasionally of roast beef, which should be well cut into very small pieces, and mixed with a mealy, _mashed_ potato, and a few crumbs of bread and gravy, either _every_ day, if he be delicate, or every _other_ day, if he be a gross or a fast-feeding child. It may be well, in the generality of cases, for the first few months to give him meat _every other_ day, and either potato and gravy, or rice or suet-pudding or batter pudding on the alternate days; indeed, I think so highly of rice, of suet, and of batter puddings, and of other farinaceous puddings, that I should advise you to let him have either the one or the other, even on those days that he has meat—giving it him _after_ his meat. But remember, if he have meat _and_ pudding, the meat ought to be given sparingly. If he be gorged with food, it makes him irritable, cross, and stupid; at one time, clogging up the bowels and producing constipation; at another, disordering the liver, and causing either clay-colored stools, denoting a _deficiency_ of bile, or dark and offensive motions, telling of _vitiated_ bile; while, in a third case, cramming him with food might bring on convulsions. 137. _As you are so partial to puddings for a child, which do you consider the best for him?_ He ought, every day, to have a pudding for his dinner—either rice, arrow-root, sago, tapioca, suet-pudding, batter-pudding, or Yorkshire-pudding, mixed with crumbs of bread and gravy—free from grease. A well-boiled suet-pudding, with plenty of suet in it, is one of the best puddings he can have; it is, in point of fact, meat and farinaceous food combined, and is equal to and will oftentimes prevent the giving of cod-liver oil. Before cod-liver oil came into vogue, suet boiled in milk was _the_ remedy for a delicate child; he may, occasionally, have fruit-pudding, provided the pastry be both plain and light.