The nursery should be well lighted and ventilated, and if possible be located on the southeast side of the house. The windows should be broad and not too low. The wall-paper should be a cheerful green or blue with designs of lighter shades, and the rug of brown or tan color. Avoid all bric-a-brac, useless curtains, and other hangings which tend to darken the room, gather dust and absorb odors. The furniture should be adapted to the size and needs of the child. During the first four years the meals are best served in the nursery, or at a time when the parents are not at the table. It avoids much unnecessary excitement and temptation, and if the child is under the constant care of the mother it will give her relief during these hours. All children between the ages of four and ten should have their evening meals served alone, or else be so well trained as not to expect to eat the same food as the adults.
In preparing modified milk or other fluid foods for infants, where top milk is used, it is very important that the milk contain the same amount of cream for each feeding, or else digestive disturbance and irregularity of bowel movements will occur.
If milk, fresh from the cow and run through the cooler, is put into bottles or jars and kept at the same temperature, the same percentage of top-milk will be obtained daily. Five hours is generally sufficient to obtain the desired quality. The best means of removing it is by a spoon or siphon.
If raw milk is used without being sterilized, the desired amount for each meal should be put into sterile bottles directly after delivery and lightly covered by cheese-cloth or cotton and kept on ice or other cold place. In this way each bottle will contain the same amount of cream.
Put the desired amount of top-milk into as many bottles as are required for feeding during twelve hours. Prepare a solution of water and milk-sugar by dissolving the sugar with the desired amount of boiling water. Let cool and keep on ice for twenty-four hours. At each feeding, add the prescribed amount of water to the milk, shake and heat in a water bath. Add a tablespoonful of lime water or barley water. If the milk cannot be obtained fresh twice per day, it is safer to scald the milk which is used during the night.
All milk, even if handled carefully, contains a large number of germs. When one is not certain that the cows from which the milk is obtained are healthy, the milk should be sterilized. During the summer it is safer to scald or sterilize all milk for infants.
Dissolve the desired amount of milk sugar in boiling water in a clean saucepan, add the milk, stir over a quick fire until it foams, which means that the milk is heated to about 200° F. The most harmful germs are generally destroyed by this process. Pour the milk into a clean pitcher and set the latter in a pan of cold water. Stir the milk until cold and change the water several times. The stirring makes the milk homogeneous and easier to digest. If any scum has formed on top, through careless preparation, the milk should be strained through a cheese-cloth before putting it into bottles. Put a cotton stopper in the bottles and set on ice. Milk prepared in this manner is generally suitable for the average healthy infant.
Dissolve the milk sugar as directed for scalding milk. Add the desired amount of milk, top-milk or cream, and prepare as directed in the chapter under “Sterilized Milk.”
Put the desired amount of milk or milk and cream mixture into sterile bottles, put on a stopper and set in a water bath; heat the water to 155° or 170° F., and keep it at that temperature for 30 minutes. Then remove the bottles at once, cool them in a pan of cold water and set on ice.
Put the desired amount of milk, or modified milk, into a clean saucepan, stir over a hot fire and boil from 2 to 5 minutes. Then cool by setting the pitcher into a pan of cold water; stir until cold and set on ice. This is excellent for infants as well as for the sick who suffer with diarrhœa. The milk may be modified with arrow-root, barley water or rice flour gruel, which has been boiled with salt and water and a stick of cinnamon. Milk-sugar should be boiled with the gruels, two level tablespoonsful to a pint of boiling water.
Prepare as directed on label or use like the foregoing in place of arrow-root.
1st month—4 ounces of cream, no milk, 12 ounces of water, 3 tablespoonsful of milk-sugar.
2nd month—4 ounces of cream, 2 ounces of milk, 12 ounces of water, 3 tablespoonsful of milk-sugar.
3rd month—4 ounces of cream, 4 ounces of milk, 12 ounces of water, 3 tablespoonsful of milk-sugar.
4th month—4 ounces of cream, 8 ounces of milk, 12 ounces of water, 3 tablespoonsful of milk-sugar.
5th month—4 ounces of cream, 12 ounces of milk, 12 ounces of water, 3 tablespoonsful of milk-sugar.
6th month—no cream, 16 ounces of milk, 8 ounces of water, 2 tablespoonsful of milk-sugar.
Put the desired amount into a saucepan and scald, as directed under “Scalding Milk,” or put into bottles and pasteurize or sterilize.
