BOILED EGGS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 139, 16 June 1930, Page 9

BOILED EGGS

ONE BABY'S DIET

NEW EXPERIMENT

It is rather startling to read of the two ana a half year old baby who ,eats nine hard-boiled eggs a day from choice! And these are ordinary hardboiled eggs, not pretty ones especially coloured for the occasion as Easter eggs were before chocolate ones were used instead. This remarkable piece of news comes from Chicago, where a Dr. Clare Davis has been carrying out experiments. She declares that . when a baby cries for something to eat it is not always for what we are accustomed to think is good for him. This is one positiv-e conclusion she has drawn from three years' experiment in baby-feeding. If the present results of tho experiment mean anything mothers may be forced to readjust their outlook. Dr. Davis says that the baby is just as apt to go for hard-boiled eggs as for thin gruel and fruit juices. Thirteen babies have been under observation during the test, which began in the Mount Sinai Hospital at Cleveland, Ohio. The babies were started on the routine at the age of eight months. All previously had been breast-fed. Bach infant had a separate chair and table for meals. A tray was placed before cacTi baby. On it were a variety of foods, including beef, bone marrow, sweetbreads, liver, potatoes, carrots, turnips, cauliflower, cereal, sweet milk, sour milk, and fruit. Pood was not seasoned, but rait was served separately. ■ At first, Dr. Davis explainod, the child might be too tiny even to manage his own hands. At that stage the nurse offered him the foods, and served him that which he liked until he indicated that he had had enough. "Tho nurse never indicates in any way to the child what he should eat. Some of the diets would never be thought possible, yet we have an instance of one baby of Hi months eating five hard-boiled -eggs in a day— nothing else. "At two and a half years he ate nine hard-boiled eggs. "Another baby ate at one meal 100 grammes of sweetbreads and 10 ounces of vegetables. One summer night one of the babies made a meal of a glass of orange juice. ''Beef is their favourite food. All are thriving, surpassing the average gain in weight. And none of them will touch cabbage." So much for the theory that a hardboiled egg is indigestible!