The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-05-08

child to enjoy almost all types
 of valuable foods. Oranges, grape
 fruit, bananas and orchard fruits
 are dramatic in color and shape.
 Teach him to take these foods real-
 istically. Let him handle them,
 and above all, let him smell them,
 before he eats.
 If you develop a child's sense
 of smell for foods. you will guard
 him in his youth against eating
 unfresh and spoiled food for the
 rest of his life. A fresh egg has
 its own smell. Let your infant epicure actually learn the smell of a fresh egg both when raw and cooked, and you have set
 his tiny feet on the road to food enjoyment. That goes for veg eatbles, too.
 OutgrOws Smelling Period This smelling" period in his eating education may be a little trying from 8 manners stand point, but he will grow out of 1t and soon detect freshness and perfection without the business of handling what you set before him.
 When the child epicure has graduated from the smelling grade, promote him into the kitchen clss. Let him watch how food is pre- pared. Once he sees with his own eyes that there is a magic to the cooking of the food he eats, his ap- petite will turn keener.
 There is a world of difference between raw potato and a mash ed potato. First let him take the potatoes from the bin, feel their hairdness, see their earthly skin. Let him watch you peel them, then let him wash them for you. Show his how you plunge them in boiling water and add salt. When they are tender, drain at 3 once and with fork, let him actually feel what has happened to them. He can stand near while you mash them and can hand ycu butter and seasoning and milk as needed. This little drama of the mashed potato has two great val- ues from a child education stand point-it demonstrates and it al- lows the child to participate in a family activity. After such 8 les- son in cooking, any normal child will show far greater interest in mashed potatoes and in the magic business of cooking, gen. erally.
 Learning Cookery Secrets
 After the kitchen helper grade, he should pass into the principles and practice of. cooking. If very young, he cannot do any stove work. But he can open a package of prepared gelatin, place it in a bowl and then add the required amount of warm water from the tap. When he. has stirred it with a spoon, seen the gelatin dissolve and wondered at the pretty color, he shoul dplace it in the refrigera- tor and leave it there to set. No healthy minded child can discover that that liquid, which he recently stirred has turned into brilliant pudding without experiencing al thrill of creation. If the family ack- nowledges his creation, eats it with him and asks for more, that child is will along the highway of intelli- gently hungry. Food is vital fact of life. A child can not begin to learn about that fact of life too early.
 A prime roast of beef is one of the most savory facts of life and no child has learned to live until he has seen the steel edge of a 1 carving knife pass down through that perfectly cooked roast. Give him beef. He is growing ani- mAl and needs sturdy food.
 Beef will catch his imagination | and in its red nouriShment he will find spontaneous enjoyment. En- courage the child to relish its fla vor. Don't spoil his practical ex- ercise in epicureanism by telling | him that roast beef is good for | him. Enjoyment is the birthright | of every child and in the food he | must eat to achieve his stature | and maintain health, there is such l vital pleasure as makes gangster | movies and lollypops seem but the substitutes for natural enjoy- ment.
 Modern children can thank l child psychologists for discover ing that children are people, and thank their modern mothers for l understanding how to cook for | people.