Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-04-30
FEED BABY SLOWLY.
ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FAC
TORS IN CHILD REARING.

In the proper bringing up of a child
there is nothing absolutely more i'm
portant than this one thing-to teach
it to eat slowly.
Every groom knows and observes the
rule in the care of a horse that rapid
eating is fatal to digestion. There are
Ill 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 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
ful man will put big sponge in the
water, compelling slow drinking.
4 child's 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
10 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
the food into blood, flesh, muscles, etc; /;
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 a 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
80 per cent of children's diseases, is
slow eating.
Nearly all children eat too rapidly.
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. VIII 7
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 its
lips. OF course it swallows what it
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
suming 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
mize the necessary work of the gastric
juices in the stomach; third, the work
of the stomach itself; fourth, and most
important, proper supply Of blood
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
nd nrly hDt nrtn Of
longed chewing may be impressed upon
him. Don't allow your child to gulp
down water or any other liquid 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 made
moist by water.
You can't do anything to help along
the unconscious process which go
on in the stomach, but you can do ev-
erythng 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 'rength and vitality from
what he ca S unless for at least half
hour after eating the stomach be al
lowed to monopolze the blood supply.
Children should be kept quiet in
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 go to sleep directly after
eating for physiological reasons which
may be explained at some other time;
but they ought to be quiet and calm.