The Child: His Food... His Cleanliness and His Play!

The Child's Food

Doctors believe that mother's milk is the best food for the child. The mother prepares her breasts for nursing the child by washing them with sterilized cotton or a sterilized cloth.

Until the milk flows in the mother's breasts, it is well for the child to nurse from both breasts at each feeding; and if the quantity of milk in a single breast is large, it is better that the child be given one breast at each feeding. If the child nurses from both breasts, the breast that came first at one feeding should come second at the next. And if it becomes clear that the mother's milk is not sufficient, or if it appears that the child is still hungry or poorly nourished and is not gaining weight at the natural rate, the doctor will prescribe something to help in feeding him besides the mother's milk.

During each feeding the mother holds her child and raises him to her shoulder once or twice and pats his back, for this helps him bring up the air he has taken in while nursing. If the child falls asleep without having swallowed his food well, he may vomit. And if the child is fed at set times, he quickly grows used to nursing on schedule. Not all children grow hungry after equal intervals, but most of them feel hunger after four hours have passed.

Mothers should therefore begin to accustom their children to the following system: the child usually nurses at six and ten in the morning, at two in the afternoon, at six and ten in the evening, and at two after midnight.

If the child wakes from his sleep and cries with hunger, asking to nurse at other than the appointed times, he may be in need of a change in his feeding schedule. In such a case it is well that the doctor be consulted.

Mothers should wake their children to nurse at these times, except at the time of the feeding at two after midnight; this feeding is given to most children only in the first three or four weeks after birth. The child may also do without the feeding at ten in the evening, and there is no need to wake him at that hour once he reaches the age of four or five months; when he reaches that age he generally sleeps on until morning. But if he wakes at night and cries with hunger, it is more fitting that he be nursed at ten in the evening for a further period.

Most children feed every four hours through the first year of their life; but when they reach the age of fourteen to eighteen months, mothers begin feeding them three times a day.

When the mother's milk is not sufficient for her child, the doctor may advise her to make use of cow's or goat's milk; and the milk must be boiled, then cooled, each time before the child is fed from it. It must be put at once into a sterilized vessel and kept in a cool place, and it is best that this be a refrigerator. If canned milk is used, it must be diluted with boiled water.

Yet children nursed by their mothers, and those fed from the bottle, are in need of a quantity of vitamins greater than what milk contains. For this reason children are given special foods or preparations containing vitamins, from the end of the second week of their life, and they continue in this through the first two years at least. It is common to give children cod-liver oil and other oils from the livers of fish, in the quantity the doctor determines; these oils are rich in vitamins.

Likewise the mother should feed her child the juice of oranges, lemons, and tomatoes. It is well that lemon juice be sweetened a little with sugar before the child drinks it. As for tomatoes, they are put into boiling water and their skin removed before they are squeezed. Fruit juice may be added to the child's diet once he has passed two weeks of age, though some doctors prefer that the child not be given fruit juice until after the end of his first month. If the child is fed fruit juice, he begins by taking a teaspoonful of it daily; then this is increased gradually until the child takes, in the third month, the measure of two tablespoons (two soup spoons) twice in a single day.

When the child reaches about four months of age, the doctor usually advises for him the first great change in his food: besides milk, fish-liver oil, and fruit juice, he is given solid food specially prepared (such as cereals, mashed vegetables, and mashed egg yolk), in limited proportions that help his nourishment and his growth.

Most doctors advise cooking semolina, or flour, or boiled rice, or burghul, for these contain a quantity of carbohydrates and minerals.

Vegetables are a valuable food for the child, for they contain certain minerals and vitamins necessary for the growth of his body; they also help prevent constipation.

The first vegetables given to the child are mashed peas, carrots, green beans, and lettuce. All these vegetables are boiled, for it is not wise to give the child coarse, unboiled food. Even after washing, these vegetables may carry germs that cause the disease of dysentery. Vegetables are usually given before the two o'clock afternoon feeding, and at this meal it is enough for the child to nurse at his mother's breast for a short while, if he is still in the nursing stage. His feeding on vegetables begins gradually, like every new food: he is given the measure of a teaspoon of vegetables a day, and a little is added to it from time to time until the child is getting three tablespoons daily when he reaches eight months of age.

When the child's age reaches six or seven months, the pulp of boiled fruit is added to his food. The best fruits are prunes (soaked, then boiled without sugar), and dried apples, plums, and apricots with a small measure of sugar. After these fruits are boiled they are strained or mashed and the coarse residue removed from them; the child is given only the soft pulp of the fruit. He is also given raw fruit, such as peeled, mashed banana and peeled, mashed apple as well.

