Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-25
Your Baby and Mine
NY MYRTLE MEYER ELDRED.

Tn a Srab-bag of questions about
children the ones most often pulleo out
will read something like these: why
won't INV baby eat?" or How can
put weight on my little girl when she
lust eats like q bird?" 49,.
II you happen to be one OF tnose
mothers whose children arrive az tne
table breathless and devour tnen aooJ
ravenously. you are as rare as peaii
in an oyster. We wonder Just where
such children can be found? The well
cared for child in the average nome
where we'll cooked foods are served IN
liberal quantities and appetiSing variety
IA the very child who turns up ms nose
reluctantly accepts few spoon1uis, de-
rnanding O song with his soup ana a
story with his vegetables.
results In Ms promptly splitting up the
whole laboriously fed meal to the con.
stern alton and iand-wringing OF the
family. These family pictures are not
ovArcolored. One marvels at the IN
renuity, the patience and the blindness
of mothers. In spite of constant 1All-
ures they think up new and better ways
of wheedling the child to eat, instead
of lengthening the periods between
meals cutting down the amounts Of
fered at each meal and letting nature
with it's hunger, and human nature with
its contrariness demand the thing which
is hard to get.
Joan Lowell, in her "Cradle Of the
Deep" whether fact or fiction, In de-
scribing her dreams of food, her plays
in which her hungry desires were sat-
isfied by huge meals, displays a sound
knowledge Of psychology. Food was
precious because scarce and only be-
cause she never had quite enough to
satisfy her hunger. Appetite IN Such
circumstances rises to ripe proportions.
and the mother of the appetiteless child
must use the same tactics to get the
same results, instead Of nauseating the
child with lavish displays Of food and
q demand to eat muoe than he ever
really wants.
T6e ambition Of most mothers Is to
rear family OF fat little cherubs whose
round, rosy faces proclaim to the world
the amplitude OF the family larder.
she IA baked in her realization OF this
by the very earnestness OF her enorts,
A procession of large meals. stunning to
make a child gain, a ceaseless watch
f1Ilnese OF baby's formula so that 1t
always meets or exceeds his real needs
at the moment are the surest methods
of DESTROYING that precious appetite.
without which the child Is certain to
use all the known methods OF refusal
% eat.
n the bottle is left half fun, offer
inst a half bottle next time. If the
food on the plate goes begging, cut the
amount In half. A few meals after
which the child feels his stomach q
yAwning vacancy instead OF full.to-
tne-neck replation Nill end his bowling
for food and demanding more" IN q
manner not to be misunderstood.
A child NAV he too tired to eat. It
IL wise to bring children in a half hour
before dinner, clean them up and en-,
COURAGE them to, reader lie down until
dinner Ia on the table. The last-minute
call from. the sand pile or the base ball
diamond, resulting in a tear to wash
faces and hands and an arrival at the
table all hot and tired. is a, poor pre-
liminary to an enjoyment OF what is
before him. ..
Constant talk about, the food and its
ehortccminss Is appetite destructive.
"This fish is tasteless." says father.
''Who. saw, the chicken walking throueh
! this soup!" says big brother. and the