The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-02-01
Children's Diet,

A writer in CasselPs Magazine makes
the following sensible suggestion con.
corning the diet of children:
The diet of children can hardly be too
plain. If they require to be encouraged
to eat by the administration of dainties.
there must be something radically wrong
somewhere. It is unlikely that that
something is constitut ional, more prob
ably insufficient exercise is taken, or the
bedroom badly ventilated, or the par
ents have forgotten that sunshine and
fresh mir are as necessary to the healthy
life of child as wholesomefood itself Is.
The Hant of cleanliness, of frequent
use G! the bath, is many times the cause
of Indifferent appetites in children.
Without cleanliness of clothesand clean
inesssofpers9 %;t you cannot mo? have healthy
blood seems poisoned, the child has
neither buoyancy nor heart, appetite is
depraved or absent, and he grows up as
dicious clothing is another cause of dys-
pepsia. It is bad enough to encase the
body which has attained its full devel-
opment in q tight dress, but it is ruin
GUS for a child to be clothed in tightly
fitting garments. Every organ of q
child's body requires room to expand;
if it be in any way compressed the circu-
iation through it becomes lessened, and
it is therefore sicklied and rendered
weak. Nghtness, therefore, of any por-
ton of child's clothing ruins not only the
organ directly underneath the construc-
ton, but indirectly those at distance
from it, for no damming up of the circu-
lation can be tolerated by nature. Tight
ness round the waist in children and
young people is the cause of many cases
of dyspepsia, and in lesser degree so
is tightness of the neckerchief, by re-
tanning the blood in the brain. Have
your children's clothing loose, then, if
you would see them healthy and happy.
See, too, that at night they sleep not on
feather beds, and that though warmly
they are not heavily clothed. Children
oughtto be fed with great regularity day
by day. The parents, having chosen
the hour for dinner, breakfast, and tea
ought to SEQ that the times are strictly
adhered to.
Irregularity in meal hours and time of
getting up in the morning and retiring
to led at night is not only prejudicial to
the present health of child, but it
teaches him habits which are greatly
against his chances of success in after
life. Ineed hardly speak here about the
quality Of the food that is placed before
child; against indigestible or too rich
food, against sauces and spices Of all
kinds, including curries; against heavy
foods ofthe pancake, dough and dumping
kind; against unripe fruits, against
hot 0roSrok o. md
coffee or = beer, or against over
much butchers meat. Pray, mothers,
do not forget that an interval of rest
should eDsue between the meals you give
your children, and do not ruin their
young digestions by examining them with
cake, or buns, or sweets of any kind.
To do so is worse than cruel, it is sin,
and sin which you areibut little likely to
commit. if..you truly love them and really
wish to see them generate into strong
and healthy men and women.
Tarts and sweets and confectionery
would be bad enough in all conscience
for children; even if they were always
pure and unadulterated. But they are
too often positively poisonous. Feed on
plain and wholesome food regularly from
day to day. permitting no stuffing be-
tween meals, and not forgetting the ben
etits that accrue from frequent chances
of diet, more especially as regards din
ner. Do this and your children will live
to bless you; do otherwise, and expect to
see them sickly with veins and arteries
possessing no resistency, with mucous
membranes pale and flabby, pipes of
lungs that the accident of a slight cold is
sufficient TO close, muscles of limbs SO
week that exercise is penance instead
of pleasure, and flesh sounwholesome
that pins prick may cause tester, and
all this because the blood is impoverished
through errors in diet.