FoodNet

The easiest way in housekeeping and cooking

1881

Page 41

Presented as published in 1881. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
This table is made from the dietaries of various chil- dren's hospitals, where long experiment has settled the quantities and qualities necessary to health, or, as in these cases, recovery from sickness, at which time the appetite is always keener. In many cases physicians who have studied the laws of food, and kept pace with modern experiments in dietetics, strike out meat altogether till the child is seven or eight years old, and allow it but once daily after this time, and in very limited amount. Sir Henry Thompson, one of the most distinguished of English physicians, and a man noted for his popularity as diner out and giver of dinners, writes strenuously against the prevailing excessive use of meat, and especially protests against its over use for children ; and his opinion is shared by most thoughtful medical men. The nitrogenous vege- tables advantageously take its place ; and cheese, as prepared after the formulas given in Mattieu Williams's ''Chemistry of Cookery," is a food the value of which we are but just beginning to appreciate. As to quantity, with the healthy child, plajdng at will, there need be very little restraint. Few children will eat too much of perfectly simple food, such as this table 84 THE RELATIONS OF FOOD TO HEALTH. includes. Let cake or pastry or sweetmeats enter in, and of course, as long as the thing tastes good, the child will beg for more. EngUsh children are con- fined to this simple diet ; and though of course a less exacting climate has much to do with the greater health- fulness of the English than the American people, the plain hut hearty and regular diet of childhood has far more. Our young American of seven, at a hotel breakfast, would call for coffee and ham and eggs and sausages and hot cakes. His English cousin would have no liberty to call for anything. In fact, it is very doubtful if he would be brought to table at all : and if there, bread and milk or oatmeal and milk would form his meal. By this time I do not doubt our baby has your heartiest pity, and you are saying, " What! no snacks? no cooky nor cake nor candy ? no running to aunt or grandmother or tender-hearted cook for goodies ? If that must be so, half the pleasure of childhood is lost." Perhaps; but suppose that with that pleasure some other things are also lost. Suppose our baby to have begun life with a nervous, irritable, sensitive organization, keenly alive to pain, and this hard regimen to have cov- ered these nerves with firm flesh, and filled the veins with clean, healthy blood. Suppose headache is unknown, and loss of appetite, and a bad taste in the mouth, and all the evils we know so well ; and that work and play are easy, and food of the simplest eaten with solid satisfaction. The child would choose the pleasant taste, and let health go, naturally ; for a child has small reason, and life must be ordered for it. But if the mother or father has no sense or understanding of the laws of food, it is useless to THE RELATIONS OF FOOD TO HEALTH. 85 hope for the wholesome results that under the diet of our baby are sure to follow.