If the bowels of an infant are too loose, lessen the amount of cream, and add more milk in place of it. If the child is constipated, add more cream and use less milk. If it disagrees, add oatmeal, rice, rye, barley or legume water. For preparation, see “Teas,” in Chapter on Fluids. Use one-half the amount of water, as directed above, add the other half in the form of tea. Prepare the tea separately, and add the desired amount to each bottle when heating. Camomile tea is often beneficial for a few days. It can be added in the same manner as other teas, or given without sugar or cream, when colic appears. The latter way is preferable to too much hot water, when the infant is suffering with colic.
Mixture of Cream, Milk, Water, Milk-Sugar, Rice Flour and Pearl Barley—(Condensed Milk, if Required).
Dissolve two tablespoonsful of rice flour in a little cold water, stir into twelve ounces of boiling water, add one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, and boil for 20 minutes. Pour into a pitcher and keep on ice for 24 hours. Use.
Soak one-fourth of a cup of pearl barley for several hours, or over night. Boil with a quart of water and a little salt for one and one-half hours. This will make about ten ounces of barley water when strained. Keep the barley water and rice flour gruel in separate pitchers. If an additional amount of condensed milk is found more agreeable, add one tablespoonful of Eagle Brand Condensed Milk to the barley water in place of milk-sugar, before straining it.
Prepare the milk as follows: Dissolve two tablespoonsful of milk-sugar in ten ounces of boiling water, add four ounces of cream and four of milk, stir the milk and water in a saucepan over a quick fire until it foams, and pour into eight clean warm bottles which have been set in a kettle of hot water. Put cotton stoppers in the bottles, and pour enough water into the kettle so that it is even with the milk in the bottles. Let it stand on a hot stove and keep the water at the temperature of 170° to 200° F. for half an hour. Then set the kettle on the floor and when the water is cold, remove the bottles and put them on ice. At each feeding, add one ounce of the prepared barley water, and a tablespoonful of rice flour gruel to the bottle; shake well, and heat by setting the bottle in warm water. This will make about 28 ounces of food for 24 hours, or 3¹⁄₂ ounces per bottle for eight feedings during 24 hours. This quantity is required for the average child during the second month. Ten feedings are generally required during the first month.
During the first week of the infant’s life use 5 ounces of cream, 5 ounces of water, 8 ounces of rice and barley water, and no milk. This makes 18 ounces of food for 24 hours, or about 2¹⁄₂ ounces per bottle for ten feedings during 24 hours. If a larger quantity is desired during the first month, add 2¹⁄₂ ounces of water and 2 ounces of milk to the cream mixture, then gradually change to the proportion given in above formulas. As the child grows older, increase the amount of milk to 12 or 15 ounces until the age of ten months. After that age 42 ounces of food is required during 24 hours, and the child is generally able to begin with semi-liquid or solid food. The rice flour alone, or any other cereal gruel or water may be used in place of barley and rice, but the latter is found especially beneficial for delicate infants with whom plain modified milk disagrees.
It is often desirable to change the cereal occasionally. Use oats, rye and barley during the winter and the lighter cereals during the summer. Other suitable foods for the infant are bran or rye tea with or without milk or cream, and broths from veal or mutton with the yolk of an egg (10 ounces of broth to one yolk). Strained steel cut oats and bran are excellent for a while where milk or cream are found to disagree.
During the period from the tenth to the fifteenth month the healthy infant requires an addition of solid food. The appearance of the teeth indicate when it should begin. The change must be made gradually from liquid to semi-liquid and finally to solid food. The middle of the day is the best time to begin with the change of food. Lean meat is not a necessary food for children, therefore it is mentioned only occasionally for those who think their children must have it. On, the other hand, legumes are a very important food for young children, and their use should begin during the second year. They are easily digested if prepared in the form of soups and purees, and combined as directed in the different menus. They should not be given at night.
During this period the infant should sleep three times during the day: From 8 to 10 a. m., from 1 to 3 p. m., and from 6 to 8 p. m. If the child should not awaken for the last feeding and sleep until 4 or 5 a. m., give the feeding at 4 a. m. instead of between 8 and 10 p. m. If it should be in the habit of awakening during the middle of the night, change the habit by awakening it at 10 p. m. Reduce the quantity of milk given at this time gradually to 3 or 4 ounces, and finally replace it by water.
If the child should sleep from 6 p. m. to 6 a. m. without awakening, it does not require the extra feeding; four meals are sufficient.
Some children require five meals until they are two years old. With intelligent study and simple regularity the mother can make her work very easy. She can transform delicate children into strong, vigorous ones, avoid disease and many unnecessary doctor bills.
