Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-05-03
FEED BABY SLOWLY.
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FAC
TORS IN CHILD REARING.

thtIc Is HOlulHS absolutely more ILL
portant than this one thing-to teach
it to eat slowly.
Every groom knows and observes the
rule in the care of horse that rapid
eating is fatal to digestion. There are
all sorts of patent managers to prevent
the horse swallowing his oats too
quickly. The man who has no patent
manger knows enough, when neces-
sary, to put a stone in the manger,
scattering the oats around it, so that
the horse may be compelled to eat
slowly. If the horses inclination is
to gulp down water too fast, the care
full man will put big sponge in the
water, compelling slow drinking.
A childs appetite, when he is al
lowed to eat rapidly, is always in ex-
cess of his actual needs unless the
child is in bad health. The reason for
this is extremely simple. The child
Graves food because his body requires
to manufacture new tissue. He Is
growing, and he must not only replace
the used up tissues that his daily life
destroys, but he must make new flesh,
new muscles, new bone and new blood
every day, adding weight and size.
The sensation of hunger is not the
craving of an empty stomach, satisfied
as soon as the stomach is filled; it is
craving that is felt by the nerves all
over the body. This craving cannot
possibly be satisfied until the stomach
has begun the work of transforming
70 i,,fa Afo
consequently the sensation which we
call hunger persists long after the
child or grown person has rapidly abb
sorbed as much food as it really needs.
A million foolish parents urge their
children to eat great deal and always
let them eat as much as they want to.
Yet all of these know that n famished
man taken off a wreck will eat himself
to death if allowed to do so. The very
hungry child goes to the same excess,
only in a lesser degree. The great
safeguard against that excess in eat
ing, which kills 90 per cent of men be-
fore their time and which accounts for
90 per cent of children's diseases, is
slow eating.
y
They do so by nature Slow eating is
a matter of education. But too often
the mother or the nurse teaches the
child the habit of eating fast. When
the baby is little, it is fed one spoonful
at time. Before it has time to half
chew or even gulp down the first tea
spoonful of food another is held to it's
has in it's mouth and seiZes upon the
next mouthful. The habit thus incul-
Gated by foolish adults often ruins the
child permanently.
Four factors count in the healthy as
similatiOn of food factors which par
ents and nurses should remember. AS
sumng the food to be properly prepar-
ed, thoroughly cooked and wisely Sc
lected, there comes, first, the work Of
the teeth, which prepare the food for
easy digestion; second the action Of
the saliva. with which the food must
be thoroughly mixed in order to mini
niZe the necessary work of the gastric
juices in the stomach; third, the work
of the stomach itself; fourth, and most
/
and of heat.
Force your child to chew slowly and
thoroughly every mouthful. If moth
ing else will do, compel him at fire.
quent intervals to lay down his knife
and fork that the Importance of pro-
longed chewing may be impressed upon
him. Don't allow your child to gulp
| II OIL with
his solid food. If you allow him to
drink while he eats, the salivary
glands will not act. They will not
need to act. for he will be able to swal-
! low his food easily when it is maze
moist by water.
You can't do anything to help along
the unconscious process which goes
on in the stomach, but you can do ev-
erything to help that process by at
tending to the fourth necessity. which
demands blood and the heat of the
blood in the stomach. Allow no child
after eating to take violent exercise,
TO study or even to read an exciting
book The brain has first call upon
the service of the heart, and as soon
as the brain is excited the blood leaves
the stomach and goes TO the head. The
muscles Also when too violently eX-
erted draw the blood away from the
stomach.
1t is absolutely impossible for child
or grown person to digest properly
or to get strength and vitality from
what he eats unless for at least half
hour after eating the stomach be al
lowed to monopolize the blood supply
Children should be kept quiet in
J some way, especially very young chill
dren, after they have eaten. In the
case of very young babies nature at
tends to this mercifully by making
them go to sleep as soon as they have
absorbed their milk. Older children
ought not to 90 to sleep directly after
eating for physiological reasons which
may be explained at some other time
but they ought to be quiet and calm
Tens of thousands of children in homes
,xbn ic ic road rl1in