Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-04
Cannot Make Her Eat.

Dear Doctor: am young mother
Of a 13-months old baby girl, seem
| to have q terrible time feeding her, as
she will not eat any solid foods what
ever. Her vegetables are put through
sieve and beef juice put over them
so that they look like liquids. This Is
| the only way I can get her to take
them. Anything that she puts into her
mouth that Is in the least way solid
she vomits. She is healthy normal
child in every respect, but I'm Just
about ready to give up. MRS. r.
Children should begin to have solid
| foods In the form of cereals, in very
tiny amounts, around five or six
months of age. A little later vege-
tables and fruits are added, Orange
Juice can be begun in the second or
third month. At first, such foods must
be strained. but the babies can have
little pieces Of toast to nibble on around
seven months,
You probably didn't begin to feed
your baby her solid foods early enough,
Mrs. r. How much milk Is she having?
Children who take over quart day
will be satisfied so that they often do
not care for other needed foods. Oc-
casionally even a quart of milk will do
this. In such cases the milk has TO
be cut down TO as low as pint and
sometimes less. :,
Evidently your baby has very well
developed will power, and you may nave
to let her go quite hungry unth she
will take solid foods. Offer them to
her without the milk or broth. ana II
she does not take them, take them away
and do not allow her anything except
water-not even the milk-untn the
next meal time. She will undoubtedly
cry and be unhappy and you viii DE
unhappier, but you will have to persist
Warn your neighbOrs so they won't re-
port you to the S, P. c. G.. II possible,
have this starvation period supervised
by physician.
Another Feeding Case.
"Our baby is two years and three
months old. He walks in walker
alone, but will not walk in any other
way. He does not talk, but has said
mama and papa Our greatest
anxiety is that he absolutely refuses
solids. He drinks milk from bottle,
but refuses water and solid foods.
Even a crumb of anything the size of a
head makes him vomit. He does
take cod liver oil and orange juice from
a spoon.
| zone exceptional baby specialist
claims the DaDy is y. X. physically OuC
is mentally retarded. When he was
born, I had eclampSia (convulsions of
pregnancy for five days. Would that
cause it? Does this mean he will never
eat? How can we get him to eat?
"F."
On such a meager diet as your baby
Is getting it may be possible that he
has incipient Scurvy and ricketts,, both
of which would make him anemic, his
muscles weak and sore; and he might
have a sore mouth from the Scurvy,
which would make him reject any solid
foods. But his inability to talk, to say
only mama" and papa" at the age
of almost two and a half years, docs
make it seem that he is mentally re-
tarded But I wouldn't give up hope,
Yes, the eclampsia might have caused it,
(Eclampsia is preventable in the ma
iority of cases. Our pamphlet on the
diet during pregnancy and nursing goes
into this subject)
You might have to do as advised
Mrs. r. above for his eating habits.
And please take that walker away
from him! These contraptionS seem to