The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-08-28
Food for Children.

little thlngP echoed female friend VINO sat
near So piece of pound cake and of rich
pastry was provided for the dainty little
thing" of which she made her dinner. This
was at an open-air picnic, or camp-meeting
rather, where everybody has, or ought. to have,
a wholesome and sharp appetite, both tor spir-
4 itual and physical aliment. An hour after this
occurrence, as we sat under the sermon, a brisk
cracking in the rear caused us to look behind
for moment, and there sat the dainty little
thing devouring candy at a rate that would
give dyspepsia to an ostrich, and we wondered
if that mother did really possess good common
sense. When o child has no appetite for plain,
wholesome food, something is wrong in the
brain of the mother. Why, look at the facts of
the case. For the first six or eight years of q
child's life it does nothing but sleep, eat, play
and grow. The very law of growth and assimila.
tion gives it sharp craving for alimenr, and
the craving is fed by sound sleep and by con-
slant activity; unless its digestive organs have
been tampered with by weak and injudicious
hands, there will nothing all its appetite. Just
here is the difficulty. To secure a brief respite
candy or cake or pastry is put into the hands of
fed with nothing else. 1t may be that the
foundation of this longing for sweets has been
laid in infancy by mixing that abomination,
soothing syrup, with the baby's milk, as is
sometimes done by ignorant mothers so that
the child's digestive organs have been be-
witched from its earliest infancy, and it never
knew the bite of normal hunger, or the salts.
| faction of "good square meal" One can tell
such children by a glance at their teeth, as
| quickly as Jockey can tell the age Of horse by
| its teeth. 4 shining row of unsustained pearls
in a Juvenile mouth is quick witness of whole
some and regular food, Of early and long sleep,
Of sound and easy digestion, and every child
ought to have just such an ivory mill.
! The growing food is milk this with yegeta-
bles, fruit, bread, and mush of the various
grains should constitute the principal portion
of child's nutriment. Many parents, we think
unwisely, allow their children abundance of
meat. Thi, makes the child restless and i'm
patient of control; it has, in fact, the same ef-
| feet on children that corn has on young ami
mails. 1t makes them chafe to fro within their
narrow bounds just as bears and tigers do in
their iron cages. Graminivorous animals, the
horse, the COW, the sheep, are mild aud docile,
| while the carnivora are fierce, agile, and lean.
| Children who live on bread and milk and vege.
tables will, as general rule, be more amiable,
more obedient and fuller in flesh than those
who eat large quantities of meat. Regularity
in feeding children is of great importance. A
child may form habit of eating six or eight
times day, or it may learn to satisfy it's appe-
| tite at the three regular meals. Ii these, how
ever, are more than five hours apart there
should be slight lunch between, long enough
before the succeeding meal not to take the edge
from the appetite. Sitting up late at night,
undue excitement, and activity just before re-
tiring, will get almost any child into a nervous
condition, and thus create morbid state of the
body which will cause the appetite to crave
unwholesome food. Early to bed is safe rule
for everybody, especially for the young, and if
they waken early, very well, but by all means
let them sleep their sleep out, Very rapid
growers and nervous children require more food
than those who attain their growth slowly and
are lymphatic In their temperament. 1t seems
to us almost cruel to waken growing child
out of sound sleep. AS many parents depend
| on the services their children are able to ren-
der. if the boys and girls must be up early in
the morning, they should be compelled to re-
tire betimes One reason why children claraor
| for cake and pie 80 much is doubtless. because
the bread to which they are accustomed is so
DOOR, 1t is tasteless, or sour, or stale, or heavy,
or something beside sweet light, and appeti-
| zing. We are sorry to believe that in the ma
iority of families the bread is, as rule, infe-
rior in quality, and often positively bad. Those
mothers who will have on their tables the best
of bread will bear testimony that their children
do not clamor for cake or dainties. We may
profit by the example of royalty. The little
princes and princesses Of England and Germa-
nv, according to report, do not have cake, or
pie. or sweetmeats, or confectionery. except
now and then, in very small quantities. They.
have abundance of. plain, substantial food, not
much meat, plenty of fruit and vegetables, and
Il is notable fact that not a young child has
died in either of these royal families, nor has
there ever been severe illness in either of the
royal-nurseries. The secret OF this lies in the
fact that the children are raised in strict obe-
dience to the laws of life and health. They
are not pampered with luxuries, nor enfeebled
by indulgence, and, as natural consequence,
they are healthful apd happy.
When children "come down to the first prin-
cioles.n it is not difficult for them to eat suita
Bile food, and sleep during the hours of dark
ness. Cake, pie, candy, sweetmeats are not
food for children any more than coffee, tea,
pickles, pepper, horseradish, and tobacco. Be-
cause mother can afford to raise her child on
dainties is no reason why the child shouldn't
eat as regular diet of wheaton bread, oatmeal
mush, plain vegetables and fruits in its season.
Fed on unwholescme stuff, of course the appe-
tite fails, the child grows thin and pale, and
fretful. and the doctor is called in. A tonic is
prescribed, iron, or something, dose follows
dose, until the interior organs are chronically
deraneed, the teeth destroyed, and the child be-
comes permanently delicate creature" for
all which it is indebted to want of informa.
tion. common sense or frmness on the part of
its mother. This is plain talk, but it is true.
We shall need in the next generation, even
more than now, men and women of physical
and intellectual might and muscle. And we
shall have them. But they will not come from
luxurious nurseries, from groaning tables, from
pampered households. Our future Anakim are
running round out doors in calico and jeans;
they eat plain food; they are not kept too
clean; they are not afraid of sunshine or of
shower, of winter SHOWS or summer heats, tor
their parents protect their bottles against tae
inclemencies of the weather and inure them 10
exposure. With the birds they go to rest, and
with the birds awake. Thus living according
to natural laws, they are laying up a fund of
haalth and vitality from which to draw when