The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-09-15
SPARE THE CHILDREN.
The Dangers Of Diet which the Little Ones
Meet-How They should and Should Not
H. .<I
From the Detroit Post. ]

Meet-HoW They Should and should Not
BE Fed.
From the Detroit Post.l
A foreigner travelling in this country
and observing the habit of examining
small children with eatables at all hours
of the day and night might imagine
them some species of human geese pre-
pairing 70, q pate de toi grds. But il is
us who are the geese and the children
the helpless victims. A Detroit mother
was observed on an excursion with two
dim-eyed. pallid babes. At the hour of
noon she produced a basket and gave to
each child piece of meat, some pickles,
"A large sweet cake and section of pie,
and remarked as she helped the small
est one, Il don't believe that child is
hungry. She has been eating steadily
ever since 10 o'clock" and then she
added emphatically, You'll be sick,
Miss see if you ANTI What that
child had eaten was enumerated as fol-
lows; One bag of peanuts, one paper
of candy, two peaches, two pears, three
cookies. 5 cents worth of plums, a
slice of bread and butter, and large
doughnut The passengers were
troubled at the capacity of the child,
fearing it would prove inadequate, but
they need not have been alarmed. 1t
ate az much more for its regular dinner
and drank water to an extent that was
simply phenomenal, and it did not have
fit or drop dead. or do anything but
look more sallow and pinched and
hungry, and at 3 o'clock in the after
noon it was leaning against its mother
complaining. L amt had bite to eat
since dinner, and I'm most starved
etc, etc.
Prof. Chandler, of New York, has
been approached on the subject of in
FAINT statistics, and the following Dialogue
gives his idea of what child's food
should be TO insure health:
What are the greatest desiderata In
taking care of children in the sum-
mer2"
PLENTY of fresh air-these river and
harbor excursions are splendid-early
hours and proper food
What is the best food for children ?"
Milk and cereals, bread, oatmeal,
cornmeal and cracked wheat are the
best food. Poor people often give their
children corned beef and cabbage when
they are only 2 or years old. That is
simply frightful."
Are not veal and pork almost equally
indigestible for children?'
They are very trying indeed, TO their
digestion beef, mutton and fowl are by
far more nutritious and easily digested."
How "a to fruit, green apples and
the ike?'
Frnit. If it is ripe, Is healthy, but
green apples are TO be avoided; they
often produce cholera infantum."
And our national, omnipresent pie,
Professor? 2"
THAT is the very worst of all. Pie
of any sort is bad because the crust Is
so indigestible, but mince pie and lemon
pie especially are diabolical'
And candy?'
Candy eaten in moderate quantities
is not bad if taken after meals. The
trouble about candy-eating by children
is that it generally takes away their APP
petites for wholesome, Strengthening
food. There is no stamina, of course,
in sugar; it is simply heating food,
and won't make brain or muscle.
1t is enough that the poor little things
must contend with all the diseases nat
ural to childhood without being sacri-
feed to the gross stupidity and selfish
ness of their parents. With oatmeal
and milk child can live and thrive I'M
til years old without tasting meat or
vegetables, much less indigestible pastry.
But there is another evil almost as fatal
to young children as the system of
examining with miscellaneous food 1t
is the nurse girl
This creation is q growth of the pres
ent century. She is pedestrian with
the listless day-come day-go step of a
member of the police force, and, like
him. she has regular beat round and
round the block and round and round
the park She feeds the baby on green
apples, in the interest of her lover, the
street-car driver, who meets her on his
off days; she inures the infant frame to
early hardships, such as sleeping in n
doubled-up position, or balancing on
the nape of it's neck while the sun shines
in It's face. If she is young-and she
has probably seen about sixteen slack
summers-she always has candy to sol
ace the child with while she tells her
beau that me and missus had fuss,
and if the mother is in the habit of us
ing soothing sirup she knows when to
give an extra dose; and she carries her
pocket full Of cakes and crackers on
which the young heir is nourished while
she entertains her friends The food,
the jolt-jolt of the carriage as it rumbles
up one block and down another. the
threatening looks of the nurse girl who
fascinates the little victim like siren,
eliminate in cholera infantum, and this
is all going on while the mother is do
ing fancy work in the cool, shaded par
lor, and telling her friends what treas
ure she has in that girl