American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-05-07
Shall Children Eat Between Meals!

There comes time in the household
when the head thereof must decide the
momentous question as to whether the
children shall be allowed to eat be-
tween meals or not. The question can
be decided; no matter how persistent a
child may be, this can be settled. not
simply be laid on the table. A woman
who has even a very superficial knowl-
edge of the working of the stomach
can explain it to her child in such a
way that it will make strong i'm
preston upon his mind. To represent
to an imaginative child that the stom-
ach is like man who when you have
eaten your breakfast goes to work upon
that with all his might. and who does
not rest till he has ground the food up,
and given the good part to the blood,
so feeding each portion of the body, not
forgetting fingers and toes even, and
who rejects all the bad, keeping you
from sickness and pain, will awaken
intense interest in the child's mind
and be a great aid to obedience.
Put it before him. and ask him if it is
not unkind and even cruel to give out
another task before the first finished,
and little time for rest been given.
1t will help you greatly in enforcing it
upon his mind that he must not eat
at irregular intervals. A child's
digestive organs may be weak; he
may need to eat more frequently
than a grown person, but it
should invariably be at some stated
time. When an early breakfast has
been eaten and children have long
walk to school they may be allowed to
have simple lunch TO eat at the recess,
which usually occurs long enough be-
A. Il L .. 81,
gestion. A piece of bread and butter
and an apple, or little basket of
berries, or one or two figs and some
fresh crisp crackers make a wholesome
lunch. 1t will be eaten with great
relish if the children do not know Just
what is in the little basket and hidden
by the neat napkin, and they will open
it with feeling of pleased wonder as
to what mamma has given them to day.
While calling on a lady once, her little
daughter of eight or nine years old, an
extremely unhealthy looking child. with
the dull eyes and muddy complexion
that tell SO plainly of Indigestion, came
into the room and whispered to her
mother that she was hungry. "Go
right to the cake jar, love, and help
yourself" AS she turned away, and
while still within hearing her mother
said: t'She is such a delicate child-is |
never well in fact-that can refuse her |
nothing" 1 thought-perhaps in
humanly-that it is a pity such child |
should live to become burden to her.
self and to those around her, or to |
the false ideas, or the |
entire lack of ideas, exhibited in her
training. This is the subject upon |
which feel strongly, for l have the |
host intereStS of childhood at hart and
the amount of ignorance displayed by |
those who have the charge of children
is something which partakes of the ma
ture of c-ime--for it is inexcusable.
1t is terrible to think that a woman who
knows no more OF the human body than
she does of the composition of the sun
has it in her power to ruin the digestive
organs of whole family of children! l
wish that public opinion might reach
5he state that when woman who starts
put with n healthy baby, and who in a
lew years as a result of her care has a
,ickly, diseased child, she might be re-
yarded as an object of shame, and not
DC allowed to sit down in satisfied ig-
and put her conclusions against
hose of men and women who have
studied these subjects and who are au-
hority upon them. There are many
mothers who conscientiously use their
eason in the management of their chill
lren, who avail themselves of all the
lelps within their reach, and who en-
leavor to understand and minister to
he real needs of both body and mind,
tut countless number are no more
prepared to deal with the serious prob
en- As to how our children ought to be
ed than the little ones themselves. -
IOr NJ Y Posi-.