Do not begin the habit of stuffing the child with bread and crackers every time it cries. If it desires something to bite upon give it a teething-ring. Give the child as many meals as it requires, but avoid feeding between meals. Give it cold or slightly warmed water between meals. Do not force the child to drink water. If fed correctly it will call for the necessary amount of water. If a child is too heavy in weight for its age, reduce the amount of milk. Give it strained oatmeal, bran and barley gruels, with butter or cream. Some children require three pints of milk during 24 hours, between the tenth and fifteenth months, while others are satisfied with one and one-half pints of milk and four to six ounces of cream. If broths or other nutritious liquids are substituted for milk, the amount of milk required for the day would be less than that mentioned above. Never force the child to eat food; when it awakens in the morning it generally requires food immediately. When it awakens for its dinner, let it play for a while until it calls for food. If it refuses food, leave out a meal once in a while, or reduce the number of meals to suit the appetite.
Between 6 and 8 a. m.—Plain or diluted milk.
Between 10 and 12 a. m.—Flaked rice gruel with sterilized cream.
Between 2 and 3 p. m.—Ten to twelve ounces of plain or diluted milk.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—One cup of broth with egg, one-half slice of toast with butter.
Between 8 and 10 p. m.—Ten to twelve ounces of plain or diluted milk.
Between 6 and 8 a. m.—Gruel of steel cut oats with one-half part of sterilized cream.
Between 10 and 12 a. m.—Bread gruel with butter or cream.
Between 2 and 3 p. m.—Ten to twelve ounces of plain or diluted milk.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—Sago gruel with zwieback and butter (prepared with unfermented beer).
Between 8 and 10 p. m.—Ten to twelve ounces of plain or diluted milk.
Between 6 and 8 a. m.—Strained barley gruel with sterilized milk.
Between 10 and 12 a. m.—Prune toast with beachnut bacon. Between 2 and 3 p. m.—Plain or diluted milk.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—Sago gruel with cream and crackers or zwieback.
Between 8 and 10 p. m.—Plain or diluted milk.
1. Cream toast.
2. Barley and bread gruel.
3. Bran and oatmeal gruel.
4. Cream of tomato soup with crackers.
5. Toast with creamed chipped beef.
6. Baked oats with prune jam and beachnut bacon.
7. Baked cornmeal with egg and cranberry sauce.
8. Light egg toast.
9. Soft boiled egg and toast.
Between 7 and 8 a. m.—Strained steel cut oats with sterilized cream.
Between 11 and 12 a. m.—Ten to twelve ounces of plain or diluted milk.
Between 1:30 and 2:3O p. m.—Light rice with sterilized cream and crackers.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—A cup of unfermented beer and toast with butter.
Between 8 and 9 p. m.—Ten to twelve ounces of plain or sterilized milk.
Between 7 and 8 a. m.—Cream of wheat with sterilized cream.
Between 11 and 12 a. m.—Broth with egg, and toast with butter.
Between 1:30 and 2:30 p. m.—Juice of one-half an orange, black bread pudding, celery.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—A cup of plain milk and two graham crackers.
Between 8 and 9 p. m.—Ten to twelve ounces of milk, plain or diluted, with rice or barley water.
Between 7 and 8 a. m.—Cornmeal mush with cream.
Between 11 and 12 a. m.—A cup of unfermented beer with zwieback and butter.
Between 1:30 and 2:30 p. m.—Three to five strawberries, one to one and one-half egg with toast and cereal.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—A cup of plain milk with zwieback and calves’ foot jelly.
Between 8 and 9 p. m.—Ten to twelve ounces of milk.
Between 7 and 8 a. m.—Bread soup with cream or butter.
Between 11 and 12 a. m.—Plain milk with unsweetened graham crackers.
Between 1:30 and 2:30 p. m.—Strained bean soup with buttered toast.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—A cup of milk with crackers, or cream of tomato soup.
Between 8 and 9 p. m.—Plain or diluted milk per bottle.
Between 7 and 8 a. m.—Rylax with sterilized cream.
Between 10 and 12 a. m.—Plain milk and crackers.
Between 1:30 and 2:30 p. m.—One-third to one-half cup of raspberries, eggs with toast and butter.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—Plain milk and crackers.
Between 8 and 9 p. m.—Plain or diluted milk.
Between 7 and 8 a. m.—Turoena with cream and black crusts.
Between 10 and 12 a. m.—Plain milk and crackers.
Between 1:30 and 2:30 p. m.—Pea puree on toast, celery.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—Plain milk and crackers, or tomato soup with cream.
Between 8 and 9 p. m.—Plain or diluted milk.
Between 7 and 8 a. m.—Black cream toast or shredded wheat with cream. Between 10 and 12 a. m.—Plain milk or broth and crackers.
Bet’n 1:30 and 2:30 p. m.—Light rice pudding, three ounces of strained tomato juice.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—Unfermented beer, stale bread and butter.
