The Child's Food

After the first year, your child begins to make his choice of food plain, and to fix the quantity he can take. If you are exacting to the point of counting the “calories” and the amounts of “protein” and “vitamins” and fat in every meal, there lies before you a series of bitter struggles.

Many doctors believe that if we offer the child who has reached a year of age a varied fare, to choose the kind he wants, he will soon pick out what his body needs, with the addition of certain vitamins. And naturally he will not go on in a natural way with his feeding if every meal is a period of struggle between you and him; and know that his inward distress hinders his growth more than a shortage of food does.

Several factors combine in the contest for power and mastery, and this is a destructive notion. One of these factors begins when your son takes his first step and discovers the limits of his independence; and food is one face of his discovery, for he wants to decide how, and what, or how much he eats, and he may collide with your own opinion — so he struggles, because the freedom he seeks is worth the fight, while your whole concern is that his health stay good.

He will break several utensils, and dirty his clothes and the table napkins; and here he needs your understanding, your patience, and your guidance, so that he may be at ease and you as well. Do not scold him or complain in front of him of his inability to take his food gracefully, for to him there is no difference between taking it from the plate or the table or the floor of the room. Your real help is to prepare for him an easy way of taking his food, without its throwing him into perplexity and confusion.

Seat him comfortably, and do not leave within his reach utensils that are quickly damaged. If he sits at the table, make sure his chair is raised high enough to be level with the table's edge, and so you avoid his standing up. But if his eating with you troubles you and the rest of the family, it is better to serve him his meals away from the family table, and to feed him first; in this way you keep clear of the annoyance of his sitting with the family.

You can spare yourself many hardships if you offer your child a small quantity first: instead of filling the plate, put food into it twice; and he prefers to take his milk in a small bottle which you fill twice, rather than that you serve it to him all at once. And there is a matter worth noting: children, like grown-ups, differ in their appetite for each kind of food, and color has its effect on a child's disposition.

If you are thinking that your son must eat simply because you took pains in preparing his food, while he, on his side, wishes to test his independence, then know that the battle has broken out. But if you leave off calling him to account for the quantity he takes, you will find that he has begun to increase it within a short time — provided you do not confine this to a single kind of food, for every child needs a budget in his food, whether weekly or monthly. Give him freedom of choice; and if he insists on asking for sweets, and turns away from taking what he needs of meat and eggs and milk, let him do as he pleases, so long as you always see to the presence of the foods containing “vitamins A and D,” which help the growth of his tender body. If you allow him to try out his food, he will be at ease, and you will be glad of the result; and if his conduct in this period does not please you, be assured of his improvement under your supervision and your watchful eye!