The child must build muscle, bone, and sinew, and more protein is required as soon as he begins to walk. Milk, eggs, and cereals will furnish this. The heavier protein diet is best given at eighteen months to two years, in eggs, cooked soft. An egg may be given every other day, soft boiled for about two minutes, or coddled for four minutes. At the age of two years an egg may be given every day. These soft-cooked eggs are best when mixed with broken dry toast or broken whole wheat or Graham crackers, because if dry food is served with them they will be better masticated, hence more saliva be mixed with them. The habit of thorough mastication should be cultivated at this period. Oatmeal, thoroughly cooked, and shredded wheat, with cream and sugar, ripe fruit, bread and butter, milk, soft-cooked eggs (poached or boiled), constitute a rational diet at this age. Bread is better broken in milk because the chewing movements mix the saliva with the milk and smaller curds are formed as the milk enters the stomach. Custard may after two years be added to the diet, also baked or mashed potato, plain boiled macaroni, also a little butter on the potato, toast, or bread. Also after the age of eighteen months, a small quantity of very lean meat, like scraped or chopped beef or lamb, or finely minced chicken, may be given once a day. Also well-cooked and mashed vegetables like peas, spinach, carrots, and asparagus tips. For the first few months these should be strained. Some fruit should also be given each day, orange juice, apple sauce, or the pulp of stewed prunes; the latter especially is valuable when the bowels are inclined to be constipated. Tea, coffee, and cocoa are absolutely objectionable, and before the age of two years no kind of candy should be given. One of the most important things to teach the child, when it is taking foods other than milk, is thorough mastication, not only to assist the proper growth of the teeth, but to prevent the digestive disturbances that invariably occur from the bolting of food, and children are especially liable to do this. Dry toast and zwieback compel mastication and strengthen the gums. These should be given in the hand, a piece at mealtime and occasionally between meals, if the child seems hungry. The child will then gradually get into the habit of chewing other solid foods when they are given. If the child is hungry between meals, he should be fed at a regular period, midway between breakfast and luncheon and between luncheon and the evening meal. The food should be dry (toast or a dry cracker) to induce thorough and slow mastication.