Between 8 and 9 p. m.—Plain or diluted milk.
Between 7 and 8 a. m.—Rice with sterilized cream or butter and egg.
Between 10 and 12 a. m.—Plain milk with crackers.
Bet’n 1:30 and 2:30 p. m.—Two leaves of lettuce, one carrot, one tablespoon of bean puree on toast.
Between 5 and 6 p. m.—Cream of tomato soup with zwieback.
Between 8 and 9 p. m.—Plain or diluted milk.
1. One-half orange, one or two ounces of boiled fish, one-half of an apple, one to two tablespoons of raw rylax.
2. One-half of an apple, one or two eggs, one to two tablespoons of raw rylax.
3. Cereal salad with carrots and fish.
4. Legume soup, butter and bread, raw carrots.
5. Well boiled macaroni, one to two tablespoons of cold grated cheese.
6. Light rice with cold grated Swiss cheese.
7. Cereal salad with apple and eggs.
8. Lettuce, baked potatoes, beachnut bacon and one egg.
9. Mashed carrots, two tablespoons of young green peas, bacon, toast with butter.
10. String beans with stale bread and butter, bacon and egg.
11. Finely chopped spinach, bacon, egg, stale bread, butter.
12. Three to five cherries, light omelet.
13. Cereal salad with chopped apples, two to three tablespoons of cottage cheese.
14. Baked oats with prunes or cranberry sauce and bacon.
15. Whole wheat with sterilized cream and celery.
16. Peach and cereal salad, beachnut bacon and one egg.
1. Rice with egg and clear soup.
2. Gruels prepared with milk, cream, bran, bread, egg or soup stock.
3. Plain milk with stale bread or zwieback.
4. Huckleberry or cherry soup with whites of egg, and zwieback with butter.
5. Cream of tomato or thin pea soup with celery or zwieback.
6. Vegetable soups of asparagus or of strained canned corn.
7. Rice flour with egg, currants and cream.
8. Chocolate cornstarch with cream and black crusts.
9. Apple-sago or cornstarch with egg and cream, and zwieback.
10. Calves’ foot jelly with tomato, zwieback with milk.
11. Cook’s flaked rice gruel with cream and cracker.
12. Boiled custard with fruit sauce and black crusts.
13. Potato soup with cream and black crusts.
14. Clam broth with cream and zwieback, or with Grant’s crackers.
15. Melon with lemon, finely chopped chipped beef on toast.
16. Poached eggs on toast.
17. Fruit or vegetable soups with cream or egg.
18. Milk soups or milk gruels with black crusts.
19. Beer soups with egg or cream and zwieback.
20. Fruit toast with rich milk.
21. Broth with egg triscuit or zwieback with butter.
22. Red fruit pudding with cream and zwieback.
23. Baked apples in gelatine with cream and zwieback, or with Grant’s crackers.
24. Thin legume soups with cream or butter.
Some children are able to digest all the above mentioned foods before they are three years old; others are not. Certain foods are agreeable to certain temperaments and disagreeable to others. No exact rules can be laid down. Reason and judgment must guide the mother in the selection of foods as well as in other details.
Unleavened crackers, raw cereal flakes and stale sundried pompernickle or whole wheat bread are the best dry cereal foods for children. If cooked cereals are served, crackers and wheat bread are not necessary at the same meal. A few black crusts or raw vegetables combine better with cooked cereals.
Soda crackers or thoroughly toasted unsweetened zwieback may be given occasionally for the evening meal in combination with sago, fruit gruels or jellies.
Do not feed a child fresh breads and cakes which contain soda, yeast or baking powder.
A child over three years of age may eat occasionally unleavened fruit cake, pancakes and fruit tarts which are prepared with eggs.
Never allow a child to eat ice-cream at the end of a heavy meal. Serve it at the beginning of the meal or during the afternoon.
Four meals per day is generally the best plan for a child, as long as it sleeps during the day-time. If it is fed on plain, non-stimulating food it generally takes a nap up to the age of 4 or 5 years, and sometimes later, while a child that is fed upon meats, beef juices, meat soups and excess of starch and sweets often refuses to sleep during the day-time at the age of two.
Meats and sweets or excess of any kind of food irritate the sensitive nerves and produce restlessness and sleeplessness in the child, and much unnecessary work and sleepless nights of the mother. Any normal healthy child can be trained in the matter of eating, sleeping, evacuation of the bowels and in other details like clock-work, if the proper conditions are furnished.
