Elements of the theory and practice of cookery

1 Until a baby is nearly a year old it cannot digest starch, the fer- ments in the saliva and pancreatic juice not being fully developed till then. If nature meant a baby to have starch, there would be starch in milk. Patent baby foods should never be used unless ordered by a SPECIAL DIETS 295 harley^ and put it into 07ie pint of cold water. Let it come to the boiling-point, and boil till reduced to two- thirds the original quantity. Or cook one level tea- spoonful of harley flour in one and one-half cupfuls of cold water for fifteen minutes. Use barley water instead of clear water to dilute the milk. Peptonized milk. — Peptonized milk has been wholly or partially digested by pepsin. " Pancreatized milk" would be a better name, as pancreatin, an extract of the pancreas, is now generally used instead of pepsin. F%v directions for peptonizing milk, see p. 302. If the child is not well the doctor may prescribe beef juice or some kind of broth to be given besides milk or, for a few days, instead of milk. 473. Condensed milk is poor food for a baby. Its being sterilized makes it difficult of digestion, and the quantity of cane-sugar in it is much too large in pro- portion to its other foodstuffs. This sugar makes fat, but not healthy flesh. Babies fed on it are plump and white-fleshed, but rarely grow up strong. It may be used for a little while if fresh milk is not obtainable. 474. Food during the second year. — Milk should be the basis of the diet all through the second year. At about twelve months of age gruel and beef juice may be given ; after the eighteenth month, scraped beef (not more than one or two tablespoonfuls at a time), doctor. Most of them contain starch, many of those advertised as having their starch already digested by malt or some other ferment, containing large quantities of starch unchanged. Certain patent cereal foods are desirable for a baby old enough to digest starch. 296 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY soft-cooked eggs once or twice a week, bread dried in the oven, and the pulp of a baked apple or of stewed prunes. After two years, milk toast, mush, rennet custard, and plain starchy puddings may be given. 475. What the baby must not have. — Give neither solid nor starchy food to a baby under one year old. Of course, a baby must not have a drop of tea, coffee, beer, or any alcoholic liquor. No child under three years of age should taste pork, veal, pastry, cakes, candy, fried food, highly seasoned dishes, or any '' indigestible " food. Reading. — Three articles in the American Kitchen Magazine: " The Souring of Milk," December, 1895 ; " Milk Fermentation," January, 1896; and "Bacteria affecting Butter and Cheese," Feb- ruary, 1897. Facts about Milk, Farmers' Bulletin 42. Section 2. Diet for the Sick Taste the food that stands before you ; It is blessed and enchanted. It has magic virtues in it. — Longfellow. 476. Importance of proper diet in cases of sickness. — Preparing and administering the patient's food is an important part of a nurse's work. Recovery, in many cases, depends more upon proper food than upon medi- cine. The doctor will tell you what to give the patient; but the more you know about food, cooking, and diges- tion, the more intelligently you will be abla to carry out his orders. SPECIAL DIETS 297