SCHOOLROOM DIET.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 13 July 1912, Page 10

SCHOOLROOM DIET.

An interesting article appears in a London paper from the pen of Dr Elizabeth Sloan Chesser, and pulls down a number of bogies that have spelled torment for sensitive children from time immemorial. The biggest of these, to many of us, ia the theory that children should be made to eat all that is put before them—a dictum little" short of brutal at times, as the writer can aver with a memory of revolt that suet pudding, boiled parsnips and boiled semolina- induced in her youthful breast. Starvation would have been infinitely easier to bear than the enforced menu, yet down the same way as the scores of well-liked, nourishing dishes had those hateful eatables to go, with after results that should have melted the heart of the stoniest mentor, but did not!

The doctor deserves the thanks of children all over the world for advocating a much daintier, more reasonable preparation of schoolroom food, pointing out that "good, plain food" is very often a euphemism for food that is stodgy and vilely cooked, and which the child is much better advised to leave on his plate. It is small wonder, she thinks, that the child who has placed before him a huge plate of half-boiled, lumpy por- | ridge is revolted. But if he received, : perhaps, two or three tablespoonfuls of I smooth, perfectly boiled oatmeal porridge served with cream, his judgment on the meal would be very different. Even the homely rice pudding this humane doctor would have more respectfully treated. It should not be too homely sometimes, she says, but served sometimes with whipped cream, custard, or -white of egg decoration. Fat—that necessity for all growing children, and the necessity so loathed by most in the way it is generally submitted—is contained in plenty, it should be remembered, in milk, butter and cream, all of which should be served as liberally as parents' means will permit. The one secret of health is to give children food that requires to be chewed, and make them chew it. Teach them to eat quietly, carefully, and consistently every bit of food until 'it practically "swallows itself."

As a motto, the doctor would give the practical theory that if children are properly fed, given enough, but not excess, of food of the right sort, their appetites and instincts can safely be permitted to serve as a guide.