At the end of the third year the child may begin to eat well baked beans, peas or lentils several times per week during the winter. They should be given at the noon meal, in combination with raw or finely mashed carrots, or with a tomato salad and raw greens. No more than two tablespoonsful should be given at one meal. Systematic training in chewing is absolutely necessary for a good digestion. If legume foods should cause gas on the stomach, they must be strained and given in the form of soups or purees. Walnuts may also be used. Give two or three at the end of the meal. For combination, see “Menus for Adults.” The amount of food should be increased gradually. At the age of 12 or 14, a child may eat nearly as much as an adult.
Moving picture shows, car and automobile rides require more nervous energy than strolling in the woods. Instead of supplying the system with plain nutritious foods, such as milk, nut preparations or wholesome sandwiches on such occasions, the excitable nerves are generally more stimulated by artificial foods: candies, cookies, sweet graham crackers, gums or by exhilarating (pure fruit?) lemonade or germ laden ice-cream.
Artificial lights and amusements of this kind, associated with nerve starvation, cause much eye trouble in children. Think of the amount of nervous and muscular energy expended during those hours in comparison with walks or other kind of natural amusements!
If the chewing of gum, candies and other fancies is permissible in cars and theatres, why not wholesome foods? A small satchel will hold an aluminum can with milk, a few napkins and other wholesome food products. If confectionery and ice-cream parlors and cheap restaurants were supplanted by hygienic food laboratories and pure water stands, saloons would soon be on the decrease.
The dyspeptic business men and women who have no time or power to digest a meal during the middle of the day are generally the victims of early habits acquired when at school.
We cannot try to change the fixed and immovable laws of nature without paying the penalty. Nature will keep us in order and control our machine, if we fulfill her laws. The sun is in sympathy with our digestive forces; therefore we should rest from labor during the middle of the day, so that the muscles of the stomach may be able to give all the circular movements, and others that are necessary, to thoroughly mix the food with the stomach juices for rapid digestion. Solid foods of the protein class, can only undergo perfect digestion if eaten in the middle of the day. They require many hours to digest, and in this way they are ready for oxidation and assimilation at night, when the air is cool. The body can rest, and the lungs and heart can work better when the stomach is emptied. While on the other hand, if the heaviest meal is taken at night, it is either too rapidly digested by physical force, or it is left half digested in the stomach over night. It congests the liver and kidneys, produces fermentation, robs lungs, heart and skin of their nerve force, and creates an abnormal appetite the next morning for an excess of energy-giving food, or it produces a languid feeling and loss of appetite. Such a system of living is responsible for the large number of acute and chronic diseases and consumption, while those who seemingly keep in good health under such conditions do surely shorten their life.
Perfect health and comfort are worth more than earthly possessions, and those who strive earnestly to possess and retain health will find a way to change their system of living. There is strength in union, and if a sufficient number of sensible people demanded different hours for school-children and for people who work indoors, it would be possible to obtain them.
During hot summer days or in the tropics the noon hour is not always the best for the heaviest meal of the day, but neither should it be spent for work. Two meals per day is the best plan on hot days. An individual who is always keyed up to the highest point during the middle of the day, and expends the best of his energy for work, cannot expect anything else but bankruptcy.
For people who desire two meals per day, the best time for breakfast is between nine and ten in the morning, and for dinner between three and four in the afternoon.
If three meals are taken, hard muscular workers, or those who are employed out of doors, do well to substitute for their dinner a substantial cold or warm lunch. If through lack of time and convenience a child cannot have its dinner before 4 p. m., it is better off without it. Remember that a cooked dinner consisting of meat, potatoes and vegetables is not at all necessary for the child’s welfare and development, and cooked vegetables should never be forced upon it if it prefers to eat them raw. Healthy children have keen instinct, and unless their appetite has become perverted by sweets and other artificial, unnatural foods, they are more likely to select the right kind of food than the average adult.
This book gives a large number of menus, consisting of raw foods, which can be quickly prepared when the child comes home from school. Nuts, fruits and raw vegetables form an ideal diet for the summer. Baked beans, peas and lentils warmed over, or jellied fish, egg foods, cheese or steamed puddings in combination with a warm soup or raw apples form a perfect meal during cold, winter days. If the dinner is eaten between the hours of 3:30 p. m. and 4:00 p. m., no more food is necessary. If it is served at noon, give milk or soup between 5 and 6 p. m. Children should take at least one-half an hour’s rest before eating, when coming home from school. The better way would be to allow children two hours for their noon meal or curtail the hours of school work from 9 a. m. to 1 or 2 p. m. Such is the custom in many European countries, and there is no reason why it could not be practiced here.
Children between the ages of eight and fourteen should retire between 7 and 8 p. m. If they get sufficient sleep and are properly fed, children’s diseases need not be feared.