When the child reaches four months of age, the doctor advises giving him egg yolk, for it contains a measure of iron, fat, and protein. He is given less than a teaspoonful; then this quantity is increased gradually to the limit the doctor prescribes. Egg yolk may be offered to the child raw, or boiled in water, or cooked firm and mashed.

Among the foods newly introduced into the child's feeding between the age of eight months and twelve months (that is, after his teeth begin to appear) is a small measure of mutton, after it has been boiled, or taken from a tender piece of raw meat, minced, then broiled. Broiled meat is considered better than fried meat, because the fat in which meat is fried does not suit the child's tender stomach.

Between eight and twelve months of age the child is allowed to take toasted bread, for it has two merits: nourishment, and working to strengthen his teeth. And lest he choke on the toasted bread, it is always well that someone watch him during this operation.

It has been observed that the best time to give the child a new kind of food is when the child is hungry in the middle of the day, before he begins to take his meal. If it turns out that he does not want it, the mother should offer it to him piece by piece with a kind of food that he likes; in this way the child can come to relish the food he at first refused.

It is well that the child be given boiled, cooled water between meals when he feels thirsty. The mother should make haste to accustom her child to drinking water from a sterilized cup of his own; and accustoming him to drink water from his own cup is nothing other than the first step in training the instinct of caring for himself — and this is an important thing in the child's upbringing.

Before the mother prepares her child's food, she must make certain that her hands are perfectly clean. The vessels in which the food is cooked must be boiled in water for no less than three minutes. Likewise the drinking water the child uses must be boiled and poured into a covered vessel; and this vessel and its cover must also be boiled before they are used. In fact, American doctors advise that the water used for washing everything the child touches, especially his dishes, be boiled, for this is the only way to kill the microbes that live in water and which — so long as they are alive — may expose the child to dangerous diseases. It is likewise important, for guarding the child's health, to drive the flies away from every kind of his food, and from the vessels in which his food is cooked and the others in which it is served to him. Flies, like water, carry microbes that pass without hindrance to everything they reach and cause diseases in the stomach and in the intestines.

Cleanliness is as necessary in the child's bath as it is necessary in his feeding. Therefore all the articles used in bathing the child should be kept covered with clean paper. Within reach of the hand there should be a covered jar (previously boiled in water to kill the microbes in it) containing sterilized cotton, used for cleaning the child's eyes and ears — and if sterilized cotton cannot be had from the market, any piece of cotton cloth, once boiled, is fit to use; and a second jar containing a solution of boric acid, with which the child's eyes are washed; and a third jar containing oil (olive oil, or sesame oil, or a mineral oil), with which the child's body is rubbed after the bath. These jars must be boiled empty, just as their contents are boiled, to kill whatever microbes are in them.

In the first months of his life, the child should be left some of the time by himself when he wakes; thus he grows used to remaining alone, and the child also learns to amuse himself. When he reaches the age of six months he finds meaning and amusement in the dolls offered to him, and he should have one or two of them.

Children between six months and twelve months of age may be given papers to play with, and a spool of thread free of its thread, and a spoon, and a small pot — this is among the best that can be offered to children. And since children put everything into their mouths, they must not be given toys painted with colors, nor objects that can be swallowed, nor a plaything with a sharp point, nor toys whose parts can be taken apart. For this reason also, toys must always be kept clean.

When the child begins to crawl (creeping along the floor), or to raise himself up leaning on a piece of the household furniture, it is best that he gain strength for this by being placed in a small play-yard enclosed by a wooden fence. The playpens in common use have a floor of tent canvas or of wood, and very often they are made at home. They may be used outside the house if the ground is damp, and it is well that they be raised somewhat above the ground, so that the child's exposure to cold is slight; for their height above the ground surely protects him from dampness. The slats that make up the fence of the pen must be close to one another, so that the child cannot put his head out between them.

Some mothers fit out part of the child's room as a play-place for him. When the child is put in his pen, the mother gains time in which to do her work without being wholly taken up with his affairs; and besides this, the child learns how to amuse himself by himself. If the weather is fair, it is more fitting that the child be placed in his pen in the garden of the house. The pen can be moved to a shaded spot if the sun is hot, and the child can play and frolic, profiting from the pure air and complete freedom.