Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-14
PHYsIoLoeY FoR CHILDREN
by LOUISA BURNS
'arific College of OsteOpathy


people is the habit of improper eating.
If parents spend days in money making
to provide for their children's future,
If they plan, with great care the best
possible educational advantages for
them, if they provide as best they may
for their social advancement, If they
seek by giving and loving and anxious
thinking the best good for their chll-
dren surely they should not neglect the
more important matter, that these chill
dren shall have bodies clean and strong
and well nourished, efficient, well
trained and obedient to the demands of
the life in it's finest aspects.
The development of good bodies
means the development of good ways
of living. The development of strong
body means the development of the
habit of using good food and using 1t
properly. The best of food is of no
value to the person who is unable to
digest it. And the most important
asset in life is the ability to choose
good food and to digest it well, making
use of its nutritive properties to pro-
vide the strength needed for each days
work and play.
The planning of foods for growing
children Is a science and an art in it
self. For this time, it is enough to say
that the foods placed before children
should be simple in kind, including
very few kinds of food at each meal,
but of considerable variety when the
weeks list is made out. The require
ments of active muscular exercise and
of rapid growth must be considered in
choosing food for children. This being
provided, right habits of eating must
be taught.
Perhaps the most harmful habit into
which children fall is that of hasty
eating Food is bolted, half chewed,
and thus hunger is not satisfied easily,
too much food is swallowed, digestion
is injured both by the chunks forced
upon a helpless stomach and by the
excess of food taken. In order to get
down quickly it is fairly flooded with
drink.
In preventing this habit, constant
telling is of very little use. The causes
underlying the tendency to bolt food
must be taken into consideration. To
compel the classical forty chews" TO
each mouthful, or to cloud the meal
time with reproofs for hasty eating,
simply lessen the natural pleasure in
eating, interfere with digestion and
cause the child to shorten the uncom-
Portable period as much as possible.
Children sometimes eat too rapidly
because they are anxious to go out to
play again. This tendency may be
overcome by compelling a certain time
to be spent at the table Wnetner ne mas
finished his eating or not. If children
eat at the table with grown people,
then they should sit through the meal,
and they should be served as the others
are served, though the food may be
different. If they have their own table
then the mealtime may be made long
enough to provide time for eating prop
erly, and no excuse of lack of appetite
or of haste should be permitted to in
terfere with this time. The time thus
spent ought not to be made uncomfort-
able. There should be talk of pleas
ant kind, if any. Most important of all
things to be avoided is the custom of
talking about the faults or the inef-
ficiency of children at the table or i'm
mediately after a hearty meal. Let it
be understood that a certain time, at
least twenty minutes usually, should be
spent at the table whether he has
finished his meal or not, and one great
obstacle in the way of proper eating
has been removed.
Another cause of hasty eating is
found in the excessive hunger of grow
ing children, and also in their weari-
ness They should not be allowed to
begin hearty meal while hot and tired
from play If they cannot be called in
time to rest and become somewhat cool
before eating, then they should not be
given a hearty meal until later
Three meals day are not enough for
children who are growing rapidly. They
should be given food more often, and
the meals must be lighter. The child
uses much more energy in proportion
to his size than does a grown person,